Yajnavalkya-smriti (Vyavaharadhyaya)—Critical study

by Kalita Nabanita | 2017 | 87,413 words

This page relates ‘Vyavaharapadas Enumerated in the Vyavaharadhyaya’ of the study on the Vyavaharadhyaya of the Yajnavalkya-smriti: one of the most prominent Smritis dealing with Dharmashastra (ancient Indian science of law), dating to the 1st century B.C. The Yajnavalkyasmriti scientifically arranges its contents in three sections: Acara (proper conduct), Vyavahara (proper law) and Prayashcitta (expiation). Vyavahara deals with judicial procedure and legal system such as substantive law and procedural law.

Chapter 2.2a - The Vyavahārapadas Enumerated in the Vyavahārādhyāya

The topic or subject-matter of vyavahāra is known as vyavahārapada. According to Manu, pada means sthāna.[1] Yājñavalkya states that if a person, oppressed by one or more persons in a manner, transgressing the law of Smṛtis and established usages, applies or complains to the king (or any officer in charge of the administration of justice), then it forms the vyavahārapada.88 Vijñāneśvara explains the word pada as viṣaya, meaning subject-matter.[2] Aparārka, commenting on it says, padaṃ sthānaṃ nimittamiti yāvat.[3]

This definition shows three elements necessary to constitute a vyavahārapada, i.e.

  1. the breach of a rule prescribed by the Smṛtis or by a customary rule,
  2. injuring forcibly or illegally someone from violation of that rule
  3. and finally the complaint of the victim.

From this definition, given by Yājñavalkya, it appears that vyavahārpada indicates and includes those disputes, which are started or brought before the court at the instances of the parties.[4] The word vivādapada is used by some writers like Kauṭilya, Nārada, etc., instead of vyavahārpada.[5] Sometimes, Yājñavalkya seems to have distinguished between vivāda and vyavahāra. Vivāda is used in the sense of lawsuit or case, whereas vyavahāra is used to denote judicial procedure.[6] Therefore, vyavahārpada indicates the process of defining and classifying disputes or offences under different heads, which are known as titles of law.

For convenience, the disputes have been classified under eighteen heads or titles generally called vyavahārpada or vivādapada. It signifies various kinds of disputes existed among people in those days. The formal enumeration of eighteen vivādapadas are found in the Manusmṛti.

Manu has recognized the eighteen vivādapadas in the following manner[7] :-

  1. ṛṇādāna (non-payment of debts),
  2. nikṣepa (deposit and pledge),
  3. asvāmivikraya (sale without ownership),
  4. sambhūya-samutthāna (concerns among partners or partnership),
  5. dattasyānapakarma (resumption of gifts),
  6. vetanādāna (non-payment of wages),
  7. saṃvidvyatikrama (non-performance of agreement or conventions),
  8. krayavikrayānuśaya (recession of sale and purchase),
  9. svāmipālavivāda (disputes between the owner (of cattle) and herdsman),
  10. sīmāvivāda (disputes regarding boundaries),
  11. daṇḍapāruṣya (assault and violence),
  12. vākpāruṣya (use of abusive words and defamation,
  13. steya (theft),
  14. sāhasa (robbery and violence),
  15. strīsaṃgrahaṇa (adultery),
  16. strīpuṃdharma (duties of man and wife),
  17. vibhāga (partition) and
  18. dyūtasamāhvaya (gambling and betting).

Yājñavalkya, in the Vyavahārādhyāya of his work, has not provided any separate list of vyavahārpadas like that of the Manusmṛti. Rather he has treated eah title distinctly with heading as one prakaraṇa.

Thus, Yājñavalkya’s enumeration of vyavahārpadas are found as follows:-

  1. ṛṇādāna (non-payment of debts),
  2. upanidhi (laws relating to deposits),
  3. dāyavibhāga (divisions of property among heirs),
  4. sīmāvivāda (disputes regarding boundaries),
  5. svāmīpālavivāda (disputes between the owner (of cattle) and their herdsmen),
  6. asvāmivikraya (sale without ownership),
  7. dattāpradānika (laws relating to gift and its acceptance),
  8. krītānuśaya (rescission of purchase),
  9. abhyupetyāśuśrūṣā (laws relating to breach of contract of service),
  10. saṃvid-vyatikrama (breach of established usage),
  11. vetanādāna (non-payment of wages),
  12. dyūtasamāhvaya (gambling and betting),
  13. vākpāruṣya (use of abusive words and defamation)
  14. daṇḍapāruṣya (assault and violence)
  15. sāhasa (robbery and violence)
  16. vikrīyāsaṃpradāna (non-delivery after sale),
  17. sambhūya-samutthāna (trading by partnership),
  18. steya (theft),
  19. strīsaṃgrahaṇa (adultery) and
  20. prakīrṇaka (miscellaneous rules).

