In the 3rd Millennium BCE, we find a trace to the conceptualization of purifying the (then) contemporary practices by returning to the ‘original state of affairs’. This is remarkable in a sense that a) the text in question, Code of Urukagina, predates all other recorded rules, laws and philosophies including all the Abrahamic religions as well as Greek (such as pre–Socratics), Indian (such asVedic), Chinese (such as Tao te ching), Zoroastrian and Buddhist traditions and b) it originates with a yearning to go back to the original practices.
The code is only found partially with supported evidence from other ancient sources, such as prose poems written in favor of Urukagina. The code, nonetheless, is of revolutionary value beside its often cited attribution with beer as the “central unit of payment and penance.” In a critical study, Kramer (1971) points that Urukagina restored the original practices, or “divine laws,” that were “abandoned and neglected by his predecessors.” This includes charging payments as well as seizing property, animal and livestock from citizens for state use.
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