Critical Edition and Translation of MANUSMRTI

FAIN: RZ-20245-98

University of Texas at Austin (Austin, TX 78712-0100)
J. Patrick Olivelle (Project Director: September 1997 to January 2003)

To support the preparation of a critical edition and annotated translation of THE LAWS OF MANU, an important metrical Sanskrit text on religion, law, and society.

We propose to prepare a critical edition of the Manusmrti ("The Laws of Manu"), a metrical Sanskrit text on religion, law, and society. This text is one of the most important in the entire Sanskrit corpus for its classic description of so many social institutions which have come to be identified with Indian society. There are three aspects to this project: (1) The establishment for the first time of a critical edition of the Sanskrit text of the Manusmrti ("The Laws of Manu"), a text of approximately 2,700 verses of 32 syllables in twelve chapters; (2) The preparation of a new translation of that critically edited text; and (3) A systematic presentation of the findings of our research in the form of introductions and notes outlined under Project Methodology.