Law and 'Law Books' in the Hindu Tradition

Abstract

A survey of the role and use of sacred texts in both classical and modern Hindu law reveals the unexpected irony that sacred texts were consulted as direct sources of law only in colonial and independent India. Before this time, sacred literature pertaining to law, such as the Dharmasastra, served primarily an educational, rather than juridical function, with textualized legal rules being used only rarely as the basis for positive law. A focus on the place of sacred texts in classical Hindu law puts into relief the privileging of local law and confirms the pervasive realism of the system. For modern Hindu law, by contrast, significant divergences from the earlier system are examined in terms of the largely ornamental, but nevertheless direct, deployment of sacred texts in judicial decisions.