8 D. Assessment (the balanced exam paragraph)

Progress: the first written law; measurable, predictable revenue; urban order; the state as law- giver — a milestone on the road that runs Jayasthiti → Muluki Ain 1910 BS → Codes 2074. Regress: law became the machinery of caste stratification and occupational immobility — the dharmashastra's hierarchies hard-coded into society; women's and lower-caste status were entrenched (their effects echoing into the reforms of the 20th and 21st centuries). Law-student'sline: codification is power — the question every code must face is cui bono (for whose benefit).