102. Dandaviveka of Vardhamāna
Volume I: Part II pp. 854–860
The *Dandaviveka* of Vardhamāna, a pivotal text in the study of Hindu legal traditions, was first edited by Kamalākṛṣṇa Smṛtitīrtha. This work perhaps uniquely stands out as the most extensive extant Sanskrit treatise dedicated solely to the intricate domain of the law of crimes and punishments. Its scholarly rigour is evidenced by its frequent references, notably citing Halāyudha a substantial thirty-three times. The text itself commences with a profound and elaborate eulogy of *daṇḍa*, setting the philosophical framework for its detailed contents. Vardhamāna composed this significant *Viveka* during the reign of King Bhairava of Mithilā, situating its creation within a specific historical and geographical context. In developing his extensive work, he meticulously consulted numerous other scholarly works and authors of his time, reflecting a deep engagement with antecedent legal thought. His intellectual lineage is further highlighted by his gurus, who included his elder brother Gaṇḍakamiśra, as well as the esteemed scholars Śaṅkara and Vācaspati. Vardhamāna himself was a prolific author, credited with the composition of no less than nine distinct works, and is generally understood to have flourished some decades prior to 1496 A.D.
— Synopsis by P.V. Kane, from History of Dharmaśāstra
102. Dandaviveka of Vardhamāna
##102. Daṇḍaviveka of Vardhamāna
In the first edition of this History, Vardhamāna was not dealt with, because none of his works was then available to me in print. His Daṇḍaviveka was first published in 1931 in the Gaikwad Oriental Series ( Baroda ) edited by Mahāmahopā- 102. Vardhamāna
dhyāya Kamalakarṣṇa Smṛtitīrtha of Bhatpara in West Bengal with an exhaustive Introduction in English and a brief one in Sanskrit.
The work deserves special mention in this history since it is probably the only extensive extant Sanskrit work (in 356 pages) on the law of crimes and punishments alone.
Smṛtis like those of Manu and Yājñavalkya deal with crimes and punishments, but the treatment is brief and mixed up with other matterṣ For example, Manu VIII. 20 (=Śāntiparva 15. 30) states that if the king were not vigilant in awarding punishment to those who deserve to be punished, the strong would devour the weak and further the king properly awarding punishments becomes endowed with the three goals of life viz. dharma, artha and kāma (Manu VII. 27, Śāntiparva 121. 10). Kauṭilya (in I. 4. 11-14) emphasizes the same thingṣ1
Separate works on Vivāda (substantive law) and Vyavahāra (procedural law) were composed but those on Vyavahāra alone were few and far between viz. Vyavahāraratnākara of Cāṇḍeśvara,2 (vide Mitra’s Notices, vol. VI p, 66 No. 2036) and Vyavahāra-Cintāmaṇi of Vācaspati (published long ago and lately published by Dr. Rocher). Halāyudha also appears to have composed either a work dealing with both Vivāda and Vyavahāra or two works dealing with the two branches of law separately.
In dozens of places the Vivādaratnākara mentions Halāyudha’s work and sometimes styles it ‘Halāyudha-nibandha’ (as on pp. 41, 44 and 50). Halāyudha appears to have also dealt with the procedural law and with crimes and punishmentṣ Vardhamāna in the Daṇḍaviveka cites Halāyudha 33 times and sometime mentions his work Halāyudha-nibandha ( as on pp. 72, 150, 275 ) and as Halāyudhīya ( pp, 119. 152 ).
