Write a comprehensive note on the various sources of Hindu Law.
Answers
Explanation:
Hindu law has the oldest pedigree of any known system of jurisprudence, and even now it shows no sign of decrepitude.”- Henry Mayne.
The phrase “source of law” has several connotations. It may be the authority which issues rules of conduct which are recognized by Courts as binding. In this context, ‘source of law’ means ‘the maker of law’. It may mean the social conditions which inspires the making of law for the governance of the conditions. In this context it means ‘cause of law’. It may also mean in its literal sense the material from which the rules and laws are known. In this sense the expression means the ‘evidence of law’ and it is in this sense that the expression ‘source of law’ is accepted in Jurisprudence.
Vijnaneshwar (commentator on the Yajnavalkya Smriti and founder of Mitakshara School) has called it Jnapak Hetu i.e., the means of knowing law. It is important to study the sources of law because in every personal legal system only that rule is law which has place in its sources. A rule not laid down or not recognized in the sources is not a rule in that legal system.
The word ‘Hindu’ first appeared in the Old Persian language which was derived from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, the historic local designation for the Indus River in the north-western part of the Indian subcontinent. A Hindu is an adherent of Hinduism.
Hindu law is a set of personal laws governing the social conditions of Hindus (such as marriage and divorce, adoption, inheritance, minority and guardianship, family matters, etc.). It is not Hindus alone who must follow Hindu law but there are several other communities and religious denominations that are subject to its dominion such as Jains, Buddhists, Sikhs, Brahmo-Samajists, Prarthana-Samajists, the Virashaivas and Lingayats and the Santhals of Chhota Nagpur besides others.
In Sir Dinshah F.Mulla’s ‘Principles of Hindu Law’, the learned editor has defined ‘Hindu law’ in the following words: “Wherever the laws of India admit operation of a personal law, the rights and obligations of a Hindu are determined by Hindu law, i.e. his traditional law, sometimes called the law of his religion, subject to the exception that any part of that law may be modified or abrogated by statute.” Law as understood by Hindus is a branch of dharma.
Nature and scope: In the present article, the scope will be restricted to finding out the sources of Hindu law, and critique on some of the definitional aspects of the sources and a general critique of the sources.
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