Introduction

Nature & Scope / Philosophy of Hindu Law:

Hindu law is not a law as understood in modern times. A law in the present sense would
mean an act framed by the legislature of a State. Hindu law has not been made by legislature
but it is the law made by the Divine Being and which has been re-built in the Vedas.

It is the Dharma i.e. the duties, rules of conduct, moral, religious and the political, enjoined
by the Almighty on the Hindu community. Thus it covers all the laws which are kept separate
under the modern system of law.

Thus, Hindu law as understood in the ancient times was not the command of the political
sovereign of community. Rather it was the command of the Supreme Being applicable to
both- the King and his subjects, the ruler and the ruled. The king and his subjects were
equally subjected to the law. In order to bring certainty to them, the laws were codified by the
Dharmashastra writer.

Thus the nature of the Hindu law is essentially different from the laws of the land.

According to the Hindu law those who violate the Dharma shall be destroyed and those who
follow it shall be protected. This is applicable both to the king and his subjects.

Later on, this law was applied to hindus, by the authority of the following:

Acts of parliament
Imperial legislation
Provincial legislation
Principles of justice, equality and good conscience.

The concept of hindu law is deeply rooted in hindu philosophy and hindu religion. The
ancient hindu social structure and its continuance in modern times is, to a great extent,
outcome of the hindu philosophy and religion.

The ultimate aim of life, according to Hindu law is to achieve salvation or Moksha from this
physical world. Human being is mortal but the soul is immortal. When a person dies, the soul
is in a free state and it acquires a new form of re-birth. Thus the change of birth and death
continues till the soul attains moksha from this world.

According to dharmashastra, there are 4 goals of human life- Artha, Dharma, Kama and
Moksha. Moksha or salvation is the ultimate goal. As a matter of fact Artha and kama are
concerned with this world, whereas Dharma and moksha are concerned with the next world.
A life in accordance to dharma leads to happiness and pleasure in this life also.

Hindu social structure is the outcome of Hindu philosophy. According to hindu philosophy,
the attainment of salvation is the ultimate goal of life and can be achieved by performing
good deeds.

A person suffers pain as well as pleasure in his life according to the good or bad deeds that he
may have done. The entire human life is controlled by his past deeds.
The hindu social structure may be referred alongwith the concept of Ashrama-Dharma.
According to Shastric concept of hindu life, it has been considered that the average life of a
human being is 100 years. It was to be divided into 4 stages of 25 years each. The division
was related to the division of the 4 Ashramas:
Brahmacharya
Grihastha
Vanaprastha
Sanyasa

An individual could not get salvation from this physical world by performing the prescribed
duties under these 4 Ashramas. Though the Dharma dominated all the four stages of
Ashramas, yet the attainment of other 3 objectives was not less essential than Dharma and
that the human beings should conduct their lives in accordance with the Dharma.