Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 25.djvu/28

 formerly have consisted of prose and verse, while the available MSS. show Sûtras and Anushtubhs in one chapter only, and Slokas alone in the remainder. There are, further, such works like the two Âsvalâyana Smritis and the Saunaka-smriti, evidently versifications of the corresponding Grihya-sûtras, with or without the additions of extraneous matter. In short, among all the general propositions concerning the origin of the metrical Smritis, which Professor Max Müller advanced, only one, the assertion that during the Sûtra period of 600–200 works written in continuous epic verse were unknown, has proved untenable in its full extent. It seems no longer advisable to limit the production of Sûtras to so short and so late a period as 600–200, and the existence of metrical school-manuals at a much earlier date has been clearly demonstrated. It is now evident that the use of the heroic metre for such works did not begin all of a sudden and at a certain given date. But it seems, nevertheless, indisputable that the use of aphoristic prose was adopted earlier than that of verse. For in all known cases a Sûtra, not a metrical Samgraha, Vârttika, or Kârikâ, stands at the head of each series of school-books, and some of the most salient peculiarities of the Sûtra style reappear in that of the metrical manuals. With respect to the conjectures specially affecting the Mânava Dharmasâstra, the former existence of a Mânava Dharma-sûtra, consisting of prose mixed with verses in several metres, has been established by the discovery of some quotations in the Vâsishtha Dharma-sûtra, and their contents show that the work known to the author of the latter Sâstra was closely related to our Manu-smriti. As regards the connexion of this Dharma-sûtra, and consequently of our Manu-smriti with the Sûtrakarana of the Mânavas, the results of the late researches have not been equally satisfactory. The recovery of the writings of the Mânavas has not only not furnished any facts in support of the supposed connexion, but, on the contrary, has raised difficulties, as it