The Law Code of Viu

The Law Code of Viu (Vaiava-Dharmastra) is one of the latest of the ancient Indian legal texts composed around the seventh century CE in Kashmir. Both because the Vaiava-Dharmastra is the only Dharmastra that can be geographically located and because it introduces some interesting and new elements into the discussion of Dharmastric topics, this is a document of interest both to scholars of Indian legal literature and to cultural historians of India, especially of Kashmir. The new elements include the first Dharmastric evidence for a wife burning herself at her husbands cremation and the intrusion of devotional religion (bhakti) into Dharmastras. This volume contains a critical edition of the Sanskrit text based on fifteen manuscripts, an annotated English translation, and an introduction evaluating its textual history, its connections to previous Dharmastras, its date and provenance, its structure and content, and the use made of it by later medieval writers.