PREFATORY NOTE. 
The following pages contain the editio princeps of the Vyavahara-Matrika or 
Nyaya-Matrika of Jimutavahana, the founder of the Bengal School of Hindu Raw. 
The work by which Jimutavahana is familiarly known is the Dayabhaga or Treatise 
on Inheritance, which is a fragment of an Institute of Hindu Raw called Dharma- 
ratna, the major portion of which can no longer be traced. Another work of 
Jimutavahana, called Kalavivek, has been edited for the Society and published in 
the Bibliotheca Indica by Professor Pramathanath Tarkabhusan. The work now 
published is one of fundamental importance and deals with the principles of Hindu 
Jurisprudence. Three manuscripts of the work are known to be in existence — 
one in the Ribrary of the Society (A. S. ) , another in the Ribrary of the India Office 
(I), and the third in the Ribrary of the Maharaja of Kashmir (K). The text 
reproduced here is based on the first two manuscripts. Both of these, however, 
are hopelessly corrupt in places, and the errors common to them seem to indicate that 
the manuscripts were derived from the same archetype. The third manuscript, 
unfortunately, is not available, as the Kashmir authorities will, on no account, send 
out the manuscript here. I have, therefore, been obliged to rely on a copy of that 
manuscript specially prepared for my use, which procedure is always more or less 
unsatisfactory as there is invariably some uncertainty as to the amount of personal 
equation to be allowed for the copyist. A definitive edition of the text, therefore, 
is out of the question at the present stage and with the materials now available. 
The publication of the present paper, however, may direct attention to the subject 
which is of undoubted interest and importance, and this may, I hope, also lead to 
the discovery of fresh manuscripts. The text will be followed up by a translation 
accompanied by illustrative notes, but I may, meanwhile, briefly indicate one or two 
points of some interest. 
Jimutavahana quotes freely from the works of juristic writers who preceded 
him. The following tabular statement gives the names of the principal authors 
quoted, as also the number of times they are referred to and the number of passages 
attributed to each author which are not traceable in their extant writings : 
AT c . . No. of passages 
No or times , ^ ^ p 
Name of author quoted. ' . , not found in 
^ uo ' extant works. 
I. 
Manu 
40 
7 
2 . 
( Sutra 
Vishnu < , 
r 3 
i 
l Sloka 
13 
5 
3- 
Yajnavalkya 
34 
2 
4- 
Harita 
i 
I 
5- 
Pitamaha . . , . 
, , 
• * 
I 
I 
