Once upon a time, before the advent of British rule in India, the word 'Hindu' hardly had any creedal significance. It was mostly used to refer to people living on the other side of the Indus River. With time, the Hindus were seen as a distinct religion with their own personal laws, which today we know as the Hindu law.
Hindu law is an intensive corpus of religious, divine law, which is said to have originated from God himself, evolving with time, from serving pastoral societies to modern industrial societies. Unlike other laws, the sources of Hindu laws are very decentralized, that is, sages propounded these laws and not some government and their centralized legislative machinery.

Sources Of Hindu Law:

Sources of Hindu law can be further classified into two broad categories. They are as follows:-

1. Ancient sources of Hindu law
   1. The Sruti
   2. The Smriti
   3. Digest and commentaries
   4. Custom
2. Modern sources of Hindu law
   1. Equity, justice, and good conscience
   2. Precedent
   3. Legislation

Ancient Sources Of Hindu Law

• The Smritis:

  Sruti literally means "what is heard". Sages have always been an integral part of Hindu religion and their teaching has guided Hindu civilization since time immemorial. It is said that sages attained such a level of spiritual consciousness that they were in direct communion with God. While in such communion, God revealed to them some laws, which are sruti. These revelations were contained in the four Vedas. The four Vedas are Rig Veda, Sama Veda, Yajur Veda, Atharva Veda.
  
  The Vedas depict the life of our ancestors. It represents the life of the Aryans who migrated into the rich and fertile land of the Punjab and they were pastoral and agricultural societies. Their life was vigorous, robust, and unsophisticated. They lived under the rules of customary laws, believed in the idea of divine wisdom invoked by Yajnas, and believed in their religious duties, also known as karma. The context of Vedas can be understood from the aforementioned lines.
  
  Vedas form the fundamental source of Hindu law and are said to be the source of all knowledge. It contains treatises on various customs, and forms of marriages like Brahma, Asura, Gandharva form of marriage, the necessity of a son, the partition of property among sons, and the exclusion of daughters. Vedas also contain Brahmanas which form annexures to Vedas, explaining the customs mentioned in the Vedas. However, this view is rejected by many scholars. Some say Vedas disagree with Vedas being a definite source of law and claim it to be just religious scriptures. According to them, Vedas depict the life of our ancestors and their way of life, thinking, customs, and thoughts but it does not systematically deal with law.
   

• The Smritis:

  Smritis literally means "what has been remembered". Smritis ushered in the era of systematic exposition of laws, which led to the golden age of Hindu societies. Smritis is based on the memory of those sages who received divine revelations. Smritis are broadly classified into early Smiritis known as Dharmasutras, which are mostly written in prose, and the later Smritis known as Dharamashastras, mostly written in metrical verses. 
  Dharmasutras contain the name of the writer and sometimes the name of the sakhas or school to which he belonged. Mostly composed around 800-200 BCE, the main Dharmasutras are Gautama, Baudhayana, Harita, Vasistha, Vishnu, and Apastamba.
  
  Gautama Dharmasutras belonged to the Sama Veda School, which deals extensively with legal and religious matters, inheritance, partition, and stridhan. Baudhayana belonged to Krishna Yajurveda school, which deals with numerous subjects including marriage, sonship adoption, and inheritance. Vishnu deals with criminal law, civil law, marriage, sonship, adoption, inheritance, interest, debt, and various other topics and is closely related to Manu Smriti. Harita deals with dharma, brahmacharya, householders, prohibitions in foods, duties of kinds, rules of statecraft, duties of wife and husband, impurities on death and birth, and various other matters.
  
  Dhramashastras systematically deal with subject matters and can be divided into three parts known as Achara (religious observance), Vyavahara (civil law), and Prayaschitta (penance). The three most prominent dharmashastras are Manu Smriti, Yajanavalka Smriti, and Narada Smriti.
  
  Manu Smriti has been the supreme authority of law in the entire country. We are not aware of the sage who compiled this work or on whose teaching it is based. Manu Smriti states that law is the king of kings and the king is merely a law enforcer. But to get the kings' support, it gave them a cloak of divine authority. It also emphasized Danda, punishment, and Sadachara, customs. Manu Smriti is seen today as casteist and misogynist. One line in Manu Smriti states that if a Brahmin woman marries a Sudra, death is the only punishment.
  
  The next comes in authority is Yajnavalkya Smriti, which is substantially based on Manu Smriti. Yajnavalkya Smriti is more systematic and properly arranged than Manusmriti and is more synthesized, concise, and logical. It is known for its brevity and precise nature. Although it draws inspiration from Manusmriti it is quite liberal compared to it. It is liberal in matters of women's rights to inherit property and capital punishment. It doesn't put the cloak of divinity on the king but puts him as the chief legal enforcer.
  
  Narada Smriti is the last of the three dharmashastras and it is completely available to us. It doesn't hesitate to differ from its predecessors. It only deals with vyavahara and not achara and prayaschitta. It differs a lot from Manu and Yajnavalkya, and is outstanding in dealing with law of procedures and pleading. It is not elaborate on the topic of substantive law. The first three chapters deal with judicial procedure and assembly and the rest deals with eighteen titles of law.

