dharmashastra
The Dharmashastras are treatises on dharma, covering religious duties, conduct, civil and criminal law, and penance. The best known are the Manusmriti, the Yajnavalkya Smriti, the Narada Smriti and the Parashara Smriti. They were developed by commentaries and digests, of which Vijnaneshwara's Mitakshara (on Yajnavalkya) and Jimutavahana's Dayabhaga founded the two schools of Hindu law.
They are a source of classical Hindu law, but much of family law is now codified: the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, the Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, 1956 and the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956. Courts still refer to the texts where codified law is silent or saved custom applies.
Example
The Mitakshara is a commentary on the Yajnavalkya Smriti, one of the principal Dharmashastra texts.
See also
Read more in the study notes
- Dharma and the sources of Hindu law (Family Law I - Hindu Law)
- Concept of Property and Its Evolution (IPR II)
- History and development of legal education in India (Legal Education and Research Methodology)
- Dharma and Indian legal thought, ancient and modern (Legal Theory)
- Notion of punishment in law: meaning, history and purpose (Penology and Victimology)
- Law: meaning, nature, sources, kinds, and law and morality (Political Science - State and Political Obligations)