Bhāruci's commentary ( bhashya) on the Manu Smrti, or Laws of Manu, is part of the corpus of

Dharmaśāstra ''Dharmaśāstra'' () are Sanskrit Puranic Smriti texts on law and conduct, and refer to treatises (shastras, śāstras) on Dharma. Like Dharmasūtra which are based upon Vedas, these texts are also elaborate law commentaries based on vedas, D ...

texts available to us today. It is the oldest commentary on Manu that we know of, and is one of the sources used by Medhātithi, another major commentator on the Manu Smṛti.

Dating and historical context

Very little is known about the date or historical context in which Bhāruci was writing, but P. V. Kane argues that it cannot have been written after 1050 CE because Vijñāneśvara, the author of the , a famous commentary on the , mentions Bhāruci's commentary in his writing. Viśvarūpa, another commentator on the ', also uses Bhāruci as a source.

Patrick Olivelle Patrick Olivelle is an Indologist. A philologist and scholar of Sanskrit Literature whose work has focused on asceticism, renunciation and the dharma, Olivelle has been Professor of Sanskrit and Indian Religions in the Department of Asian Stu ...

places Bhāruci in the 8th century CE,Olivelle, Patrick, "Dharmaśāstra: A Literary History", 29. while J. Duncan M. Derrett places him between 600 and 650 CE. There are two known authors named Bhāruci placed in about the same period of time, one who wrote on ''Dharmaśāstra'' and one who was a jurist, and Kane posits that they were in fact the same person because it is unlikely that there were two famous writers with the same name writing at the same time.

Topics

The main content of Bhāruci's commentary deals with the duties of a king, particularly regarding whether or not the king can be a source of

dharma Dharma (; , ) is a key concept in various Indian religions. The term ''dharma'' does not have a single, clear Untranslatability, translation and conveys a multifaceted idea. Etymologically, it comes from the Sanskrit ''dhr-'', meaning ''to hold ...

. Bhāruci's view as discussed by Derrett was that the king did not have any legislative power, but he did have "the power to issue regulations and edicts of a temporary character or for the purpose of facilitating objects already inculcated by the ''dharmaśāstra''." Kane agrees, stating that "the king is not the source of the rules of ''Dharma'', but it is śāstra that defines the rules binding on the different varnas (classes) and ashramas (stages of man's life)."Kane, P. V., ''History of Dharmaśāstra'', (Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 1975), Volume I, Part I, 569–570.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bharuci Hindu texts Hindu law Religious law Indian literature