8. A Hindu Legal Tradition: The Law as King, but which Law?
8. A Hindu Legal Tradition: The Law as King, but which Law?
- H. Patrick GlennH. Patrick GlennPeter M Laing Professor of Law at McGill University, Montreal
Abstract
This chapter examines the history of the Hindu legal tradition. Vedic law lived in close association with many, particular chthonic traditions, never purporting to abrogate them, and the importance of local tradition is an ongoing theme in Hindu thought. People remained governed by their old law until such time as they came to see the new Vedic law more as their law than the old one. Neither law remained the same in this process, and people came to be identifiable as Hindu as they came to subscribe to modified Vedic law. If they did not, they remained a distinct community.
