• ISBN13: 9789390232338
• Binding: Hardcover
• Subject: History
• Publisher: Ratna Sagar
• Publisher Imprint: PrimusBook
• Publication Date: March 11, 2020
• Pages: 462
• Original Price: INR 1595.0
• Language: English
• Edition: N/A
• Item Weight: 710 grams

The Dharmaśāstra ascribed to yājñavalkya, commonly called yājñavalkya Smith, is a text on religious, Civil, and criminal law and jurisprudence composed around the fourth or fifth century during the reign of the Gupta. It represents the culmination of a thousand-year-old legal tradition. Precision of thought and expression and technical legal terminology distinguish it from its predecessors, such as the early dharmasūtras and the treatise of Manu. Besides the quotidian life of people, the text illuminates major cultural innovations, such as the prominence given to documents in commercial and legal matters, the importance of ordeals in resolving disputes, and the growing importance of yoga in religious practice. The treatise became the most influential legal text in medieval India, and, as interpreted by the twelfth century commentator vijñāneśvara, came to be considered ‘the law of the land’ under British rule. In spite of its recognized importance for the ancient and medieval legal traditions, the Sanskrit text has never before been critically edited. This critical edition, along with the translation published in the murky classical library of India, open to modern readers both the ‘Golden age’ of the Gupta and a central text in the long and distinguished Indian legal tradition.

Patrick Olivelle is Professor Emeritus at the University of Texas at Austin and a past President of the American Oriental Society. His award-winning books include A Dharma Reader: Classical Indian Law; A Sanskrit Dictionary of Law and Statecraft; King, Governance, and Law in Ancient India: Kauṭilya’s Arthaśāstra; Viṣṇu’s Code of Law: A Critical Edition and Translation of the Vaiṣṇava-Dharmaśāstra; Life of the Buddha: Buddhacarita by Aśvaghoṣa; Manu’s Code of Law: A Critical Edition and Translation of the Mānava-Dharmaśāstra as well as edited volumes Gṛhastha: The Householder in Ancient Indian Religious Culture and (with Donald Davis, Jr.) Hindu Law: A New History of Dharmaśāstra.