Traditional attribution · Essential works
Yājñavalkya Smṛti (Yājñavalkya's Treatise on Dharma)
याज्ञवल्क्यस्मृति (Yājñavalkya Smṛti)
About a thousand verses in three books: conduct (ācāra), legal procedure (vyavahāra) and expiation (prāyaścitta). More concise and systematic than the Laws of Manu, it gives priority to documentary evidence, describes the trial in four stages (plaint, answer, proof and verdict) and grants women broader inheritance rights. It also includes passages on medicine, embryology and yoga. With Vijñāneśvara's Mitākṣarā commentary (eleventh–twelfth century) it was the main authority of Hindu law across much of India and the basis of the "Hindu law" applied by British courts.
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Authorship note
A work much later than the Yājñavalkya of the Upaniṣads: Olivelle dates it to around the fourth or fifth century CE. Its anonymous author puts it in the mouth of Yājñavalkya, "lord of yoga", who expounds it to the sages in Mithilā.
Editions and translations
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English
Yājñavalkya: A Treatise on Dharma (Murty Classical Library of India 20)
Harvard University Press, 2019
Translation: Patrick Olivelle
ISBN 9780674277069
Texto sánscrito y traducción. Otra edición de 2020: ISBN 9780674988316.
Yajnavalkya
Yajnavalkya Smriti, with the Commentary of Vijñāneśvara called the Mitākṣarā (Sacred Books of the Hindus 21)
The Conscious LibraryYajnavalkya Smriti, with the Commentary of Vijñāneśvara called the Mitākṣarā (Sacred Books of the Hindus 21)
Pāṇini Office, Allahabad, 1918
Translation: Srisa Chandra Vidyarnava
Libro I (ācāra); dominio público.
Yajnavalkya
Hindu Law and Judicature from the Dharma-Sástra of Yájnavalkya
The Conscious LibraryHindu Law and Judicature from the Dharma-Sástra of Yájnavalkya
Calcuta, 1859
Translation: Edward Röer y W. A. Montriou
Libro II (vyavahāra); dominio público.
Deutsch
Yajnavalkya
Yâjnavalkya's Gesetzbuch
The Conscious LibraryYâjnavalkya's Gesetzbuch
Ferd. Dümmler, 1849
Translation: Adolf Friedrich Stenzler
Primera traducción europea, con el texto sánscrito; dominio público.
Sánscrito · संस्कृतम्
Yajnavalkya
याज्ञवल्क्यस्मृतिः
The Conscious Libraryयाज्ञवल्क्यस्मृतिः
Wikisource en sánscrito
Texto por adhyāya y prakaraṇa.
Other works by Yajnavalkya
- Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad (The Great Forest Upaniṣad) · 650
- Yājñavalkya-kāṇḍa (Muni-kāṇḍa): the debate at Janaka's court and the teachings to the king · 650
- The dialogue with Maitreyī · 650
- Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa (The Brāhmaṇa of a Hundred Paths) · 750
- Vājasaneyi Saṃhitā (White Yajurveda) · 800
- Yoga Yājñavalkya
- Bṛhad Yogi Yājñavalkya Smṛti
- Jābāla Upaniṣad and Yājñavalkya Upaniṣad (Upaniṣads of renunciation)
- The dialogue of Yājñavalkya and Janaka in the Mahābhārata · 100
- Vṛddha-Yājñavalkya and Bṛhad-Yājñavalkya (fragments)
- Yājñavalkya Śikṣā (treatise on phonetics)
Sources
- Olivelle, Patrick (ed. y trad.). Yājñavalkya: A Treatise on Dharma. Murty Classical Library of India 20. Cambridge (Mass.): Harvard University Press, 2019. Introducción, pp. vii–xxxvii.
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