Medhātithi is one of the oldest and most famous
commentators on the , more commonly known as the
Laws of Manu
The ''Manusmṛiti'' ( sa, मनुस्मृति), also known as the ''Mānava-Dharmaśāstra'' or Laws of Manu, is one of the many legal texts and constitution among the many ' of Hinduism. In ancient India, the sages often wrote the ...
. The text is a part of the Hindu
Dharmaśāstra
''Dharmaśāstra'' ( sa, धर्मशास्त्र) is a genre of Sanskrit texts on law and conduct, and refers to the treatises ( śāstras) on dharma. Unlike Dharmasūtra which are based upon Vedas, these texts are mainly based on ...
tradition, which attempts to record the laws of
dharma
Dharma (; sa, धर्म, dharma, ; pi, dhamma, italic=yes) is a key concept with multiple meanings in Indian religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and others. Although there is no direct single-word translation for '' ...
.
Location
There is some debate over the exact location in which Medhātithi composed his commentary, but there is significant evidence which places him in
Kashmir
Kashmir () is the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term "Kashmir" denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal Range. Today, the term encompas ...
.
Julius Jolly argues that he was an inhabitant of Southern India, while
Georg Bühler
Professor Johann Georg Bühler (July 19, 1837 – April 8, 1898) was a scholar of ancient Indian languages and law.
Early life and education
Bühler was born to Rev. Johann G. Bühler in Borstel, Hanover, attended grammar school in Hanover, whe ...
argues (and
P. V. Kane tends to agree) that he was a Kashmirian, or at least an inhabitant of Northern India.
Robert Lingat Robert Lingat (Rō̜ Lǣngkā, th, โรแบร์ แลงกาต์, 1892 – 1972), was a French-born academic and legal scholar most known for his masterwork on the practice of classical Hindu Law. He died May 7, 1972, one year befor ...
does not acknowledge a debate about Medhātithi's origin, stating explicitly "one knows nothing about him save that he lived in Kashmir." Clearly, the exact origin is unknown and may never be known, but there seems to be a tendency to place him at least in the northern part of India, if not in Kashmir or in Nepal, if not in from India.
Dating and historical context
As with most ancient texts, the exact date that Medhātithi's commentary was written is unknown. Kane argues that, because Medhātithi names several other commentators that are dated earlier than he is, and because the author of the
Mitākṣarā
The is a ' (legal commentary) on the Yajnavalkya Smriti best known for its theory of "inheritance by birth." It was written by Vijñāneśvara, a scholar in the Western Chalukya court in the late eleventh and early twelfth century.. Along with t ...
(a commentary on the
Yajnavalkya Smriti
Yajnavalkya or Yagyavalkya ( sa, याज्ञवल्क्य, ) is a Hindu Vedic sage figuring in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (c. 700 BCE)., Quote: "Yajnavalkya, a Vedic sage, taught..."Ben-Ami Scharfstein (1998), ''A comparative histor ...
) considers him as authoritative, he has to be writing later than 820 CE and before 1050 CE. Lingat places him in the ninth century or in the early tenth century at the latest. David Brick, in his 2010 review of historical literature on
widow burning, places him about 1000 CE.
[Brick, David (April–June 2010). "The Dharmasastric Debate on Widow Burning". Journal of the American Oriental Society 130 (2): 203–223]
Notes
References
*
Indian Sanskrit scholars
11th-century Indian scholars
Indian legal scholars
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