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An assignment on Constitutional Law (1)

The document discusses the integration of law and religion in classical Hindu thought, centered around the concept of dharma, which serves as the foundation for the legal system in India. It outlines the sources of dharma, including the Veda, smṛti, custom, and individual conscience, and emphasizes the importance of adhering to this moral order in daily life. Additionally, it describes the Dharmaśāstra literature, which provides detailed regulations on various aspects of life and is considered inviolable due to its connection to the universal order.

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13 views5 pages

An assignment on Constitutional Law (1)

The document discusses the integration of law and religion in classical Hindu thought, centered around the concept of dharma, which serves as the foundation for the legal system in India. It outlines the sources of dharma, including the Veda, smṛti, custom, and individual conscience, and emphasizes the importance of adhering to this moral order in daily life. Additionally, it describes the Dharmaśāstra literature, which provides detailed regulations on various aspects of life and is considered inviolable due to its connection to the universal order.

Uploaded by

anikroyarnov
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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ASSIGNMENT

On
Hindu Period Based on Religious Norm
Course Code : 103

Course Title : Legal history of Bangladesh(Part -1)

Submitted To

Mr. Maimul Ahasan khan

Lecturer

Department of Law

Leading University, Sylhet

Submitted By

Anamika Roy

ID : 2124050015

Semester : 2nd

Batch : 44

Department of Law

Leading University, Sylhet

Date of Submission

22 December, 2021
Law and Religion in Hinduism

The distinction between law and religion is one that does not exist
in classical Hindu thought. Instead, both law and religion are parts
of the single concept known as dharma. This fact is the key to
understanding the legal system of classical India and its eventual
acceptance and adaptation in Southeast Asia. Dharma, the basis for
the legal system, is a system of natural laws in which specific rules
are derived from an ideal, moral, and eternal order of the universe.
The fact that the laws are based on this eternal order is their source
of validation and authority. In classical Hindu society, the rights and
responsibilities of an individual were determined by status. In
general, the role and place of women were of marginal concern in
the legal texts. The texts were composed by men, and they deal
with matters of concern to all. In addition to gender, the
determiners of one’s status are caste (varṇa or jāti ), stage of life
(āśrama ), age, and so forth. Every caste, age group within that
caste, and stage of life has certain generic responsibilities that must
be fulfilled (varṇāśramadharma ). The king was charged with the
responsibility of seeing to it that the populace adhered to its
dharma, but this charge of the king’s was itself a part of his
dharma, so it is difficult to distinguish between the political, legal,
and religious aspects of the South Asian legal tradition.

Sources of Dharma
The pervasive idea of dharma influences all aspects of a Hindu’s
life. It is a natural and moral order, and its disturbance has grave
consequences for individuals and society. In theory, at least, every
act of every Hindu’s life should be done in accordance with this
natural and moral order, so a righteous person would wish to
perform every act in accordance with dharma. There are four
sources of dharma enumerated in the legal literature (see, for
example, Manu 2.12 and 1.108): the Veda (śruti, sometimes
translated as “revelation”), smṛti, custom (i.e., sadācāra ; literally,
“the practice of the good”), and whatever seems correct to one’s
conscience (ātmatuṣṭi ). The Veda is the ultimate source; all of the
statements concerning dharma are theoretically traceable to the
Veda. Both smṛti and custom are, according to the commentators,
dependent on the Veda, in that the practices described in smṛti and
followed in the customs of various groups and localities can all be
traced, at least theoretically, to the Veda. The last source of
dharma— whatever seems correct to one’s conscience—is the most
vague and least discussed, but it seems to have been included to
cover those circumstances where no specific rule exists. In this last
case it is presumed that the individual in question is one who has
been instructed in dharma and is familiar with the sacred tradition.
In all four of these cases, the connection with the Veda is the
validation of their teachings on dharma.

A much more technically and strictly “legal” literature that


constitutes a subcategory of smṛti is the Dharmaśāstra, or literally,
the “science of dharma.” These Dharmaśāstra texts are all
presumed by Hindus to teach the eternal and immutable dharma
contained in the Vedas. The presumption of these texts was that
the reader was familiar with the ritual texts and was a practitioner
of the Vedic ritual. It was the purpose of the literature on dharma
to unify the Hindu’s world. This was done by enabling the members
of society to harmonize their existence with the universal order.
The range of topics in this literature is extensive, and includes: rules
on the conduct of daily life including diet, cleanliness, times for
sleeping and waking, the selection of mates, criminal laws, rules
governing social interaction, relations between castes, sexual
norms, laws of commerce, and rules relating to agricultural activity.
In addition there is detailed treatment of the rules of procedure
and of evidence. The latter includes witnesses, documents, and a
sophisticated treatment of the use of ordeals to settle disputes.

Precisely because this literature dealt with dharma, its rules and
regulations were held to be inviolable: the fact that dharma is itself
the order of the universe validates rules pertaining to it. In an ideal
sense the literature on dharma served to define who and what a
righteous believer in the Veda was. The Dharmaśāstra literature
comprises four types: (1) the earliest, aphoristic texts, the
Dharmasūtras, each of which are attributed pseudonymously to a
famous sage of antiquity; (2) later metrical texts, also
pseudonymous, often referred to by the term “metrical smṛtis “
and (somewhat confusingly) when in opposition to the
Dharmasūtras by the term dharmaśāstra ; (3) commentaries
(bhāṣyas ) on both of the preceding; and (4) legal “digests” called
nibandhas.

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