This book of Professor Banerjee is an attempt to present Manusmriti as an outstanding sociological work of ancient India with an unusually comprehensive outlook and to evaluate its impact on the organization of the Hindu society. Although Manu has been succeeded by a number of sociologists such as Narada, Brihaspati and others, who have made valuable contributions to the development of sociological thinking in India, his influence upon the organization of the Hindu society persists till this day. On this account and also on account of the absense of any effective dynamic to initiate the process of wholesome change in the social milieu, the Hindu society, as Professor Banerjee has tried to show, has been suffering from the evil of stagnation till this day. This circumstance calls for the ways and means which can break through the state of stagnation and being about social progress among the Hindus. This is, then, a book which is bound to be of interest to the students of sociology, law, the history of ancient India and the history of Sanskrit literature. It is likely to be of special use to those who are actively engaged in social work.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Nikunja Vihari Banerjee
N.V. Bajerjee (1897-1984) was an alumnus of Calcutta University, and subsequently took a Ph.D. from London University. He taught at University of Delhi for over 42 years and was the first Professor of Philosophy to be appointed in that University. He was much in demand as a Visiting Professor abroad and his travels included a visit to Germany under the auspices of the German Academic Exchange Service. He also lectured at the Universities of Amsterdam and Groningen in the Netherlands. As a Leverhulme Visiting Fellow at Monash University in Australia in 1965 he also had the opportunity to lecture in most of the Australian universities. He later toured Bulgaria, Hungary and Poland as a nominee of the Government of India, and visited U.K. as a guest of the British Council. In 1969 he was invited to attend the inaugural session of the World Universities' Conference held under the auspices of UNESCO. His academic career included three years at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study as Professor of Philosophy and Comparative Religion. For this reason the Institute is happy to include in its publication programme this seminal work from an author who has already published widely and whose reputation as a philosopher has lost none of its luster over the years.
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