The Daṇḍaviveka is a large work in 355 printed pageṣ It starts with the eulogy of ‘ daṇḍa ’ contained in Manu VII. 14, 15, 17, 18, points out by quoting Manu VII. 20-21 that, if the king does not punish those who deserve punishment then what is called Matsyanyāya will prevail. He further cites Manu VIII. 304 that the king shares one-sixth of the merit ( dharma ) of his subjects when he properly regulates them and takes 1/6th of the sins of his subjects if he does not regulate them properly. He quotes Bṛhaspati that Daṇḍa is of four levels viz. vāg-daṇḍa ( i. e. censure by saying you did an improper act ), dhig-daṇḍa ( censuring a guilty person in the words ‘ fie on you who are guilty of an unworthy act ), dhanadaṇḍa ( fine, either a fixed amount or a varying amount ), vadha-daṇḍa ( inflicting bodily pain, mutilation of a limb or limbs and death ); the circumstances on which the punishment depends such as jāti ( caste ), amount ( of property ), age ( childhood, grown up man ), time of offence ( day or night &c ). On pp. 22-30 he discusses at some length the fines in paṇas ( lowest, middling, highest &c. ) basing his remarks on Mauu VIII, 138 and Yāj. I. 366 and discusses the scale of the values of guñjā, kṛṣṇala, māṣa, suvarṇa ( &c. ) and of weights and measures called karṣa, pala, tolaka &c. and coins of copper, silver and golḍ He discusses at some length the parts of an offender’s body that are to be dealt with by way of punish- ment ( quoting Manu VIII. 124 ) and states different views about bodily punishments for a brāhmaṇa offender ( pp. 46-48 ). He has a long disquisition on fines with reference to various crimes in pp. 52 ff. Manu (VIII. 336) provides that, where for an offence an ordinary person would be fined one Kārṣāpaṇa, a rājan ( king )3 should be fined one thousand paṇaṣ The Daṇḍa- 102. Vardhamāna viveka explains that ‘rājan’ in this passage means only persons who are endowed with power (landlords &c.) and not the king himself. He quotes Manu VIII. 126 and Yaj. I. 368 and elaborates on theṃ He devotes pp. 88–140 to punishments for thefts of various kindṣ He deals with adultery, rape and unnatural offences on pp. 54–195 and with defamation and cognate offences in pp. 196–218, with assault and battery in pp. 219–258, miscellaneous (prakīrṇaka) matters which are taken up by the king him- self and not brought before the king by any person (pp. 259– 272); he devotes pp. 273–292 to the rules about property or treasure lost and found or buried treasure founḍ He has a special discussion (pp. 293–320) on sāhasa (of five kinds viz. killing a person, robbery, carrying away a woman by force or rape and the two kinds of pārusya), special rules of punishment for Śūdra guilty of certain acts such as those described in Manu VIII. 272, 281 (both verses occur in Nārada also ), such as wear- ing the sacred thread and thereby earning his livelihood or (Yāj. II. 304); cutting down trees growing near temples, burial places or on boundaries &c.; On pp. 325–33 he mentions the Vivāda- padas and details some punishments about some of them such as ‘asvāmī-vikraya’ (Manu VIII. 197–198); pp. 331–337 deal with fines arising on breach of court’s temporary orders in a proceeding such as temporary injunction not to leave one’s place of residence or not to do certain acts, pp. 337–355 are concerned with fines for members of the court (sabhya) in certain cases, review of judgment, fines for parties attributing faults to good witnesses, fines for false witnesses, fines for witnesses found to be false on account of being bribed (Manu VIII. 120–121 ), fines for witnesses called upon to depose but not coming to do so without any reason &c.
Vardhamāna gives about himself and his work some in- formatioṇ He wrote the Daṇḍaviveka while king Bhairava was the ruler of Mithilā and states that his elder brother was Gaṅḍakamiśra and the latter along with Śaṅkara and Vācaspati were his gurus (Intro. Verse 6). At the end he says that he wrote the Daṇḍaviveka for the sake of the king of Videha, that he was the son of Bhaveśa of the Bilvapañcaka family. He mentions at the end that he wrote the work after consulting the follow-ing works and authors viz. Kalpataru, Kāmadhenu, Halāyudha, Dharmakoṣa, Smṛtisāra, Kṛtyasāgara, Ratnākara, Pārijāta, the two Saṁhitās of Manu and Yājñavalkya with the commentaries thereon; besides Vyavahāratilaka, Pradīpikā and Pradīpa. Besides those mentioned in the verses at the end and besides the two epics, Purāṇas, Dharmasūtras and smṛtis he mentions also Kṛtya-sāra (p. 28), Graheśvaramiśra (pp 27, 134), Cāṇḍeśvara, Catur-varga-cintāmaṇi (326, 346–7), Parāśarabhāṣya (p. 279), Bhava-deva (pp. 77, 238, 347, 353), Bhūpālapaddhati (136), Balabhūṣaṇa (p. 135), Miśraḥ (i. e. Vācaspatimiśra, his guru 64, 65, 92, 195, 97, 282, 317), Vivāda-cintāmaṇi (211, 278), Samayaprakāśa (136), Smṛtisāgara (136), Śūlapāṇi (240), Harinātha (p. 251, 326), Harihara (182).
