VIJNANESHVARA

VIJNANESHVARA

Vijnaneshvara (vijnAnEshvara) (ವಿಜ್ಞಾನೇಶ್ವರ) was a great scholar who adorned the royal court of Vikramaditya-6, a monarch belonging to the Kalyani Chalukya dynasty. He lived during the later part of the 11^th century and early part of the 12^th century. He was born in a village called martUru (ಮರ್ತೂರು) near Gulbarga. He was a keen student of pUrvamImAmsA. He is famous for his work ‘Mitakshara’ (mitAksharA) (ಮಿತಾಕ್ಷರಾ) which is purportedly a commentary on ‘Yajnavalkya Smriti’. (ಯಾಜ್ಞವಲ್ಕ್ಯ ಸ್ಮೃತಿ) However, it is much more than that. It is a huge compendium that puts together material that was accumulated over centuries in a systematic manner. It runs to closely printed 492 pages. He tries to interpret and criticize earlier commentators of the Smriti. This work is not confined to Yajnavalkya smriti alone. It takes all other smritis and related texts in to consideration. ‘Mitakshara’ serves as an informative and interpretive text on all aspects of Hindu law even to this day. It is consulted on various aspects of Hindu Jurisprudence such as property rights, adoption and distribution of permanent assets by experts. A salient feature of ‘mitakshara’ is the principle of division of ancestral property held by the ‘Hindu joint family’. Partition of such landholding among offsprings is possible, even when the father is still alive, unlike the dAyAbhAga system which forbids such partition.

‘Mitakshara’ was translated in to English as early as 1810 A.D. by Henry Thomas Colebrooke, because the British authorities wanted a law text which would be accepted all over the country. Mitakshara was accepted in the entire country except Bengal and Assam which favoured ‘dAyaBAga’ by jImUtavAhana.