THE IMPORTANCE OF MITAKSHARA IN

THE 21ST CENTURY

by Justice Markandey Katju
Source: Eastern Book Company http://www.ebc-
india.com/lawyer/articles/2005_7_3.htm

When I was informed of the topic: "The importance of

Mitakshara in the 21st century" my initial reaction
was that Mitakshara has hardly got any importance
today except with regard to
rights of Hindus. As you all know,
Hindu laws were replaced by parliamentary statutes in
1955 and 1956 viz. the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, the
Hindu Succession Act, 1956, the Hindu Adoptions
and Maintenance Act, 1956, the Hindu Minority and
Guardianship Act, 1956, etc.
substituted the Mitakshara and the Dayabhaga law
except with regard to succession to ancestral property
which continues to be
Section 6 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956

This is a practical age. Lawyers are interested in

knowing the law which will help them in their cases,
and they are hardly interested in purely academic
matters which have little practical application. Hence,
hardly anyone reads the Mitakshara or Dayabhaga
today, as they have largely been superseded by the
statutes made by Parliament

However, I wish to speak on the topic from a

somewhat different angle.

As is well known, the

India except in Bengal and Assam where the
Dayabhaga prevailed. The Mitakshara is a
commentary on only one Smriti called Yajnavalkya
Smriti, whereas Dayabhaga is a digest of all the
Smritis.

Although Hindu law is regarded as having emanated

from the Vedas (Shruti) the truth is that there is
scarcely any law in the Veda (Shruti) and the Hindu
law that has really emanated from the Smritis
were large number of Smritis of which the surviving
ones are of Manu, Yajnavalkya, Vishnu, Narada,
Apastamba, Gautam, Parasara, Vashist, Katyayana,
etc.

As I have mentioned, the Mitakshara is a commentary

only on the Yajnavalkya Smriti. The question
therefore which arises is as to why Vijnaneshwara
chose only the Yajnavalkya Smriti for his
commentary. There was Manu Smriti which was held