SOURCE: Figueira, Dorothy. “Aryan Aristocrats and Übermenschen: Nietzsche's Reading of the Laws of Manu.” Comparatist: Journal of the Southern Comparative Literature 23 (May 1999): 5-20.

In the following essay, Figueira discusses how Nietzsche incorporated his interest in the Indian law book The Laws of Manu into his work.

Much has been written on Nietzsche's reconstruction of Indian thought.¹ Indologists and historians of religion have placed great importance on Nietzsche's appropriation of Indian themes; and, indeed, the philosopher's evocation of India is varied and often tantalizing. These evocations range from Nietzsche's use of terminology and concepts to his penchant for quoting Sanskrit sources, as on the title page to Daybreak where he purportedly cites the Rig Veda: “There are so many days that have not yet broken” [Es giebt so viele Morgenröthen die noch nicht geleuchtet haben, (KSA 9: 413)].² One critic has, however, recently discounted the role that Indian thought played...