New Delhi, Jul 11 (PTI) Solicitor General Tushar Mehta on Saturday said Hindu laws stem from the ‘Smritis’ — a series of commentaries and meditations by ancient scholars on various aspects of legality and morality.
Delivering an address on “ancient wisdom and legal intelligence” at an event here, Mehta said the Vedas, among the oldest written words of wisdom in the world, lay down ways to live in harmony with one’s surroundings and inner self.
“Hindu law really emanates from the Smritis. There are several Smritis like Yajnavalkya Smriti, Manu Smriti, Narad Smriti, Parasara Smriti, etc, which are commentaries by ancient scholars who specialised in law,” the solicitor general (SG) said.
He said there have been two prominent schools of Hindu legal philosophy which have been prevalent since prior to 700 AD, the ‘Mitakshara’ and the ‘Dayabhaga’ schools of thought.
“The Mitakshara school of thought was propounded by Vijnanesvara and was solely based on Yajnavalkya Smriti, and not the Manu Smriti — as wrongly believed. This school was prevalent across the country except in the erstwhile regions of Bengal and Assam, which followed the Dayabhaga school of thought — based on Manu Smriti,” the solicitor general said.
He said people who claim Hindu law is based on Manu Smriti are factually incorrect since most of India, even to this day, follows the Mitakshara school of thought.
“Inheritance in the Dayabhaga school of thinking was ordained solely to those who could perform ‘pind daan’ — offering of rice in the memory of deceased ancestors. This was a very restrictive practice prevalent in the Dayabhaga school,” Mehta said.
The Mitakshara school was more liberal and dynamic in comparison. “It attributed inheritance by birth, and this idea is still in existence, in the concept of ‘coparcener’ in a Hindu family, where a person acquires legal right to ancestral property by birth,” Mehta said.
The openness and flexibility of interpretation offered by Hindu religious and legal texts are not available in any other religious scripture, the solicitor general said.
He emphasised that Hindu scriptures containing iterations on law are capable of dynamic interpretation, hailing the foresight of the scholars who formulated these concepts.
Mehta said ancient scholars formulated a system of “degrees of prohibited relationships” which are cases in which a man and a woman are prohibited to marry, like close relatives.
“In 700 AD, these degrees of prohibited relationships were stipulated in our scriptures, which are being followed even today by laws made by Parliament,” Mehta said.
He said after Independence, the penal law, which was made according to British preferences, remained substantially the same.
“It was only in 2023 that the present government brought the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita for citizens and rearranged sections as per preferences of a sovereign democratic republic,” Mehta asserted.
The event was organised by Aishwarya Jain, founder of I’M Happiness and Revaa Singh, founder Reve Communications. PTI MNR ARB ARB
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