Jimutavahana's Dayabhaga: The Hindu Law of Inheritance in Bengal.

• Author: Brinkhaus, Horst
• Position: Book Review

Jimutavahana's Dayabhaga: The Hindu Law of Inheritance in Bengal. Edited and translated by LUDO ROCHER. Oxford: OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2002. Pp. xii + 426. $72.

Of the works of Jimutavahana, three dharma texts have come down to us--all three possibly conceived as parts of a (perhaps never completed) dharmanibandha entitled Dharmaratna. The best known of these three surviving texts is the one called Dayabhaga. It deals specifically with one of the eighteen vivadapadas within the juristic sphere proper of classical Dharmasastra, namely with laws of ownership and inheritance.

The present volume by Ludo Rocher contains a rendering of the text (pp. 249-396) on the lavish basis of forty-four manuscripts (including H. T. Colebrooke's hand copy). Most of the manuscripts consulted, however, are relatively recent; the oldest dated MS is from A.D. 1602. The author expressly relinquishes any claim to having produced a critical edition, and calls his text edition "purely eclectic." The relatively few--and only seldom pivotal--variants are provided in the critical apparatus and, when of interest, discussed. To the text itself, which has come down in the manuscripts in "scriptura continua," Rocher applies a partitioning of his own--into passages bound by content, indicated by indentations and markings. In addition, given that it is the version in general use, the text also offers Colebrooke's highly deviant partitioning; in this way Rocher's new interpretation can easily be compared with Colebrooke's older version, which, in Rocher's opinion, is guided by juristic concerns. Rocher's own partitioning is adopted from his paragraphing of the translation, which by all rights can be called the main part of the book, and which is placed before the text itself (pp. 53-245). The Dayabhaga is generally regarded as a difficult dharma text, and the translation is accordingly provided with detailed commentarial footnotes. These offer, in particular, clarifications of the content and the grounds for certain unique features of the translation; provide information on the original author's approach to the at times idiosyncratically interpreted citations from the older Dharmasastra literature that he draws upon to support his argument; indicate how he came to terms with contemporary opinion (particularly as represented in Vijnanesvara's Mitaksara); and, finally, draw attention to native commentaries and critiques of the Dayabhaga, along with the views expressed in more...