Similar to other scholastic traditions of religious law, the Dharmaśāstra commentators ' first concern was to explain the sacred legal texts precisely, with careful attention to word meanings, grammatical structures, and principles of legal hermeneutics.

Manusmriti is considered by some Hindus to be the law laid down for Hindus and is seen as the most important and earliest metrical work of the Dharmaśāstra textual tradition of Hinduism.

Because of its sophisticated jurisprudence, Dharmaśāstra was taken by early British colonial administrators to be the law of the land for Hindus in India.

Ever since, Dharmaśāstra has been linked with Hindu law, despite the fact that its contents deal as much or more with religious life as with law.

In fact, a separation of religion and law within Dharmaśāstra is artificial and has been repeatedly questioned.

Others have, however, argued for a distinction of religious and secular law within Dharmaśāstra.

Dharmaśāstra is important within the Hindu tradition — first, as a source of religious law describing the life of an ideal householder and, second, as symbol of the summation of Hindu knowledge about religion, law, ethics, etc.

" The substance of Hindu law implemented by the British was derived from early translations of Sanskrit texts known as Dharmaśāstra, the treatises ( śāstra ) on religious and legal duty ( dharma ).

The British, however, mistook the Dharmaśāstra as codes of law and failed to recognize that these Sanskrit texts were not used as statements of positive law until they chose to do so.

Rather, Dharmaśāstra contains what may be called a jurisprudence, i. e., a theoretical reflection upon practical law, but not a statement of the law of the land as such.

Another sense of Hindu law, then, is the legal system described and imagined in Dharmaśāstra texts.

One final definition of Hindu law, or classical Hindu law, brings the realm of legal practice together with the scholastic tradition of Dharmaśāstra by defining Hindu law as a usable label for myriad localized legal systems of classical and medieval India that were influenced by and in turn influenced the Dharmaśāstra tradition.

Such local laws never conformed completely to the ideals of Dharmaśāstra, but both substantive and procedural laws of the tradition did impact the practical law, though largely indirectly.

This article will briefly review the Hindu law tradition from its conceptual and practical foundations in early India ( Classical Hindu Law ) through the colonial appropriations of Dharmaśāstra ( Anglo-Hindu Law ) to the establishment of the modern personal law system ( Modern Hindu Law ).

( written also as Manusmriti or Manusmruti ) (), also known as Mānava-Dharmaśāstra (), is the most important and earliest metrical work of the Dharmaśāstra textual tradition of ancient Vedic Sanatana Dharma, presently called Hinduism.

His introduction and translation are perhaps the best starting points for understanding the nature of Dharmaśāstra and its contents.

According to Rocher, the British implemented a distinction between the religious and legal rules found in Dharmaśāstra and thereby separated dharma into the English categories of law and religion for the purposes of colonial administration.

It is also reflected in the Manusmṛti ( 5. 27 – 44 ), a particularly renowned traditional Hindu lawbook ( Dharmaśāstra ).

Narada is also said to have orated the maxims of the Nāradasmṛti ( 100BC-400CE ), which has been called the “ juridical text par excellence ” and represents the only Dharmaśāstra text which deals solely with juridical matters and ignoring those of righteous conduct and penance.

The ordeal of water is also contemplated by the Vishnu Smrti, which is one of the texts of the Dharmaśāstra.

: For the Dharmaśāstra text traditionally attributed to Yājñavalkya, see Yājñavalkya Smṛti.

Some other authors have suggested that there are many similarities between the Kanun and the Manusmṛti, the earliest work of the Dharmaśāstra textual tradition of Hinduism, which indicate a common origin.

The also touches on the topic of gifts in the Dharmaśāstra, but only briefly.

Cham kings studied classical Indian texts such as the Dharmaśāstra, and inscriptions make reference to Sanskrit literature.

Dharmaśāstra () is a genre of Sanskrit texts and refers to the śāstra, or Indic branch of learning, pertaining to Hindu dharma, religious and legal duty.

The voluminous textual corpus of Dharmaśāstra is primarily a product of the Brahmanical tradition in India and represents the elaborate scholastic system of an expert tradition.

All Dharmaśāstras derive their authority with reference to the Vedas, though few, if any, of the contents of most Dharmaśāstra texts can be directly linked with extant Vedic texts.

He told the committee the measure would merely provide means of enforcing the escheat law which has been on the books `` since Texas was a republic ''.

He then decided to become a lawyer and began teaching himself law by reading Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England and other law books.

Constantine I ( emperor ) | Constantine burning Arian books, illustration from a compendium of canon law, ca.

Hindu scriptures and law books support the use of violence in self-defense against an armed attacker.

According to some interpretations, the concept of ahimsa as expounded in the scriptures and law books is not meant to imply pacifism ; war is seen as a normal part of life and the natural duty of the warriors.

Instead, it presumably refers to the practice of setting law books and citing legal precedents in blackletter type, a tradition that survived long after the switch to roman and italic text for other printed works.

The two Books of Samuel () are part of a series of historical books ( Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings ) that make up a theological history of the Israelites and affirm and explain God's law for Israel under the guidance of the prophets.

The new awareness of the explanatory power of universal natural law also produced a growing skepticism about such religious staples as miracles ( violations of natural law ) and about religious books that reported them.

However, there were those who did not believe this, for instance the Fransiscan friar Roger Bacon ( c. 1214-1294 ) stated that books falsely claiming to be by ancient authors " ought to be prohibited by law ".

Halakha constitutes the practical application of the 613 mitzvot (" commandments ", singular: mitzvah ) in the Torah, ( the five books of Moses, the " Written Law ") as developed through discussion and debate in the classical rabbinic literature, especially the Mishnah and the Talmud ( the " Oral law "), and as codified in the Mishneh Torah or Shulchan Aruch ( the Jewish " Code of Law ".

Orthodox Judaism holds that Halakha is the divine law as laid out in the Torah ( First five books of Moses ), rabbinical laws, rabbinical decrees and customs combined.

This work encompasses the full range of Talmudic law ; it is organized and reformulated in a logical system — in 14 books, 83 sections and 1000 chapters — with each Halakha stated clearly.

Rabbinic Judaism ( which derives from the Pharisees ) has always held that the books of the Torah ( called the written law ) have always been transmitted in parallel with an oral tradition.

The two books were printed separately to avoid a British law requiring copies of all publications with text to be deposited in Crown libraries, a huge financial burden for the self-published Audubon.

The charter first passed into law in 1225 ; the 1297 version, with the long title ( originally in Latin ) " The Great Charter of the Liberties of England, and of the Liberties of the Forest ," still remains on the statute books of England and Wales.

This bill was essentially a copy of the Licensing Act, but with a narrower jurisdiction ; only books covering religion, history, the affairs of the state or the law would require official authorisation.

Rabbis expounded and debated the law ( the written law expressed in the Hebrew Bible ) and discussed the Tanakh without the benefit of written works ( other than the Biblical books themselves ), though some may have made private notes (), for example of court decisions.

During his rule, un-Christian books, statues, poetry, and other items were burned ( in the Bonfire of the Vanities ), sodomy was made a capital offense, and other Christian practices became law.

After his terms as vice president, he opened an Indianapolis law practice, where he authored several legal books and his memoir, Recollections.

He spent over a year writing books on the law and his Recollections, a humorous memoir.

** René Descartes, at age 20, graduates in civil and canon law at the University of Poitiers, where he becomes disillusioned with books, preferring to seek truths from " le grand livre du monde.