Guest guest Posted August 6, 2003 Report Share Posted August 6, 2003 Dear Members: SrI Dikshithar is held in reverence for his rulings by our own Ahnika Grantha karthAs and they quote him . This artcile by SrIman Bhattadhiry would be of interest to you. V.Sadagopan P.S : I had posted in Sep 96 an article on these Ahnika Granthams (11 in total) and their guide lines. The URL is: http://www.ramanuja.org/sv/bhakti/archives/sep96/0077.html Please refer to this for more details on Ahnika granthams. >Sun, 03 Aug 2003 12:02:43 +0530 >M P Bhattathiry <mpmahesh >Subject:Vaidyanatha DikshithA >Sadagopan <sgopan > > >Vaidyanatha-Diksitiyam from Hindu Dharma >Vaidyanatha Diksita's own name for his work is Smrti-Muktaphala-Nibhandana-Grantha. We know very little about the author of this extremely useful book. Diksita must have lived some two hundred years ago; he belonged to Kandiramanikkam, near Nacciyarkoil (in Tanjavur district). It must be noted that he himself practised the dharmas he had dealt with in his nibhandana and he is also believed to have performed big sacrifices. > >Vaidyanatha-Diksitiyam is considered superior to similar works by Medhatithi, Vijnesvara, Hemadri and so on. Exhaustive in nature, it deals with the duties and rites pertaining to the different castes and asramas (the four stages of life), ritual purity, sradhha, prayascitta, stridharma, dayabhaga, dravyasuddhi. It even gives directions about the division of paternal property. When the Hindu code Bill was introduced in free India some put forward the view that the division of property must be based on the sastras. Such division is called " Dayabhaga " . The division of property in Kerala, in the uncle-nephew line, is called marumakkatayam. The word " dayadi " is derived from " daya " . > >Diksitiyam is the last among the nibhandanas. In the preparation of this work Vaidyanatha Diksita had the advantage of making a comparitive study of all the previous works on Dharmasastra. Before it the authority followed it to some extent in the South was the nibhandana of Tozhappar. Vaisnavas and Smartas alike today accept the Diksitiyam as an authority. > >The nibhandanas are not like the Vedas (Sruti), the Kalpa-sutras and the Smrtis. Since they came later it is not easy to make them acceptable to all. Diksita, it must be noted, does not show the least trace of bias in his work and has followed the Mimamsa in determining the meaning of Vedic texts. He has brought together previous sastras and arrived at conclusions only after resolving the contradictions in them. This is the reason why his work is considered as authority in the South. When the Smrtis differ in some matters, he takes a broad view and suggests: " Let each individual follow the practices of his region and the tradition of his forefathers " . ><!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC " -//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN " > ><HTML><HEAD> ><META http-equiv=Content-Type content= " text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 " > ><META content= " MSHTML 6.00.2800.1170 " name=GENERATOR> ><STYLE></STYLE> ></HEAD> ><BODY bgColor=#ffffff> ><DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> ><H3> ><CENTER>Vaidyanatha-Diksitiyam from Hindu Dharma</CENTER></H3> ><P><FONT face=Arial>Vaidyanatha Diksita's own name for his work is >Smrti-Muktaphala-Nibhandana-Grantha. We know very little about the author of >this extremely useful book. Diksita must have lived some two hundred years ago; >he belonged to Kandiramanikkam, near Nacciyarkoil (in Tanjavur district). It >must be noted that he himself practised the dharmas he had dealt with in his >nibhandana and he is also believed to have performed big sacrifices. </FONT></P> ><P><FONT face=Arial>Vaidyanatha-Diksitiyam is considered superior to similar >works by Medhatithi, Vijnesvara, Hemadri and so on. Exhaustive in nature, it >deals with the duties and rites pertaining to the different castes and asramas >(the four stages of life), ritual purity, sradhha, prayascitta, stridharma, >dayabhaga, dravyasuddhi. It even gives directions about the division of paternal >property. When the Hindu code Bill was introduced in free India some put forward >the view that the division of property must be based on the sastras. Such >division is called " Dayabhaga " . The division of property in Kerala, in the >uncle-nephew line, is called </FONT><A >href= " http://www.kamakoti.org/hindudharma/part15/referp15.htm#MARUMAKKATAYAM " >name=marumakkatayam><FONT face=Arial>marumakkatayam</FONT></A><FONT face=Arial>. >The word " dayadi " is derived from " daya " . </FONT></P> ><P><FONT face=Arial>Diksitiyam is the last among the nibhandanas. In the >preparation of this work Vaidyanatha Diksita had the advantage of making a >comparitive study of all the previous works on Dharmasastra. Before it the >authority followed it to some extent in the South was the nibhandana of >Tozhappar. Vaisnavas and Smartas alike today accept the Diksitiyam as an >authority. </FONT></P> ><P><FONT face=Arial>The nibhandanas are not like the Vedas (Sruti), the >Kalpa-sutras and the Smrtis. Since they came later it is not easy to make them >acceptable to all. Diksita, it must be noted, does not show the least trace of >bias in his work and has followed the Mimamsa in determining the meaning of >Vedic texts. He has brought together previous sastras and arrived at conclusions >only after resolving the contradictions in them. This is the reason why his work >is considered as authority in the South. When the Smrtis differ in some matters, >he takes a broad view and suggests: " Let each individual follow the practices of >his region and the tradition of his forefathers " . ></FONT></P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML> > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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