Nāradasmṛti is a part of the Dharmaśāstras, written in two recensions the south India Naradamanusamhita and Nepal, in Newari language that serves as a collection of legal maxims relating to the topic of dharma. This text is purely juridical in character in that it focuses solely on procedural and substantive law. Known as the "juridical text par excellence," the Nāradasmṛti is the only Dharmaśāstra text to not cover areas such as righteous conduct and penance. Its focused nature has made the text highly valued by rulers and their governments, in Indian subcontinent and southeast Asia, likely as an aid of carrying out their dharma of justly ruling the country.
1407 CE manuscript of the Naradasmriti in Sanskrit, Bhujimol script from the Himalayan Malla kingdom. It was the dharmasastra used in this medieval era kingdom.
Dharmaśāstra are Sanskrit Puranic Smriti texts on law and conduct, and refer to treatises (śāstras) on Dharma. Unlike Dharmasūtra which are based upon Vedas, these texts are mainly based on the Puranas. There are many Dharmashastras, variously estimated to number from 18 to over 100. Each of these texts exists in many different versions, and each is rooted in Dharmasutra texts dated to the 1st millennium BCE that emerged from Kalpa (Vedanga) studies in the Vedic era.
Copy of a royal land grant, recorded on copper plate, made by Chalukya King Tribhuvana Malla Deva in 1083
A facsimile of an inscription in Oriya script on a copper plate recording a land grant made by Rāja Purushottam Deb, king of Odisha, in the fifth year of his reign (1483). Land grants made by royal decree were protected by law, with deeds often being recorded on metal plates
