Thread by @Doc_dharma

DETAILED ANALYSIS OF MANUSMRITI :-

This thread is mainly abt Manusmriti seen from a historians/indologist's perspective. Not for orthodox people !

Manava Dharmasastra (MDh) among the ancient Indian treatises on dharma was clearly established by the 5th century CE and possibly as early as the 3rd CE.

Many historians/indologist came to a conclusion that manusmriti was not composed by a single author as it was a gradual process at the hands of anonymous and successive compilers, editors, and copyists lasting for several centuries.

The structure that emerges from tracing the transitional verses consists of four major divisions of uneven length and importance:
1) Creation of the world.
2) Sources of dharma.
3) The dharma of the four social classes.
4) Law of karma, rebirth, and final liberation.

At the very beginning of the Naradasmrti, it is said that Manu Prajäpati created a text containing 1080 chapters and 1lakh verses. Nârada abridged it to 12k verses; the latter was further abridged by Mârkandeya , which was further condensed by Sumati Bhârgava to 4,000 verses.

Even medhatithi in his commentaries has said abt the 1lakh verses of Manusmriti (1.58) & it is mentioned in Kamasutra first chapter & also in skanda purana !

What made the historians to come to a conclusion that manusmriti would have been around 2nd CE ?
Well there are many evidences given by historians to prove it, especially with the help of certain verses, its structure & composition. So lets see some imp ones..

In manusmriti 10.44 the mention of different tribes like china (cina), sakas(central asian tribe), yavanas (greeks), pahlavas etc helps in fixing the chronology ! These tribes names arose only between 3th cent bce to 3th cent AD !

Also in manusmriti 8th chapter deals with the gold coins which were not minted in India untill the emergence of king Vima kadphises ( kushan empire ) which was around 2nd cent CE.

Now lets see some contradictory verses in manusmriti :-
In brhaspati Smriti it is mentioned that the contradictory verses present in manusmriti is due to the rules that are prescribed in different ages !

Now there r certain verses which are contradictory in nature, but some scholars suggest that manu had to project 2sets of views for the ongoing change in the customs ! For eg., whom does a son belong, payment of bride-price, marriage of sudra women & niyoga practice etc!

In many areas, Manu has clearly used the hyperbole euphemisms ( exaggerated versions ) to project the importance of certain verses ! Even medhatithi has said in his commentaries ( 1.107 )

The socio-political reason for creating manusmriti once again :-
The rise of Südras as kings, mleechas ( outsiders ), other religions like buddhism/Jainism during those days periods became a threat for brahminical privileges hence need for the compulsion of creating manusmriti !

The work of redactors :-
There are so many rewritings happened in manusmriti which can be seen in almost all chapters. If we remove those redactors, it would have smooth transition of verses !

For eg., In chp 1, medhatithi has commented the introduction of World creation for a dharma treatise as " not needed ". Also there r 3 excursus from verses (1.32 - 1.57) & 5 excursus from ( 1.61- .118 ). Also the duplication of word "listen" !

Although from chapter 2-7 don't have any exact interpolations, but certain verses in chp2 seems to lost its flow which can be compared with bhavishya puran as that verse has been derived from manusmriti exactly

In chp 8, we could see so many interpolations as (8.20-22), (8.27-29), (8.30-40) & also in 9th chp, verses (9.229-49), ( 294-311), (313-23) etc are out of place & removing these makes the transition of verses smooth in nature !

In chp11, thr is interpolation before penances (only from V.44) which is even seen as a prob by early commentator Bharuci & also 43 verses unrelated to penance. In chp12, there is a prob of " where manusmriti ends " and also in verse 126, the speaker is neither manu nor brighu !

My personal opinion is instead of blindly opposing manusmriti or supporting it 100% won't do any good cause. Every rules & regulations need to be changed in due course. Even our present constitution has been amended more than 100 times !

So we could extract the essence of Dharma in manusmriti and try to apply it in our time period instead of fighting within ourselves over this issue which will only lead to the downfall of Hindu civilization ! Jai Shree Ram 🙏❣️🚩

Source : Manu's code of law by Patrick olivelle

@Param_Chaitanya @SriAnuttamanya @VedicWisdom1 @HinduResponse @RamaInExile @Mahadevangini @gilgamesh_402 @Dharmicgoks @GaikwadAnkur @TheCrypticAnon @CoreDharma @ANUSHKA29175792 @ShikhaS90918800 @crazy_kudii @Tanvangi17 @GemsOfIndology

Note : Manusmriti devotes 1034 verses (38.6%) to the discussion of the Brahmin and 971 verses (36%) to matters relating to the king; these two take up 74.8% of the entire text. There r only 8 verses for vaishyas & only 2 verses for sudras ( indicating directly ) !