A Dharma Reader: Classical Indian Law

Author: Patrick Olivelle
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 9780231179560
Published In: November 2016
Format: Hardback
Jurisdiction: U.S. ? Disclaimer:
Countri(es) stated herein are used as reference only

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Description
Contents

Details

Whether defined by family, lineage, caste, professional or religious association, village, or region, India's diverse groups did settle on a concept of law in classical times. How did they reach this consensus? Was it based on religious grounds or a transcendent source of knowledge? Did it depend on time and place? And what apparatus did communities develop to ensure justice was done, verdicts were fair, and the guilty were punished? Addressing these questions and more, A Dharma Reader traces the definition, epistemology, procedure, and process of Indian law from the third century B.C.E. to the middle ages. Its breadth captures the centuries-long struggle by Indian thinkers to theorize law in a multiethnic and pluralist society. The volume includes new and accessible translations of key texts, notes that explain the significance and chronology of selections, and a comprehensive introduction that summarizes the development of various disciplines in intellectual-historical terms. It reconstructs the principal disputes of a given discipline, which not only clarifies the arguments but also relays the dynamism of the fight. For those seeking a richer understanding of the political and intellectual origins of a major twenty-first-century power, along with unique insight into the legal interactions among its many groups, this book offers exceptional detail, historical precision, and expository illumination.

Preface

List of Abbreviations

Introduction

Part I: Nature and Epistemology of Law

1. Early Thinkers

2. Later Aphoristic Texts on Dharma

3. Perspectives from Political Science: Kautilya (First-Second Century C.E.)

4. Innovations of Manu (Mid-Second Century C.E.)

5. Developments After Manu

6. The School of Vedic Exegesis

7. Early Commentators

8. Medieval Commentators and Systematizers