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The Indian-Derived Law Texts of Southeast Asia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

M. B. Hooker
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Extract

The aim of this paper is to outline the characteristics of one very important class of Southeast Asian law texts—the “Indian-derived.” In the process, it may be possible to throw light on some basic questions such as the nature of State, and the definition of sovereignty in medieval Southeast Asia. The texts are important examples of the adaptation of Indian legal culture in new environments. I hope to show that the idea of law exhibited in the texts, while dependent upon such basic Indian ideas as “duty” (dharma), is not only differently defined in the various cultures of “Indianized” Southeast Asia but transcends such limited legal definitions as “rules” or “coercion.” Law instead rests upon native concepts, giving rise to rules of conduct that ought, to be observed by reason of social condition. It is among these rules that law is to be found; law is an aspect of dharma, the definition of which varies from one law text to another. It is ultimately concerned with a definition of obligation that is simultaneously suitable in local terms and consonant with absolute principles derived from the Indian texts.

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Articles
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 37 , Issue 2 , February 1978 , pp. 201 - 219
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1978

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References

Further details on the subjects treated in this paper will appear in his Concise Legal History of South-East Asia, to be published by the Clarendon Press in April 1978.

1 Heine-Geldern, R., “Conceptions of State and Kingship in Southeast Asia,” Far Eastern Quarterly, 11 (1942/1943), pp. 15–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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3 See Manu, VIII.4–7.

4 “A principal with interest reaching double the amount”; see Wagaru, I.I.

5 Dhammavilasa, XII.6; Manu, VII.360, 361. Dhammavilasa, XII.2; Manu, VIII.28, 374–78. Dhammavilasa, XII.25; Manu, VIII.369–70.

6 Wagaru, V.64.

7 Dhammavilasa, IV. II.

8 Rangoon: Court of the Judicial Commissioner, British Burma, 1882. The Notes comprise sections I, II, III on marriage; IV and VIII on marriage and divorce; and V, VI, and VII on inheritance and partition.

9 This dhammathat, obtained a preeminent position in Anglo-Burmese law. It was held by the Privy Council that, where its provisions were clear, reference need not be made to any other text; Ma Hnin Bwin v. U Shwe Gon, (1914) 8 L.B.R. 1 (P.C.).

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12 As indeed did the title of Jardine's Notes.

13 Note IV.

14 See footnote 2 above.

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26 No longer in existence; the earlier remaining texts were destroyed after the revision of 1804–05.

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30 See further below.

31 Griswold & Prasert na Nagara (n. 23 above), pp. 111ff.

32 The Thai version of the Dharmaśāstra.

33 By Thammasat University, Bangkok.

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36 The Pali equivalent of the Sanskrit word dharmaśāstra.

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38 More properly—in its hybrid form—Dhammasattha.

39 See Rabibhadana (n. 37 above), pp. 188–89.

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42 Ibid.

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44 Ibid., pp. 113–14.

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59 Per-Undang2-An Madjapahit (Djakarta: Bhratara, 1967)Google Scholar.

60 Obtained by John Crawfurd from the Rajah of Bliling in 1814.

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71 For a description of the others, see ibid., pp.97–106.

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75 Lingat (n. 70 above), p. 207.

76 On custom vis-à-vis texts, see below.

77 Note 70 above, p. 259.

78 See Coedès, G. (Cowing, , trans.), The Indianized States of Southeast Asia (Kuala Lumpur: Univ. of Malaya Press, 1968)Google Scholar.

79 Lingat, R., “L'influence juridique de l'Inde au Champa et au Cambodge,” Journal Asiatique, CCXXXVII (1949), pp. 273–90Google Scholar. See also Sahai, S., Les Institutions politiques et l'organisation administrative du Cambodge ancien (vie-xiie siècles), (Paris:Publications de l'École Française d'Extrême-Orient, 1970)Google Scholar.

80 See Forchhammer (n. 2 above).

81 See Lingat, R., “La conception du droit dans l'Indochine hinayâniste,” Bulletin de l'ÉcoleFrançaise d'Extrême-Orient, XLIV (1951), pp. 163–87CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

82 Now known mainly in the text “The Three Great Seals”; see Lingat (n. 28 above), pp. 19–27.

83 See Wales (n. 45 above).

84 For conflicting theories about the nature of royal power, see Chomchai, P., “The Nature and Significance of Thai Political Philosophy,”. Journal of Social Sciences, III (1965), pp. 51–58Google Scholar.

85 This did not, of course, prevent comparative jurists from “demonstrating” that the Thai texts were “basically Hindu law”; see Masao (n. 51 above).

86 See, e.g., Moertono, Soemarsaid, State and Statecraft in Old Java: A Study of the Later Mataram Period, 16th to 19th Century (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Modern Indonesia Project, Monograph Series, 1968)Google Scholar.

87 See his “The Idea of Power in Javanese Culture” in Holt, Claire et al. (eds.), Culture and Politics in Indonesia (Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, 1972), pp. 1–70Google Scholar.

88 A classic example from Java is the well-known Bratajuda cycle episode in which Ardjuna and Kresna (Krishna) discuss duty and sentiment.