Overview

This monograph outlines the core principles of equity and trusts in Sanskrit jurisprudence (Dharma's=astra) and traces their application in the practical legal administration of religious and charitable endowments throughout Indian history. Dharma's=astra describes phenomena that, in Anglo-American jurisprudence, are associated with courts of equity: the management of religious and charitable trusts; and the guardianship of those who lack legal capacity. Drawing on Sanskrit jurisprudential and philosophical texts, ancient inscriptions, Persian legal documents, colonial-era law reports, and contemporary case law, Equity and Trusts in Sanskrit Jurisprudence demonstrates that India's rulers have drawn on rich and venerable Sanskrit jurisprudential principles of equity and trusts in their efforts to regulate religious and charitable endowments. This book presents the history of India as a history of trusts, revealing how the contemporary law of Hindu religious endowments is subtended by a rich mélange of Sanskritic, Persianate, British, and constitutional jurisprudential principles.

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9780197267875

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Christopher T. Fleming studied Sanskrit at Balliol College, Oxford (DPhil, 2018) and taught at the University of Southern California before returning to Oxford University as a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow and as the Bowra Junior Research Fellow at Wadham College. His publications include a monograph, Ownership and Inheritance in Sanskrit Jurisprudence (OUP, 2020) and a co-edited volume, Science and Society in the Sanskrit World (Brill, 2023). Currently, Fleming is a student at the Faculty of Law and an associate member of the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Oxford.

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