Katyayana Smrti

One of the smrtis or “remembered”
texts, a class of literature deemed
important but less authoritative than
the other textual category, the shrutis
or “heard” texts. This smrti is attributed to the sage Katyayana and is an
example of one of the Dharma
Shastras, manuals prescribing rules
for correct human behavior and ideal
social life. Unlike the Dharma Sutras,
which are ascribed to recognizable
individuals, the Dharma Shastras are
usually credited to mythic sages as a
strategy to reinforce the authority of
these texts. Katyayana’s complete text
has not survived, although more than
one thousand verses have been compiled from later works. Katyayana’s
text was the first to focus on the rights
of women: he gave particular attention to women’s personal property
(stridhan), both to explain their powers and to prescribe rules for its inheritance when a woman died.