FROM LAW TO DHARMA: STATE LAW AND SACRED DUTY IN ANCIENT INDIA
The legal treatises of ancient India, called Dharmasāstras, are often read as records of the initial emergence of law from religion in South Asia. The Dharmasāstras teach the dharma, or "sacred duty," of different members of society. It is one of the dharmas of the king to adjudicate dispu...
| Published in: | Journal of law and religion |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Cambridge Univ. Press
[2019]
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| In: |
Journal of law and religion
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| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Dharmaśāstra
/ India
/ Public law
/ Hinduism
/ Dharma
/ Religious duty
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| IxTheo Classification: | AD Sociology of religion; religious policy BK Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism KBM Asia XA Law |
| Further subjects: | B
Law
B nīti B dharmasāstra B statecraft B vyavahāra B Hindu Law B ancient India |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Resolving-System) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | The legal treatises of ancient India, called Dharmasāstras, are often read as records of the initial emergence of law from religion in South Asia. The Dharmasāstras teach the dharma, or "sacred duty," of different members of society. It is one of the dharmas of the king to adjudicate disputes that come before his courts, and it is widely accepted that a need to articulate the king's dharma led the composers of the Dharmasāstras over time to fashion rules for state courts, a body of law called vyavahāra. Scholars such as Henry Sumner Maine and Max Weber saw in the Dharmasāstras evidence of the disentanglement and rationalization of law, respectively. A close examination of our sources, however, shows that the law of royal courts emerged not within the Dharmasāstra tradition, but within an adjacent and decidedly more secular tradition of statecraft. It was gradually absorbed into Dharmasāstra texts, where it was reconfigured as sacred duty and its historical origins were obscured. This article argues that the early history of state law in India is best described, therefore, not as a transition from dharma to law, but as a transition from law to dharma. |
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| ISSN: | 2163-3088 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of law and religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1017/jlr.2019.36 |