43. Daksha
Volume I: Part I pp. 513–514
Mentioned by Yāj. – Viśvarūpa quotes him several times – Aparārka quotes a prose passage – contents of printed Dakṣasmṛti in 220 verses.
— Synopsis by P.V. Kane, from History of Dharmaśāstra
43. Daksha
43. Dakṣa Dakṣa is one of the writers on dharma enumerated by Yāj. Viśvarūpa quotes verses of Dakṣa several times, viz. on Yāj. 1. 17 ( on clods of earth for purifying the body ), on Yāj. III. 30 ( two verses on āśauca ), on Yāj. III. 66 ( about a parivrājaka ), on Yāj. III. 191 ( about padmāsana ). The Mit. ( on Yāj. I. 89 ) quotes a half verse of Dakṣa to the effect that a dvija should not remain unattached to an āśrama ( i. e. without a wife in the context ) even for a moment; on Yāj. III. 58 two verses about bhikṣus; on Yāj. III. 243 ( one verse ). Aparārka cites numerous verses of Dakṣa on ācāra, āśauca, śrāddha and similar topicṣ In one case ( p. 368 ) he attributes a prose passage to Dakṣa about the gift of golḍ1 Two of Dakṣa's verses most frequently quoted by writers on vyavahāra are those that lay down what nine things cannot be the subjects of gift.2
In Jivananada's collection there is a Dakṣasmṛti ( part II, pp. 383-402 ) in seven chapters and 220 verses ( vide also Ānandāśrama collection pp. 72-84 ), M. N. Dutt's collection Vol. I. pp. 291-309. The principal subjects treated of are :— Four āśramas, two kinds of brahmacārins; the daily round of duties for dvijas; various subdivisions of actions, nine karmans nine vikarmans nine actions that should be concealed, nine acts that should be made public, nine things that should not be gifted; gifts; eulogy of a good housewife; śauca of two kinds; impurity due to birth and death; Yoga and its six angas viz. prāṇāyāma, dhyāna, pratyāhāra, dhāraṇā, tarka and samādhi; maithuna of eight kinds to be avoided by ascetics; duties of bhikṣu, dvaita, and advaita. Dakṣasmṛti contains the name of Dakṣa himself and shows that he was a thorough-going Advaitin (as the note shows).3
This smṛti is certainly a very old one. All the quotations from Dakṣa cited by Viśvarūpa occur in the printed Dakṣa (vide pp. 395, 396, 384, 397 which reads ‘na pathyā-śanād yogo’). Similarly all the quotations in the Mit. from Dakṣa are found in the Calcutta text. Aparārka contains over forty verses from the printed Dakṣa, though there are a few verses cited by him as Dakṣa’s which are not found thereiṇ The Smṛticandrikā quotes about ten verses of Dakṣa on woman which are all found in the 4th chap. of the Calcutta text.
In the Govt. Msṣ library at the B. O. R. Institute Poona, there is a mṣ of Dakṣa (No. 120 of 1895–1902), which contains 197 verses on the same topics as above, many of which are identical with the Calcutta text. The Bombay University has also a similar mṣ Vide I. O. Cat. No. 1320 p. 385 for a similar mṣ in 197 verseṣ