Note 71 — Chapter III

Manu was a religions and moral lawgiver, whose doctrines united the spirit of Buddhism with that of the Brahmans. One of his translators and commentators, Sir William Jones, believes him to have lived in or before the ninth century B.C. Professor Wilson, one of the translators of the Rig-Veda, places him about the sixth century B.C. Gautama Sâkya (Buddha) is, however, supposed to have lived in the sixth or fifth century B.C. These are discrepancies which we cannot attempt here to reconcile. The extracts in the text are from Sir William Jones’s translation of the “Institutes of Hindoo Law, or the Ordinances of Manu,” chap. xi. Allen & Co.