PREFACE
On November 17, 1962, the publication of the fifth and last Volume of Professor P. V. KANE’s History of Dharmasastra was formally announced by Dr. S. RADHAKRISIINAN, and a significant landmark in the history of Indological research in this country may be said to have been thereby established. The Histury of Dhramuśīstru is a literary work which is. truly magnificent both in conception and execution. Its five Volumes, which together extend over nearly 6,500 pages, seek to present the most comprchensive treatment of the religious and civil law of ancient and medieval India. And, Professor KANE has accomplished this gigantic task single-handed incidentally, he has written down every word in the History in his own hand –and that too while he had been occupied with various other literary and public activities. As I have said on another occasion, for Professor KANE, the History of Dharma śāstra is the crowning glory of a life of great fulfilment, and, for the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, it is a matter of signal pride and honour to have been closely associ ated with that work.
The first Volume of the History of Dharmaśāstra was published in 1930. When the last Volume was published in 1962, the Institute felt that a second edition of the first Volume was manifestly called for. And this, for two reasons. For one thing, that Volume bad almost gone out of print. The second reason was academic in character. The first Volume needed to be revised and enlarged. Perhaps it was the only Volume of the History of Dharmagūstra which could have needed any revision at all. Though that Volume opened with an exhaustive theoretical discussion of the concept and sources of Dharma, its major part was devoted to a detailed history of the literature relating to Hindu Dharmaśāstre. Since the time of its publication, more than thirty-five years ago, quite a considerable amount of material had been published in India and abroad about Dharmaśāstra literature. Some new texts had been brought to light or some new light and been sought to be thrown on the already known texts oksame of KANE’s own hypotheses had been challenged. It had thug become necessary for the author to examine all this material critically and, on the basis of such examination, to modify or ratify or enlarge whatever he had already said on the subject.
However, when the last Volume of the History of Dharmasāstra was published in 1962, Professor Kane was already eighty-two years old, and the Institute was naturally hesitant to broach to him the subject of a revised edition of Volume I. But just a casual reference to it was more than enough - indeed, Professor KANE himself must have been thinking of such a revision – and he set out to work on a revised and enlarged edition of the first Volume with his usual assiduousness. In course of time, the printing was started in the Institute’s own Press, but I must confess that the printer could not keep pace with the author. The revision also had grown far beyond the original estimate. It was, therefore, decided to publish the Volume in two parts, and the first part, containing nearly 600 pages, is now being issued on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee of the Institute. As for the second part, I can only say that Professor KANE has almost completed the revision of the entire Volume and the printing of the remaining portion is making steady progress.
Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Poona, May 17, 1968.
R. N. Dandekar
Please note -
The Synopsis of Contents and the General Indeer for the whole Volume together with the necessary Appendite will be given in the Second Part of this Volume.