Yājñavalkya in the Vyavahārādhyāya has not followed the eighteen divisions of vyavahāra as given by Manu. It is necessary to take a glance at the divergence, as to the order, number and nomenclature of the vyavahārapadas found in Yājñavalkya with that of in Manu and Nārada. It would throw light on Yājñavalkya’s thinking and his maturity in treating the titles of law or vyavahāra.

The difference of the vyavahārapadas in Manu, Yājñavalkya and Nārada[8] is shown below:-

Manusmṛti
1. ṛṇādāna,
2. nikṣepa,
3. asvāmivikraya,
4. sambhūya-samutthāna,
5. dattasyānapakarma,
6. vetanādāna,
7. saṃvidvyatikrama,
8. krayavikrayānuśaya,
9. svāmipālavivāda,
10. sīmāvivāda,
11. daṇḍapāruṣya,
12. vākpāruṣya,
13. steya,
14. sāhasa,
15. strīsaṃgrahaṇa,
16. strīpuṃdharma,
17. vibhāga,
18. dyūtasamāhvaya.
Yājñavalkyasmṛti
1. ṛṇādāna,
2. upanidhi,
3. dāyavibhāga,
4. sīmāvivāda,
5. svāmīpālavivāda,
6. asvāmivikraya,
7. dattāpradānika,
8. krītānuśaya,
9. abhyupetyāśuśrūṣā,
10. saṃvid-vyatikrama,
11. vetanādāna,
12. dyūtasamāhvaya,
13. vākpāruṣya,
14. daṇḍapāruṣya,
15. sāhasa,
16. vikrīyāsaṃpradāna,
17. sambhūyasamutthāna,
18. steya,
19. strīsaṃgrahaṇa,
20. prakīrṇaka.
Nāradasmṛti
1. ṛṇādāna,
2. nikṣepa/ upanidhi,
3. sambhūya-samutthāna,
4. dattāpradānika,
5. abhyupetyāśuśrūṣā,
6. vetanasyānapākarma,
7. asvāmivikraya,
8. vikrīyāsaṃpradāna,
9. krītānuśaya,
10. samayasyānapakarma,
11. sīmāvivāda,
12. strīpuṃsayoga,
13. dāyabhāga,
14. sāhasa,
15. vākpāruṣya,
16. daṇḍapāruṣya,
17. dyūtasamāhvaya,
18. prakīrṇaka.


From the arrangement of the vyavahārapadas in Manu, Yājñavalkya and Nārada which is mentioned above, it can be observed that the number of vyavahārapadas is highest in the Yājñavalkyasmṛti. In the Vyavahārādhyāya of the Yājñavalkyasmṛti, the duties of husband and wife (strīpuṃdharma) are not included which is described as one of the vyavahārapadas in the Manusmṛti and in the Nāradasmṛti. Yājñavalkya might have considered it as a subject not falling within the proper domain of vyavahāra or law. Therefore, the same is described under the section named as the ācārādhyāya.[9]

Yājñavalkya has introduced two more topics viz. (1) abhyupetyāśuśrūṣā and (2) prakīrṇaka, thereby deviating from the eighteenfold division of vyavahārapadas as given by Manu. Moreover, the topic krayavikrayānuśaya is divided into two, thus raising the vyavahārapadas, in all, twenty. Nārada also follows the changes introduced by Yājñavalkya. He has added the two topics and split one topic into two like Yājñavalkya. Svāmīpālavivāda has been separately discussed in Manu and Yājñavalkya, but Nārada deals it as a part of sīmāvivāda. Yājñavalkya has treated adultery or strīsaṃgrahaṇa as an independent topic, while Nārada discusses it under the title strīpuṃsayoga. Both Manu and Yājñavalkya have treated vākpāruṣya and daṇḍapāruṣya as individual title of laws, while Nārada describes both in one chapter. Nārada includes steya under sāhasa and in the appendix. These are the main characteristics of vyavahārapadas in Manu, Yājñavalkya and Nārada, which help to show the contribution and advancement of Yājñavalkya towards the branches or divisions of law that regulated the rights and liabilities of parties in a legal proceeding.

