Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Hindu Law
Hindu Law
Hindu Law
L.PRAGADI
132002097
INTRO TO HINDU LAW
Who is a Hindu?
• Practices Hindu religion
• Any child, born out of a wedlock or not, is a Hindu if both the
parents are a Hindu.
• Converts
• Reconverts
• Common orgin/ of shoots of Hinduism
• Buddists
• Sikhs
• Jains
YAGNAPURUSDASJI Vs MULDAS (Who
is a hindu)
• HELD:
SC accepted the formulae from Thilak about who is a hindu
A person if he accepts
• The facts in the Vedas
• Worship of different gods
SASTRI Vs MULDAS (Who is a hindu)
• HELD:
SC approved that various subsets of the Hindu religion is also
Hindu
ARYA SAMAJ
BHUDISSM
JAINS
SIKHS
HINDU LAW IS APPLICABLE.
ORGIN OF HINDUISM
• DIVINE THEORY
Orgin from a divine source
Nobody knows where it originated
People believe that coined by the god
• WESTERN OR EUROPEAN THEORY
Immemorial customs and usage
Before Brahmanism
CHARACTERISTIC OF HINDU LAW
• Based on DHARMA
• Moral value made into laws
• Very old religion
• Hinduism from the god itself
• Law of smritis
• Not lex loci – territorial laws
• Particular religion
• Personal law
SOURCES OF HINDU LAW
• ANCIENT
SMRITIS
SRUTIS
CUSTOMS
COMMENTRIES/ DIGESTRIES
• MODERN
Precedents- Doctrine of stare decisis- Article 141
Legislations/ statutes
Codifications of hindu law
Justice, equity, and good conscience from England.
SHRUTI
• To hear
• Believed as the words of gods heard by the sages from the almighty
• Important sources of Hindu law
• Vedas- Samhitas, the Upanishads, the Brahmanas and the Aranyakas
RIG
YAJUR
SAMA
ATHARVA
• More authoritative in hindu law
VARNAS
•BASED ON THE TYPE OF WORK
•Brahmana
•Vaishnava
•Kshatriya
•Shutras
ASHRAMS
•Bhramachariya
•Gharastha
•Vanaprastha
•Sanyasa
Vedic period- 1500 – c. 500 BCE
SMRITS
• To remember
• Virtue of memory of the sages
• Written texts
• 2 types
DHARMASASTRAS – prose and maxims
DHARMASUTRAS – slogas
• Notable writers
Manu
Vishwa
RULES IN SMRITI
• ACHAR
Conduct and morality
• DYAVAHAR
Substantive law that the king should follow
• PRAYASCHITTA
Penal provisions for the wrong and with the punishment
• MANUSMRITI
Manu is the author hypothetically
Early and important code of conduct in INDIA, JAVA, AND BALI
DIGEST AND COMMENTRIES
• 7th century
• After smritis so many contradictions
• To resolve digests and commentaries were used
• Explains and resolves contradictions
• Evolved during the development of the 2 schools
mitakshara and dayabaga
CUSTOMS
S
• A custom must be in existence from time immemorial
• A custom must be practiced without interruption; continuity is an
essential feature of the custom.
• custom must have been enjoyed peacefully by the concerned people.
• Custom must be certain. NO VAGUENESS
• The customs must be in consistency with other custom.
• Custom should not be against the statute law, or the moral.
• Reasonable one
BURDEN OF PROOF LIES ON THE PERSON, WHO WANTS
THE CUSTOM
TYPES OF CUSTOMS
• LOCAL CUSTOM
Custom that is limited only to a particular area, geographical area
• FAMILY CUSTOM
Easily abandoned
Restricted to a particular family
• GUIDE CUSTOMS
By the traders
• CASTE AND COMMUNITY CUSTOMS
In a particular caste
CODIFICATIONS OF HINDU LAW