treat various legal matters that might
come before the king for adjudication.
Manu attempts to put all of these under
eighteen thematic headings. The mater-
ial in these chapters encompasses
all manner of criminal and civil law,
from assault and theft to contract
law and marital duties laying down
a legal framework for the stable
governance of society.
The remaining chapters are less orig-
inal. The tenth chapter discusses occu-
pations that members of the different
varnas may follow in times of distress
(apaddharma), when normal social
rules no longer apply. The eleventh
talks about gifts to brahmins and rites
of expiation (prayashchitta), remaining
faithful to the Dharma Sutras. Manu’s
final chapter has a more abstract and
speculative nature, focusing on the
workings of karmaand describing the
consequences of various good and evil
acts. The text has been translated
numerous times; see Wendy Doniger
O’Flaherty and Brian K. Smith, The Laws
of Manu, 1991.
Manvantara
Manvantara is the name of an era in one
instance of cosmic time. According to
traditional belief, time has neither
beginning nor end but alternates
between cycles of creation and activity,
followed by cessation and quietude.
Each of these cycles lasts for 4.32 billion
years; the active phase is known as
the Day of Brahmaand the quiet phase
is known as the Night of Brahma. In
one instance of cosmic time, each
Day of Brahma is divided into fourteen
equal periods, each ruled by one of
the fourteen Manus. Manus are cele-
brated as the sovereigns of the earth
and are perceived as semidivine beings
who are the progenitors of the human
race. Currently we are living in the
seventh age, with seven yet to come.
The Manu of this present age,
Vaivasvata, was saved from pralaya
(universal destruction) by Vishnuin his
form as the Fish avatar. Vaivasvata is
regarded as the progenitor of the Solar
Lineof Kings.Maranashaucha
The ritual impurity (ashaucha) caused
by death (marana). All bodily effluvia
(hair, spittle, pus, blood, etc.) are con-
sidered to be sources of impurity, but a
corpseis the most impure thing of all.
Any death immediately causes the most
violent impurity, affecting the entire
family. For the family’s safety, this impu-
rity must be carefully contained and
managed through the funeral rites
(antyeshthi samskara). Here one sees
the significant ritual difference between
birthand death. Although birth also
brings impurity (sutakashaucha) on the
family, because of the bodily products
attending it, this impurity is considered
less violent, because the birth of a child
is an auspicious, life-affirming event.
Death, on the other hand, is seen as
bringing bad fortune, and thus the fam-
ily must not only take care of this impu-
rity, but must also get rid of the
inauspiciousnesscaused by the death.Maratha
Traditional Indian society was a collec-
tion of endogamous subgroups (in
which marriage is decreed by law to
occur only between members of the
same group) known as jatis. Jatis were
organized (and their social status deter-
mined) by the group’s hereditary occu-
pation, over which each group held a
monopoly. The Maratha jati was one of
the dominant landholding communities
in the Maharashtraregion, along with
the Kunbis. They were most concentrated
on the Konkan coast and the inland
region around the city of Pune. The
Marathas were tough peasant farmers
who by the middle of the eighteenth
century had forged a large but short-
lived empire, the Maratha confederacy,
extending over much of northern and
central India. By the latter part of the
eighteenth century, the confederacy had
fragmented into various smaller states.Manvantara