• Writing and the Recognition of Customary Law in Premodern India and Java

    Author(s):
    Timothy Lubin (see profile)
    Date:
    2017
    Group(s):
    History, Religious Studies
    Subject(s):
    History, Ancient, India, Law, Ancient, Asia, History, Inscriptions, Religion, Jurisprudence
    Item Type:
    Article
    Tag(s):
    dharmaśāstra, Sanskrit, Ancient history, Ancient India, Ancient law, Asian history, Epigraphy, History of religions, Religious studies
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M6061K
    Abstract:
    Explaining what made ancient Greek law unusual, Michael Gagarin observes that most premodern legal cultures “wrote extensive sets (or codes) of laws for academic purposes or propaganda but these were not intended to be accessible to most members of the community and had relatively little effect on the actual operation of the legal system.” This article addresses the implications of writing for customary or regional law in South and Southeast Asia. The textual tradition of Dharmaśāstra (“Hindu law”), which canonizes a particular model of Brahmin customary norms, can certainly be called a “scholarly” exercise, and it was also intended as propaganda for the Brahmanical cosmopolitan world order. But it also formulated a procedural principle to recognize the general validity of other, even divergent, customary norms, though for the most part such rules remained lex non scripta. On the other hand, inscriptions provide evidence that writing was used for diverse legal purposes and offers glimpses of actual legal practice. In these records, customary laws are sometimes laid down as statutes by decree of a ruler or community body, or are simply invoked as long-established customary rules. But even when Dharmaśāstra texts are not directly cited, their influence over the longue durée is discernable in the persistence of śāstric legal categories and terms of art. This influence is even more evident in Java, where legal codes on the Dharmaśāstra model were composed in Javanese, and where the inscriptions came to exhibit a closer connection with śāstric discourse than is found in India.
    Metadata:
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    Published as:
    Journal article     Show details
    Journal:
    Journal of the American Oriental Society
    Volume:
    135
    Issue:
    2
    Page Range:
    225 - 259
    ISSN:
    0003-0279
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    6 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved
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