Digest And Commentaries:

The age of Dharmashastras, the golden age of Hindu law was a period of critical inquiry, expansion, and consolidation. During this era, there was a remarkable change in an ever-advancing society, and a clear exposition of law and its principles was necessary. There were ambiguities in different smritis and the same smritis have conflicting texts. These led to myriad problems and a need for assimilation, analysis, synthesis, and systemisation was necessary. The chaotic mess left by the smritis was rectified by commentators and digest writers.

They assumed that the smritis constituted a single body of law and one part of it would supplant the other and thus they could be reconciled with the other and modified and supplemented rules in the smritis and sometimes with their reasoning. There are numerous digests and commentaries out of which Manusmriti and Yajnavalkya Smriti have the highest number of commentators. Commentaries on Manusmriti include that of Medhatithi's Manubhashta and Govindaraja's Manutika. Commentaries on Yajnavalkya Smriti include those on Vijnaneshwara's Mitakshara and Mitra Mishra's Viramitrodaya. These commentators masterly handed the subjects that the commentaries in effect superseded both the shruti and the smriti.

Customs:

Customs are intergenerational practices that have been accorded the ascent of law and have received societal acceptance. Manu in Manu Smriti gives importance to custom stating, "Let everyone, therefore, who has due reverence to the supreme spirits which dwell in him, diligently and constantly observe immemorial custom". Manusmriti describes Sadachara (customs) as handed down in regular succession from time immemorial, among the four chief castes and the mixed races of the country.

Even the Vedas, which are said to be divine revelations, actually are customs prevalent of those times. For a custom to be valid there are certain requirements it needs to satisfy. They need to be ancient, and a new custom will not be considered valid. They should be continuous, and discontinuance must be held to destroy them (Rajkishen v. Ramjoy, 1876). Such discontinuance may be accidental or intentional. A custom cannot also come into existence by agreement.

The custom must be certain and a vague assertion that a custom is in existence doesn't make it valid. Similarly such custom must be not opposed to public policy, must be reasonable, and must not be opposed to law. Custom played such an important part in the advent of Hindu law that in Narada Smriti it says that custom decides everything and overrules the sacred law.

Modern Sources Of Hindu Law

Equity, Justice, And Good Conscience:

The ancient source of Hindu law had its version of equity justice, and good conscience. According to Gautama, "In case for which no rule is given, that course must be followed of which at least ten who are well instructed, skilled in reasoning and free from covetousness approve." It was also said that no decision must be taken according to the letter of the Shastra because a decision without Yukti (reason or equity), would lead to failure of justice. Yajnavalkya stated that in places where there are conflicting laws, Nyaya (natural equity or justice) must prevail. The concept of Nyaya and Yukti formed an important part of ancient Hindu philosophy.

But the modern version of equity, justice, and good conscience as a source of Hindu law emerged from the advent of British rule in India. Charters of several High courts stated that where the law is silent, the principles of equity, justice, and good conscience must prevail. When the Britishers came to India there were contradictions in English law and Indian law and to mitigate the differences the principles of equity, justice, and good conscience were implemented so that the principles of English laws were smoothly functioning in Indian conditions.

Precedent:

The judicial formulations of ancient India are not available to us and we are not aware of precedents of those ages. The modern principles of stare decisis is a remain of British administration in India. All the principles of Hindy law are recognized by precedents and thus reference to the source from where such principle originated is not necessary as a reference to such judgments is enough.

The Indian courts are required to administer the personal law of Hindus in matters relating to marriage, adoption, inheritance, succession, religious institutions, etc. In modern India, these trends continue. Article 141 of the Indian Constitution states that any law made by the Supreme Court is binding on all courts and authorities in India. 

Legislation:

Legislations include all the laws made by the legislative branch of the government and all other bodies incidental or connected thereto. Legislations form the fundamental source of laws in modern society. Today on personal matters like marriage, inheritance, etc. in Hindus, the legislature makes law. The Britishers were cautious about changing the personal laws of the Hindus and thus legislations on this matter were slow and cautious. However, some laws were introduced during the British Raj that affected the Hindu law either by modification or supersession.

A prominent example of this was the banning of the practice of Sati, or widow burning, by introducing the Bengal Sati Regulation of 1829. The earliest statutes include the Disabilities Removal Act, 1850, The Hindu Widow Remarriage Act, 1856, the Hindu Transfer of Bequest Act, 1914, the Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929, the Hindu Gains of Learning Act, 1930, etc.

This did not stop there. Even after independence, the process of reform continued and the Hindu code bill was introduced this was vehemently opposed by the orthodox sections of the Hindu society, even Rajendra Prasad, our first president opposed it. This code was split into the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act, 1956, and the Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, 1956. Through these laws, revolutionary ideas like divorce, women's right to property, etc, were introduced which led to breaking from the past.

Conclusion:
Hindu law is an omnibus of ancient religious corpus and scriptures that have supported the cause of Hindu society. It has been very dynamic, that is, it has been serving the ancient pastoral societies to modern industrial societies. It has led to the golden age of India also brought orthodoxy which has led to its eventual downfall. From the above points, we can understand the sources of Hindu law.

Also Read:

• Sources Of Hindu Law