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248 Jugunnath, was universally acknowledged to be the first literary character of his day, and his authority has nearly as much weight as that of Rughoonundun.

38. Granting for a moment that the doctrine of free disposal by a father of his ancestral property is opposed to the authority of Jeemootvahun, but that this doctrine has been prevalent in Bengal for upwards of three centuries, in consequence of the erroneous exposition of Rughoonundun, “the greatest authority of Hindoo law in the province of Bengal,” by Shree Krishnu Turkalunkar, the author of “the most celebrated of the glosses of the text” and by the most learned Jugunnath; yet it would, I presume, be generally considered as a most rash and injurious, as well as ill-advised, innovation, for any administrator of Hindoo Law of the present day to set himself up as the corrector of successive expositions, admitted to have been received and acted upon as authoritative for a period extending to upwards of three centuries back.

39. In the foregingforegoing [sic] pages my endeavour has been to shew that the province of Bengal, having its own peculiar language, manners and ceremonies, has long enjoyed also a distinct system of law. That the author of this system has greatly improved on the expositions followed in other provinces of India, and, therefore, well merits the preference accorded to his exposition by the people of Bengal. That the discrepancies existing amongst the several interpretations of legal texts are not confined alone to the law of disposition of property by a father, but extend to other matters. That in following those expositions which best reconcile law with reason, the author of the Bengal system is warranted by the highest sacred authority, as