The Sacred Laws of the Aryas - As Taught in the School of Apastamba, Gautama, Vasishtha And Baudhayana (Vol-II:Part-I)

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For all students of Sanskrit philology and Indian history Apastamba's aphorisms on the sacred law of the Aryan Hindus possess a special interest beyond that attaching to other works of the same class. Their discovery enabled Professor Max Muller, forty-seven years ago, to dispose finally of the Brahmanical legend according to which Hindu society was supposed to be governed by the codes of ancient sages, compiled for the express purpose of tying down each individual to his station, and of strictly regu- lating even the smallest acts of his daily life. It enabled Max Müller, History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, p. 133 seq. The following letter, addressed to the late W. H. Morley, and published by him in his Digest of Indian Cases, 1850, may be of interest as connected with the first discovery of the Apastamba-sûtras:-

9. Park Place, Oxford, July 29, 1849.

MY DEAR MORLEY, I have been looking again at the law literature, in order to write you a note on the sources of Manu. I have treated the subject fully in my introduction to the Veda, where I have given an outline of the dif- ferent periods of Vaidik literature, and analysed the peculiarities in the style and language of each class of Vaidik works. What I consider to be the sources of the Mânava-dharma-sastra, the so-called Laws of Manu, are the Sûtras. These are works which presuppose the development of the prose literature of the Brahmanas (like the Aitareya-brahmaza, Taittiriya-brahmana, &c.) These Brahmazas, again, presuppose, not only the existence, but the collection and arrangement of the old hymns of the four Samhitas. The Sutras are therefore later than both these classes of Vaidik works, but they must be considered as belonging to the Vaidik period of literature, not only on account of their intimate connection with Vaidik subjects, but also because they still exhibit the irregularities of the old Vaidik language. They form indeed the last branch of Vaidik literature; and it will perhaps be possible to fix some of these works chronologically, as they are contemporary with the first spreading of Buddhism India.

him not only to arrive at this negative result, but also to substitute a sounder theory the truth of which subsequent investigations have further confirmed, and to show that the sacred law of the Hindus has its source in the teaching of the Vedic schools, and that the so-called revealed law codes are, in most cases, but improved metrical editions of older.