The Yājñavalkyasmṛti does not provide or make a clear division of vyavahārapadas into civil and criminal laws. However, an indication of the distinction between civil and criminal disputes seems to have appeared among the vyavahārapadas of the Yājñavalkyasmṛti when the author speaks of arthavivāda.[10] In later stages, the Smṛti writers have developed the distinction among the eighteen vyavahārapadas into two groups. Bṛhaspati, as quoted in the Smṛticandrikā, states that there are two kinds of vyavahāra, those arising out of wealth and those arising out of injury. Fourteen of them have the origin in wealth and four in injury or violence.[11]

It is to be mentioned here that these classifications of vyavahārapadas should not be considered as exhaustive. Manu suggests this fact after giving the names of eighteen vyavahārapadas. He says, “Depending on the eternal law, let him (king) decide the disputes of men which mostly (bhūyiṣṭhaṃ) contend on the titles just mentioned.”[12] Commentators like Medhātithi, Kullūka, etc., have made this point clear that the word ‘most’ i.e. bhūyiṣṭhaṃ used by Manu indicates that there can be more vyavahārapadas than eighteen. These vyavahārapadas do not include all disputes but only the largest and most important among them.[13] These classifications of vyavahārapadas and their rules seem to have been derived directly from actual life and is in agreement with the necessities of the life of those days.[14]

Thus, it can be that the vyavahārapadas enumerated by Yājñavalkya in the Vyavahārādhyāya is having some difference from the traditional number of eighteen vyavahārapadas as mentioned by Manu, and perhaps the reason is that it embraced most of the disputes, which arose among people during those periods.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

eṣu sthāneṣu bhūyiṣṭhaṃ vivādaṃ caratāṃ nṛṇām// dharma śāśvatamāśritya kuryātkāryavinirṇāyam// Manusmṛti,8.888 smṛtyācāravyapetena mārgeṇādharṣitaḥ paraiḥ/ āvedayati cedrājñe vyavahārapadaṃ hi tat// Yājñavalkyasmṛti, 2.5

[2]:

Mitākṣarā,Ibid., 2.5

[3]:

Aparārka, Ibid., 2.5

[4]:

Kane, P.V., Op.cit., Volume 3, page250

[5]:

Arthaśāstra,3.16.72-73; Nāradasmṛti, 4.4.1, 4.5. 1

[6]:

Yājñavalkyasmṛti,2.8, 305

[7]:

teṣāmādyamṛṇādānaṃ nikṣepo’svāmivikrayaḥ/ sambhūya ca samutthānaṃ dattasyānapakarmaca// vetanasyaiva cādānaṃ saṃvidaśca vyatikramaḥ/ krayavikrayānuśayo vivādaḥ svāmipālayoḥ// sīmāvivādadharmaśca pāruṣye daṇḍavācike/ steyaṃ ca sāhasaṃ caiva strīsaṃgrahaṇameva ca// strīpuṃdharmo vibhāgaśca dyūtamāhvaya eva ca/ padānyaṣṭādaśaitāni vyavahārasthitāviha// Manusmṛti, 8.4-7

[8]:

Nāradasmṛti, 1.16-19

[9]:

Yājñavalkyasmṛti,1.51-89

[10]:

sarveṣvarthavivādeṣu balavatuttarā kriyā/ Ibid.,2.23

[11]:

Smṛticandrikā, Vyavahārakāṇḍa 1, page20

[12]:

eṣu sthāneṣu bhūyiṣṭhaṃ vivādaṃ caratāṃ nṛṇām/ dharmaṃ śāśvatamāśritya kuryātkāryavinirṇayam// Manusmṛti,8.8

[13]:

bhūyiṣṭhagrahaṇaṃ prādhānyakhyāpanārtham/ anye’pi vyavahārahetavaḥ santi/ Medhātithi on Manusmṛti, 8.8

[14]:

Jolly,J., Hindu Law and Custom, page35

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