Kane is best known for his
History of Dharmaśāstra, a five-volume treatise on law in
ancient and
medieval India. Kane's treatise is an
English digest of the
Dharmaśāstra. The first volume of the
History of Dharmaśāstra was completed by Kane and published by the
Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute,
Pune in 1930. The final volume, namely the fifth volume of the treatise, was published in two parts, with the second part being published in 1962. The whole treatise encompasses 6,500 pages, and provides an authoritative and encyclopedic treatment of the religious and civil law of ancient and medieval India. Kane wrote the book
Vyavaharamayukha and was in the process of writing an introductory passage on the
History of Dharmaśāstra for this book so that the reader would get an overall idea apart from the subject of the book. One thing led to another and this project snowballed into the major work that it is. All the same, he was categorical in saying that it is difficult to find an English equivalent of the word "Dharma." His output in the form of writings across the three languages of English,
Sanskrit and Marathi spans nearly 15,000 pages. ‘
History of Poetics’ was one of his other great books. Apart from Theology and Poetry, he wrote a great deal on other topics too, which included Astrology, Cultural and Geographical history of India-Maharashtra-Konkan- Vidarbha, Marathi language, its grammar, language & handwriting, economics of
Kautilya (Chanakya), Mathematics, Dramatics, etc. There are in all 198 publications by his name. They include 39 texts, 115 articles, 44 books, introductions and reviews. ==Recognition==