This series Historical Sourcebooks in Classical Indian Thought is the brainchild of Sheldon Pollock. These are sourcebooks like no other, because, unlike the common sourcebooks that attempt to give the flavor of a particular textual or religious tradition by citing text fragments, these aim at telling the story of the intellectual and theoretical engagement of classical Indian scholars with issues and problems within a particular system of knowledge, as well as their interaction and debates with each other. At the outset, therefore, I want to thank Shelly for inviting me to participate in this exciting project. I have learned so much from looking at the long textual history of the science of dharma (dharmaśāstra) spanning over a millennium and a half with simply one question in mind. Rarely does one get the opportunity to scan this entire landscape with a focused lens, in my case focused on the epistemology of law and legal procedure.
Over the past six years or so during which I have been engaged in this project at varying degrees of intensity, there have been many friends and colleagues who have shared their knowledge and expertise. These include, but are not limited to, Ashok Aklujkar, Joel Brereton, George Cardona, Madhav Deshpande, Oliver Freiberger, Dominic Goodall, Ludo Rocher, and Albrecht Wezler. I want to thank in a special way Don Davis and Dominik Wujastyk for reading through my entire manuscript and providing valuable feedback. Leslie Kriesel of Columbia University Press copy-edited my manuscript with a sharp eye, catching every infelicitous phrase or idiom. She is the best editor I have had, and I want to thank her for her diligence. The University of Texas provided a publication subsidy for this volume. To them all, a heartfelt “Thank you!”
At a personal level, I want to thank my wife, Suman, who has always been a partner in my various publication projects, and to the growing family of my daughter, Meera, and her husband, Mark, and, of course, in a special way, to my grandchildren, Keya, Maya, and Max.
Patrick Olivelle
Austin, Texas