commenting on the , he cites numerous earlier commentators as well, including Viśvarūpa, Mēdhātithi, and Dhāreśvara. The 's most important topics include property rights, property distribution, and inheritance. This text has become the authority, especially on inheritance, throughout most of India after the British began to move in. Effect on British India The , along with the Dāyabhāga, became an influential source for British Courts in India. The was influential throughout the majority of India, except in Bengal, Assam and some of the parts in Odisha and Bihar, where the Dāyabhāga prevailed as an authority for law. The British were interested in administering law in India, but they wanted to administer the law that already existed to the people. Thus, they searched for a text that could be used to help solve disputes among the people of India in manners which were already customary in the sub continent. These disputes often involved property rights or inheritance issues. Thus, the first translation of the was by Colebrooke in 1810, and it was only this section of the text that gave the British insight on how to deal with inheritance issues. At that point, the held the status of a legislative text because it was used as a direct resource regarding inheritance in the courts of law in most of India. Translations Colebrooke did the first translation of the in 1810 because there was an immediate need in the British courts for the "law" (or as close as they could get to the law) regarding inheritance that already existed among the people of India. W. Macnaghten did the second translation, dealing with procedure, in 1829. Finally, J. R. Gharpure provided us with a complete translation of the . Sub-commentaries Several sub-commentaries have been written on the , including the Subodhinī of Viśveśvara (c.1375), the of Bālaṃbhaṭṭa Payagunde (c.1770). and the of . The is notable for having greatly informed Colebrooke's translation of the , and also for possibly having been written by a woman, Lakṣmīdevī. The 13th-century Telugu language text Vijnaneshvaramu is based on Mitākṣarā. Notes References Suryanath U. Kamat, A Concise history of Karnataka from pre-historic times to the present, Jupiter books, MCC, Bangalore, 2001 (Reprinted 2002) OCLC: 7796041 K.A. Nilakanta Sastri, History of South India, From Prehistoric times to fall of Vijayanagar, 1955, OUP, New Delhi (Reprinted 2002), Charles Li, "Lakṣmīdevī’s 'intellectual petticoats' and the flamewar they inspired." Texts Surrounding