Hindu personal laws are the laws of the Hindus as they applied during the colonial period (British Raj) of India beginning from the Anglo-Hindu Law to the post-independent Modern Hindu Law. The British found neither a uniform canon administering law for the diverse communities of India nor a Pope or a Shankaracharya whose law or writ applied throughout the country.[1] Due to discrepancies in opinions of pandits on the same matter, the East India Company began training pandits for its own legal service leading to the setting up of a Sanskrit College in Banaras and Calcutta, to help them arrive at a definitive idea of the Indian legal system.[1] It is from here that the Hindu Personal Law had its beginnings; and more appropriately so in 1772, when Warren Hastings appointed ten Brahmin pandits from Bengal to compile a digest of the Hindu scriptural law in four main civil matters—marriage, divorce, inheritance and succession.[1] The Hindu Personal Laws underwent major reforms over a period of time, and created social and political controversies throughout India.[citation needed]