Studies in the Dharamasastra of Manu

This book of Professor Banerjee is an attempt to present Manusmriti as an outstanding sociological work of ancient India with an unusually comprehensive outlook and to evaluate its impact on the organization of the Hindu society. Although Manu has been succeeded by a number of sociologists such as Narada, Brihaspati and others, who have made valuable contributions to the development of sociological thinking in India, his influence upon the organization of the Hindu society persists till this day. On this account and also on account of the absense of any effective dynamic to initiate the process of wholesome change in the social milieu, the Hindu society, as Professor Banerjee has tried to show, has been suffering from the evil of stagnation till this day. This circumstance calls for the ways and means which can break through the state of stagnation and being about social progress among the Hindus. This is, then, a book which is bound to be of interest to the students of sociology, law, the history of ancient India and the history of Sanskrit literature. It is likely to be of special use to those who are actively engaged in social work.

About the Author:

Professor N.V. Banerjee was educated in the Universities of Calcutta and London and is well known as an origin thinker and a creative writer on philosophical subjects. He has taught for many years at the University of Delhi where he was the Head of the Department of Philosophy from 1946 to 1963. After his retirement he became professor of philosophy and comparative religion at the Hindu Institute of Advanced Study at Simla for two years. He was also the General President of the Indian Philosophical Congress. He visited China as a member of the Indian Universities delegation and lectured in the University of Peking. He has been on a lecture tour twice in Australia and several countries in both Eastern and Western Europe, including Poland, Hungary, Germany, the Netherlands and England. Other academic assignments have taken him to several countries in South-East Asia. His research papers and numerous publication in book form provide ample evidence of a mind that is at home in India as well as Western thought and is gifted with an unusual capacity for analytical and synthetic thinking.