1889. A late lawbook is the Paraçara Smriti (anterior to 1300 A.D.), ed. in Bombay Sansk. Series, 1893; trans. Bibl. Ind., 1887. The second stage of post-Vedic legal literature is formed by the commentaries. The oldest one preserved is that of Medhatithi on Manu; he dates from about 900 A.D. The most famous comm. on Manu is that of Kulluka-bhatta, composed at Benares in the fifteenth century, but it is nothing more than a plagiarism of Govindaraja, a commentator of the twelfth century. The most celebrated comm. on Yajnavalkya is the Mitakshara of Vijnaneçvara, composed about 1100 A.D. It early attained to the position of a standard work, not only in the Dekhan, but even in Benares and a great part of Northern India. In the present century it acquired the greatest importance in the practice of the Anglo-Indian law-courts through Colebrooke's translation of the section which it contains on the law of inheritance. From about 1000 A.D. onwards, an innumerable multitude of legal compendia, called Dharma-nibandhas, was produced in India. The most imposing of them is the voluminous work in five parts entitled Chaturvarga-chintamani, composed by Hemadri about 1300 A.D. It hardly treats of law at all, but is a perfect mine of interesting quotations from the Smritis and the Puranas; it has been edited in the Bibl. Ind. The Dharmaratna of Jimutavahana (probably fifteenth century) may here be mentioned, because part of it is the famous treatise on the law of inheritance entitled Dayabhaga, which is the chief work of the Bengal School on the subject, and was translated by Colebrooke. It should be noted that the Indian Smritis are not on the same footing as the lawbooks of other nations, but are works of private individuals; they were also written by Brahmans for Brahmans, whose caste pretensions they consequently exaggerate. It is therefore important to check their statements by outside evidence. HISTORY. No work of a directly historical character is met with in Sanskrit literature till after the Muhammadan conquest. This is the Rajatarangini, or "River of Kings," a chronicle of the kings of Kashmir, begun by its author, Kalhana, in 1148 A.D. It contains nearly 8000 çlokas. The early part of the work is legendary in character. The poet does not become historical till he approaches his own times. This work (ed. M. A. Stein, Bombay, 1892; trans, by Y. C. Datta, Calc., 1898) is of considerable value for the archæology and chronology of Kashmir. GRAMMAR.