Historiography of Ancient Indian Law
Historiography of Ancient Indian Law

Author: Shiva Kant Tiwari

Publisher:

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 214

ISBN-13: 9788131609255

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The book is a maiden voyage to compile and analyze the interpretations of ancient Indian law in modern historiography. There has been a dearth of books with historiographical approach to the study of classical Indian law, despite the fact that law has occupied a prominent place in the historical studies over the past two hundred years. Starting from British Indologist Sir William Jones, the historians owing allegiance to different schools like Imperialism, Nationalism, Marxism and Postmodernism commented fervently upon the ancient Indian law. Irrespective of their interpretive models, such comments and studies have broadened our understanding of the ancient Indian law and enriched the historiography of the same. But the comprehensive study of such vast intellectual heritage, remained a virgin territory. The followers of ancient history confined themselves to Sutra-Smriti texts, and those from Law Schools focused on post-independent codified Hindu law. In this backdrop, the present work, by studying the modern historiography of ancient Indian law, stands to be the first of its own kind. The book is historiographical in its methodology, but as and when required, primary sources have also been referred to in order to critically examine the historian's assumptions. The various interpretations have been put together in a lucid language to delineate a holistic and objective picture of various law topics such as - Marital Laws, Son-ship & Adoption, Succession & Inheritance, Women's Property Rights, International Laws, and Laws of Judicature, etc.

Hindu Law
Hindu Law

Author: Patrick Olivelle

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 572

ISBN-13: 0198702604

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"The foundation of Hindu law is the voluminous textual tradition called Dharmaśāstra, the expert tradition on dharma. This book seeks to delineate the historical development of Dharmaśāstra, even though the tradition presented dharma as timeless and ahistorical. The volume establishes the importance of law for the history and study of Hinduism by providing interpretive descriptions of all the major topics of Hindu dharma according to this tradition. First, two broad introductions to the historical development of the textual sources of Hindu law suggest new ways to understand both the original texts (smṛti) and the later commentaries and digests. Next, groundbreaking research into the origin of the householder (gṛhastha), who is at the center of the Dharmaśāstric enterprise, provides new insights into both the origin of this genre and many of its topics, such as the āśrama system and married household life. The book devotes its central chapters to each of the major topics of Dharmaśāstra: epistemology of dharma, caste and social class, orders of life, rites of passage, Vedic student and graduate, marriage, children, inheritance, women, daily duties, food, gifting, funeral and ancestral offerings, impurity and purification, ascetic modes of life, dharma during emergencies, king, punishment, legal procedure, titles of law, penances, vows, pilgrimage, images, and temples. The final chapters then explore both the reception of Dharmaśāstra in other religious traditions, both Hindu and Buddhist, and the relevance of Dharmaśāstra to studies of critical concepts in religious studies—the body, emotions, material culture, subjectivity, animal studies, and vernacular culture."--

The History of the Arthaśāstra
The History of the Arthaśāstra

Author: Mark McClish

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2019-06-30

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 1108756514

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The Arthaśāstra is the foundational text of Indic political thought and ancient India's most important treatise on statecraft and governance. It is traditionally believed that politics in ancient India was ruled by religion; that kings strove to fulfil their sacred duty; and that sovereignty was circumscribed by the sacred law of dharma. Mark McClish's systematic and thorough evaluation of the Arthaśāstra's early history shows that these ideas only came to prominence in the statecraft tradition late in the classical period. With a thorough chronological exploration, he demonstrates that the text originally espoused a political philosophy characterized by empiricism and pragmatism, ignoring the mandate of dharma altogether. The political theology of dharma was incorporated when the text was redacted in the late classical period, which obscured the existence of an independent political tradition in ancient India altogether and reinforced the erroneous notion that ancient India was ruled by religion, not politics.

Making Indian Law
Making Indian Law

Author: Christian W. McMillen

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2007-01-01

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 030014329X

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In 1941, a groundbreaking U.S. Supreme Court decision changed the field of Indian law, setting off an intellectual and legal revolution that continues to reverberate around the world. This book tells for the first time the story of that case, United States, as Guardian of the Hualapai Indians of Arizona, v. Santa Fe Pacific Railroad Co., which ushered in a new way of writing Indian history to serve the law of land claims. Since 1941, the Hualapai case has travelled the globe. Wherever and whenever indigenous land claims are litigated, the shadow of the Hualapai case falls over the proceedings. Threatened by railroad claims and by an unsympathetic government in the post - World War I years, Hualapai activists launched a campaign to save their reservation, a campaign which had at its centre documenting the history of Hualapai land use. The book recounts how key individuals brought the case to the Supreme Court against great odds and highlights the central role of the Indians in formulating new understandings of native people, their property, and their past.