The Smṛti of Pitāmaha in Medieval Indian Jurisprudence: A Critical Reconstruction of the Pitāmahasmṛti and a Critical Edition of the Divyaśuddhi, with a Historical-Religious Study of Indian Ordeals

This PhD dissertation offers a comprehensive investigation of the Pitāmahasmṛti and its transmission, approaching the text from multiple angles. While chiefly centred on philological and textual-critical analysis, the study also considers legal and historical-religious aspects within the broader context of medieval jurisprudence in South Asia. The dissertation is structured in three parts. Part I presents a new and properly ‘critical’ reconstruction of the Pitāmahasmṛti, based on 345 quotations drawn from 27 indirect witnesses. This reconstruction features the first English translation of the text, accompanied by detailed commentaries and appendices. It greatly updates the only previous attempt by Scriba (1902), which included only 200 quotations from nine indirect witnesses and offered a German translation without a rigorous critical apparatus or commentary, thus limiting its scholarly usefulness today. Part II explores the transmission of Pitāmaha’s text in Nepal, offering a critical edition with an annotated English translation of the Divyaśuddhi—a Sanskrit work composed in medieval Nepal comprising 114 verses attributed to Pitāmaha. This edition is based on four manuscripts (NGMPP B 32-42, B 33-16, B 33-25, and B 415-17), including two previously unexamined sources (NGMPP B 33-25 and B 415-17). It builds upon the foundational edition by Lariviere (1985), which was based on two manuscripts (NGMPP B 32-42 and B 33-16) and considered the text as an appendix to the Nāradasmṛti. The appendix to Part II further presents a critical edition—based on seven manuscripts (NGMPP A 1160-6, B 415-19, B 431-4, E 711-2, E 2096-2, X 1217-1, and CUL MS Add. 2137)—together with an annotated English translation of the appendix on ordeals from Maṇika’s Nyāyavikāsinī, an Old Newar translation of the Nāradasmṛti, which preserves 14 verses attributed to Pitāmaha. Part III shifts focus to a historical-religious perspective, tracing the development of Indian ordeals from the Vedic period to the colonial era. This analysis mainly relies on sources from the Vedic corpus, the Sanskrit epics, the Purāṇic literature, and notably the Dharmaśāstra tradition, situating the ordeal institution within the long history of legal and ritual practices in South Asia.