Patrick Olivelle

The Law Code Of Visnu Patrick Olivelle

In this first critical edition of the legal treatise of Vi??u (Vi??u Sm?ti), Olivelle locates the text geographically in Kashmir and dates it to around the seventh century CE based, among other factors, on the iconographic description of Vi??u. The text was composed by a scholar who belonged to the K??haka Branch of the Yajur Veda and who was also an adherent of the Vai??ava Pañcar?tra tradition. This is the only legal text that shows a deep
influence of the bhakti tradition. Although the Vi??u Sm?ti did not have as illustrious a life as the treatises of Manu and Y?jñavalkya, we find it cited frequently in medieval legal digests. Indeed, unlike citations from other Dharma??stras, medieval authors regularly cite entire sections of this treatise, indicating that they were familiar with a text more or less identical to the one that has come down to us. Consisting of 100 chapters, the text is framed as a conversation between Goddess Earth and Vi??u, with Earth requesting the dharma that should govern the lives of those belonging to the four var?as. Originally published in the Harvard Oriental Series, this Indian edition will hopefully make this important text available to a wider Indian audience of scholars and students.