'sari' (Attn: H M Hubey)

[Samar Abbas]

On Fri, 8 Jan 1999, Narahari Rao wrote:
> What is the nature of evidence for this kind of assertions? Is it a
> conjecture or are there some kind of empirical work done on these sorts of
> questions? How could one investigate whether Manu's rules are followed in a
> milieu where people haven't heard of such texts? There may be some way of
> showing that Smriti texts are followed in a milieu where they are not known.
> But I am curious about the method.

 This is evident from the accounts of travellers who visited India, and
from the other law-books, which state that any laws opposed to Manu are
automatically invalid. As per methods, one need only go to any rural
settlement in an Orthodox Vaishnavite region and see that the village
elders follow Manu's laws. Elphinstone (Colonial Era) writes that the Manu
Smrti was generally followed with local variations as the law-book of
India in his `History of India', so we know that they were in general
force then in rural regions. Shaivites have their own laws however.

 As for the people not knowing Manu Smrti, this was not necessary; only
the village elders needed to know about it, the rest simply accepted the
laws as God-given. It is a stated aim of the Sangh Parivar to re-impose
the laws of Manu in the proposed Ram-rajya or Hindu State, and the HSC has
only the Manu Smrti at its wev-site.