It appears that he composed nine works viz. Daṇḍaviveka, Dvaitaviveka, Gaṅgākṛtyaviveka, Paribhāṣāviveka, Smṛtitatva-dīpa, Dharmapradīpa, Smṛtiparibhāṣā, Smṛtitatvāmṛta, Smṛti-tattvāmṛta-sāroddhāra (abridgement of the preceding ). For the Smṛtitatvāmṛta, vide Mitra’s Notices, Vol, VI No. 1992 pp. 12–13 on (Śāntika-Pauṣṭika) where his mother’s name is given as Gauri. The 2nd verse of that work is interesting.5 It says at present people’s usages differ from Śāstra; when there is a conflict Śāstra is stronger and therefore it has been accepted in this work. For Smṛtitatvāmṛta-sāroddhāra Vide Mitra’s Notices Vol. VI p. 57 (where at the end he refers to the Daṇḍaviveka his as work). On p. 76 of the Daṇḍaviveka he refers to his own Dvaitaviveka.6 At the end of the Smṛtitatvaviveka ( Mitra’s Notices Vol. V No. 1868 pp. 183–185 the colophon describes Vardhamāna as Mahā-dharmādhikārī ( Judge ). Vardhamāna Some of his references are interesting e. g. he quotes a prose passage of Viṣṇugupta about Rūpyamāsaka, Dharaṇa, Niṣka and a verse of Viṣṇugupta stating that 1/70th part of a suvarṇa is called ropaka and a dināra is equal to 28 ropakaṣ7
On p. 28 he refers to another view of Viṣṇugupta on ‘Māsa’.8 In one place (p. 291-292) he cites some cases of conflict between Dharmaśāstra and Arthaśāstra and between two dharmaśāstras also.9
The English Introduction to the Daṇḍaviveka is an instruc-tive one. It compares the provisions in the Daṇḍaviveka with the Indian Penal Code and the modern criminal law of India and well brings out the points of agreement and difference between theṃ
As to his date there is no much difficulty. He was a pupil of Vācaspatimiśra and refers to the Vivādacintāmaṇi of that great Maithila scholar and therefore was a junior contemporary of Vācaspati. He flourished under king Bhairava of Mithilā (5th Intro. verse of Daṇḍaviveka) who belonged to the Kāmeśvara dynasty. In J. A. S. B. vol. XI (New Series, p. 433) a complete list of the kings of this dynasty and the probable dates of the authors that flourished under the Karṇāṭa and Kāmeśvara dyna-sties is set out, according to which Śaṅkaramiśra (one of the gurus of Vardhamāna) flourished in the 2nd and 3rd quarters of the 15th century A. D., while Vācaspati flourished in the 3rd and 4th quarters of the same century and Vardhamāna must have flourished some decades before La. Saṃ 376 (i. e. 1496 A. D.), when a mṣ of his Gaṅgākṛtyaviveka (one of his latest works) was copied (vide J. A. S. B. Vol. XI. p. 403). Vācas- pati's Śrāddhacintāmaṇi refers to Vardhamāna's work on ‘Pari- bhāṣā’. For the Smṛti-paribhāṣā of Vardhamāna, vide Mitra's Notices, vol. V pp. 160–161.
Raghunandana refers to him as Vardhamānopādhyāya or Navya-vardhamāna in order to distinguish him from another Vardhamāna, son of Gaṅgeśopādhyāya, who flourished in the 13th century. Vide Tithitattva (Vol. I, 122 ) where the Smṛti- paribhāṣikā is cited; for citations from Navya-Vardhamāna vide Smṛtitattva Vol. I, tithi pp, 19, 184, Śrāddha, 213, 224; Āhnika p. 332 (Raghu. differs), 352, 424, Māla. pp. 803, 815, 818. The Śrāddha-pradīpa of Vardhamāna is mentened by Raghu. in Śrāddhatattava (vol I) p. 414.
In the Journal of Oriental Institute (Baroda), vol. II (pp. 71–85) Dr. Ludo Rocher ( Ghent University ) furnishes an analysis of all msṣ of the Daṇḍaviveka with various readingṣ