AI-generated manuscript still life · not an identified manuscript

Sacred Texts Atlas · Evidence and dispute

नारदस्मृति

When a claim
needs proof.

Follow a different Dharmaśāstra journey: from conflict and pleadings to writing, witnesses, economic relationships, and the question of adjudication.

Begin the journey ↓Open the reading room ↗

SMṚTI · DHARMAŚĀSTRAAI-generated manuscript still life · not an identified manuscript

THE JOURNEY

01 Begin in context 02 Follow the story 03 Explore the text 04 Meet the themes 05 Read more deeply 06 Read a passage 07 The collection

Vyavahārathe central focus

18conventional titles of law

Evidencewriting and witnesses

Naradasmriti manuscript dated 1407, Sanskrit in Bhujimol script, Malla kingdom. Ms Sarah Welch / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0. Image credits →

Begin in context

Before the verse,
find the context.

A traditional account of authority, a historical inquiry, and a living interpretation answer different questions. Keep all three visible.

Scope of this guide
Selected Mātṛkā passage and a guide to legal topics; edition differences noted. The text library now includes searchable source editions and a language-coverage report. Open the reading room for exact coverage.

University of Delhi · Narada Smriti ↗

Narada Smriti · Chapter 01 / 07Next: Follow the story →

Follow the story

Every text has
a journey.

Follow four connected moments. These are interpretive steps through the subject, not a claim that its history occurred in four simple stages.

A disagreement becomes visible

Two people do not agree about an obligation, transaction, or boundary. The text’s interest is not merely in saying that harmony is good; it develops categories for disputes.

A claim enters a procedure

Parties, pleadings, and the court belong to a structured account of adjudication. A teaching pathway can explain this architecture without reconstructing one actual historical trial.

Evidence must be examined

The selected passage names writing and witnesses as means of clarification. Its wording is not a claim that every part of the work recognizes only two forms of proof.

A dispute belongs to a social world

Debt, work, ownership, households, and unequal status surround the procedure. Formal order should not be mistaken for modern equality before the law.

Narada Smriti · Chapter 02 / 07Next: Explore the text →

Explore the text

See how the
text is arranged.

Search the divisions and topics, then choose one to learn its place in the whole. Summaries are guide notes, not translations of every chapter.

University of Delhi · Narada Smriti ↗GRETIL · Sanskrit source ↗

Narada Smriti · Chapter 03 / 07Next: Meet the themes →

Meet the themes

Follow a theme.
Change what you notice.

A thematic route brings passages into conversation. It does not replace the text’s own arrangement or reduce its diversity to one message.

Narada Smriti · Chapter 04 / 07Next: Read more deeply →

Follow a historical dispute—conceptually

Choose a lens to uncover a different layer of the same subject.

This is a historical text explorer, not legal advice or an endorsement of the work’s unequal status and gender prescriptions. Its normative categories do not describe all Hindu communities or modern law.

Narada Smriti · Chapter 05 / 07Next: Read a passage →

Read a passage

Now meet
the words themselves.

Read one identified passage with Sanskrit, transliteration, word notes, and translations. The edition and the boundaries of an excerpt remain visible.

Nārada Smriti · Mātṛkā 1.3

Writing and witnesses

Switch between Devanagari and IAST, explore selected terms, and compare an educational rendering in seven modern languages.

English is an original AI-assisted educational rendering, not a quoted published translation. Other languages render that English; none has specialist review.

Read and explore the passage ↗

Read the text within this website →

लिखितं साक्षिणश्चात्र द्वौ विधी संप्रकीर्तितौ । संदिग्धार्थविशुद्ध्यर्थं द्वयोर्विवदमानयोः ॥

Writing and witnesses are declared here as two methods for clarifying the disputed matter between two litigants.

Complete selected verse, identified as Nar_M1.3 in the linked GRETIL text. Do not infer that every discussion of proof in the work is exhausted by this one statement.

GRETIL · Sanskrit source ↗

Narada Smriti · Chapter 06 / 07Next: The collection →

The collection

One collection.
Eight distinct doorways.

Continue in order, or follow a connection. The four Vedas, the Gita, and the three Dharmaśāstra works belong to related but different textual worlds.

This initial Smriti selection contains Manu, Yajnavalkya, and Narada. It does not claim to exhaust the broad and varying category of Smriti.

Narada Smriti · Chapter 07 / 07Begin again: Begin in context →

When a claimneeds proof.

Before the verse,find the context.

Every text hasa journey.

A disagreement becomes visible

A claim enters a procedure

Evidence must be examined

A dispute belongs to a social world

See how thetext is arranged.

Follow a theme.Change what you notice.

Follow a historical dispute—conceptually

Now meetthe words themselves.

Writing and witnesses

One collection.Eight distinct doorways.

When a claim
needs proof.

Before the verse,
find the context.

Every text has
a journey.

See how the
text is arranged.

Follow a theme.
Change what you notice.

Now meet
the words themselves.

One collection.
Eight distinct doorways.