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the old hindou law

Vinayaka

Vinayaka

devotee
Premium Member
As far as i can tell it is some book by some European trying to give his European interpretation of some ancient Hindu ideas from his probably Abrahamic and certainly narrow perspective. it has nothing to do with Hinduism.

If somebody writes a nasty critique of the Koran or the Bible, then that book is not scripture. It is just a critique, an opinion.
 
Marble

Marble

Rolling Marble
The book title says.
Hindu Law:
Principally
With reference to such portions of it as concern the administration of justice in the King's Courts of India
by Sir Thomas Strange, late chief justice of Madras
 
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alishan

Active Member
but where did he take his source? we can say that he has made a cake but he has certainly use flour to do it.

so he can not have invent all this , it must have an origin? what is?
 
Riverwolf

Riverwolf

Amateur Rambler / Proud Ergi
Premium Member
alishan said:
but where did he take his source? we can say that he has made a cake but he has certainly use flour to do it.

so he can not have invent all this , it must have an origin? what is?
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It doesn't matter. Looking at the introduction, it was designed for British courts in India, and thus it has no bearing on Hinduism today.

EDIT: Looking at the cited sources, it looks like the only Scripture it derives from is the Law of Manu, which most Hindus I'm aware of do not recognize as very authoritative.
 
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Onkara

Well-Known Member
In my opinion it never has been.
It was populised by Sir William Jones in 1794 translating it into English from Sankrit. For the Christian mind set at that time it seems to align Hindu thought with Christian (Abrahamic) thought, but the two 'system' have never been one and the document seems to have no influence in India theological or political writings that I have encountered.

India's system of law is based on the English system of Common Law.
 
Riverwolf

Riverwolf

Amateur Rambler / Proud Ergi
Premium Member
alishan said:
Law of Manu

and was there a time when the law of manu was applied?

thanks
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Maybe soon after it was written in the region that it was, but as far as I'm aware, it didn't gain prominence until recently, and not very many Hindus use it.
 
K.Venugopal

K.Venugopal

Immobile Wanderer
Hinduism is both a teaching (or many teachings) and an applied culture. Culture tends to include everything, including the law of the land at any given point of time. Manu was an ancient lawgiver and some say he was mankind's first lawgiver. The corpus of Hinduism that have come down includes religious teachings which largely originated in the Vedas and administrative edicts. Hindus have always distinguished the eternal spiritual laws, which they call shruthi and temporal administrative laws, which they call smriti. While they consider the shruthis immutable, smirits are considered temporal and change according to the spirit of the age. Currently Hindus (and others) in India are administered by the constitution of India which they have given onto themselves. Manusmriti has no role to play in the lives of Hindus today and many aspects of it are unconstitutional in India. It is often said that the Shariat of Islam is co-terminus with Smtiri but unfortunately (if I may say so) Islam does not see anything temporal about Shariat.
 
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alishan

Active Member
i dont really care if the manu law is applied nowadays because nowadays is not a good reference as you see that the capitalism is the first religion of the world even adopted by people belonging to a religion before their own religion.

but is the manu law have a link with the veda?

we can say that the manu law was created by a english people to see common point with abramic religion. if they have translated it , it means that his origin is indian.
 
Riverwolf

Riverwolf

Amateur Rambler / Proud Ergi
Premium Member
It wasn't created by the English; nobody said it was.

Yes, the text is of Indian origin, and there may have been a time when it was applied. Sure, the text may have been derived from parts of the Vedas, but what parts I don't know and don't really care, since the Vedas take priority. If it's in the Vedas, fine. But if a part of the Law of Manu is not in the Vedas, explicitly or implicitly, then that part is rendered invalid as a Hindu Scripture.
 
Riverwolf

Riverwolf

Amateur Rambler / Proud Ergi
Premium Member
alishan said:
thanks

so what part of manu law is in vedas? how many %?
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I don't know. I've never read the Law of Manu, and I don't have any plans to right now. The only unabridged English translation of the Vedas that I'm aware of is a century old and supposedly full of errors, so it's not reliable. The Upanishads don't really have any "laws" in their teachings, as they're more philosophical.
 
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alishan

Active Member
yes vedas are more exoterical and upanishad esoteric

so i see that we know so few about the old vedas and original manu law

thanks
 
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