The Sacred Books of the East (THE MINOR LAW-BOOKS, PART-I: NARADA. BRIHASPATI)

This is a translation of the Hindu law books written about the sixth century CE by Narada and Brihaspati. The Narada smriti is described as an abridgment made by Narada of the ninth or Vyavahara (legal) chapter of the original code in 100,000 slokas. The first part of Narada’s abridgment of the ninth chapter of Manu’s code is designed as a matrika or vyavahara-matrika, ‘summary of proceedings-at-law’ or ‘general rules of procedure.’ Brihaspati was an inspired writer by the very earliest commentators of law-books such as e.g. by Medhatithi( ninth century), proves him to have preceded those commentators by several centuries.