Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 25.djvu/32

 from some other passages which reveal an acquaintance with the Aṅgas of the Veda. Manu II, 141, and IV, 98, these auxiliary sciences are mentioned in a general way. From Manu III, 185, where it is said that a Brâhmana who knows the six Aṅgas sanctifies the company at a Srâddha dinner, we learn that their number, as known to our author, did not differ from that mentioned in all Vedic works. Further, the name of the first Aṅga, the Kalpa, occurs III, 185, and the mention of a Nairukta among the members of a parishad shows that the fourth, the Nirukta, was also known. With the latter and the remaining four, which the author of the Manu-smriti in all probability also knew, we are not immediately concerned. But the first, the Kalpa, possesses a very great interest for our purposes. This term, as is well known, denotes collectively those Sûtras of the Vedic schools which teach the performance of the Srauta sacrifices, the rites especially described in the Sruti. Hence both Srauta-sûtras and, of course, also Sûtra-karanas must have preceded the Manu-smriti. If it is now borne in mind that according to the Hindu tradition, mentioned above, all Sûtrakaranas formerly possessed Dharma-sûtras, and that in some existing Kalpas the Dharma-sûtras are closely connected with the Srauta-sûtras, it becomes exceedingly probable, nay, certain, that our Mânava Dharmasâstra is later than some of the Dharma-sûtras. This conclusion is further corroborated by those passages of the Manu-smriti where the author quotes the opinions of individual predecessors. Manu III, 16 we read, 'According to Atri and (Gautama) the son of Utathya he who weds a Sûdra woman becomes an outcast, according to Saunaka on the birth of a son, and according to Bhrigu he who has (male) offspring from a (Sûdra female alone).' Under the above explanation, which is adopted by the majority of the commentators,