Common Sense and Legal History in India: Collected Essays on Hindu Law and Dharmasastra brings together the shorter works of Richard W. Lariviere on one important tradition of law in classical and medieval India—the corpus of Sanskrit legal texts called dharmasastra. Lariviere’s contributions to both general and specific topics of Hindu law have changed our understanding of the depth and complexity of legal ideas, the possibilities and limits of Sanskrit legal sources for historical study, and the continuing relevance of dharmasastra in colonial and contemporary India. The essays collected here demonstrate the value of careful philological study of Sanskrit materials and exemplify an approach to Indological studies that highlights the achievement of traditional scholarship while maintaining critical modern perspectives. Lariviere’s research and interpretations, now all collected in one place, are essential reading for legal historians of India.
About the Author
Richard W. Lariviere, whose career in academia and business is grounded in his expertise on India, is President Emeritus of the Field Museum, Chicago. He is also Professor Emeritus of Sanskrit and is the former Dean of Liberal Arts at the University of Texas at Austin; Provost and Executive Vice-Chancellor at the University of Kansas; and President of the University of Oregon. He is a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain, a Life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a Fellow of the American Oriental Society, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Donald R. Davis, Jr. is Professor of Sanskrit and Indian Religions and Chair of the Department of Asian Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. He specializes in the fields of classical and medieval Hindu law and dharmasastra. Among his recent publications are Hindu Law: A New History of Dharmasastra (co-edited with Patrick Olivelle, 2018) and The Dharma of Business: Commercial Law in Medieval India (2017).
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