EARLY VEDIC AGE AND LAW OF SALES IN MANU SMRITI

All the laws in ancient india were derived from various document written and commentaries
written, manusmriti was prime among them , written by Manu the great and followed by the
whole population of that period. the entire population also includes the traders and consumers.
protection of their rights was also included in Manu’s Smriti. Following analysis will show the
full picture of Manusmriti and its contribution to sales law.

ANALYSIS OF MANUSMRITI AS SOURCE OF LAW OF SALES IN ANCIENT INDIA

Manu Smriti describes the social, political and economic conditions of ancient society.although
trade was not at its prime then and quite undeveloped as modern period or medival period , still
the law addressed each fundamental and basic aspect of ltrade , and law related to it in tht phase
of time. Manu, the ancient law giver, also wrote about ethical trade practices which was
applicable to both the sellers and consumers.. He prescribed mode of conduct to traders and
specified punishments to those who committed certain crimes against buyers. For example, he
referred to the problem of adulteration and said “one commodity mixed with another must not be
sold as pure, nor a bad one as good, and not less than the property quantity or weight nor
anything that is at hand or that is concealed.” The punishment “for adulterating unadulterated
commodities and for breaking gems or for improperly boring them” was the least harsh1 .Severe
punishment was prescribed for fraud in selling seed corn: “he who sells for seed-corn that which
is not seed-corn, he who takes up seed already sown and he who destroys a boundary mark shall
be punished by mutilation.”Interestingly, Manu also specified the rules of competency for parties
to enter into a contract which is considerd to be a concept developed in west was already
incorporated in ancient Hindu laws. He said “a contract made by a person intoxicated or insane
or grievously disordered by disease and so forth or wholly dependent, by an infant or very aged
man, or by an unauthorized party is invalid which is asubject we deal today as in capacity after
developed principles of common law alredy existed then in that period of time..”During the
ancient period, the king had the power to confiscate the entire property of a trader in two
instances: (1) when the king had a monopoly over the exported goods and the private trader is in
possession of it; and (2) when the export of the goods was forbidden by law. There was also a
mechanism to control prices and punish wrongdoers. The king fixed the rates for the purchase
and sale of all marketable goods so to avoid arbitrary pricng by the traders and for the
affordability for the subjects. Manu said “man who behaves dishonestly to honest customers or
cheats in his prices shall be fined in the first or in the middle most amercement.”There was a

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process to inspect all weights and measures every six months, and the results of these inspections
were duly noted. All these measures show how effective ancient society was in regulating the
many wrongs of the market place and how efficient it was in maintaining healthy trade
environment for both traders and sellers of . These measures also show how developed the
system was in identifying the market strategies of traders. Thus, Manu Smriti effectively dealt
with various trade and consumer matters, many of which remain of great concern in modern
legal system and still our modern system is not very efficient in addressing these issues. Wehave
very complex ta system very complex trades laws but the fact that our system all the issues and
build a healhy environment for consumers as per say which existed in ancient period which I
must say.