Dharma Literature

Many texts are explicitly or implicitly
concerned with the question of dharma,
or religious duty. These begin with the
Vedas, the oldest Hindu sacred texts,
which are believed to articulate the eternal (sanatana) dharma. The first major
texts explicitly devoted to dharma are
the Dharma Sutras, texts written in an
aphoristic (sutra) style between the seventh and second centuries B.C.E. At least
in theory, the Dharma Sutras were all
connected with particular schools of the
Veda, and were thus primarily intended
as a manual for behavior for members of
that school alone. The Dharma Sutras
were followed by the Dharma Shastras,
in which the material in the Dharma
Sutras was expanded and put into verse;
these latter texts included instructions
for all members of society and were thus
intended to be “legal” in their import.
Among the earliest was the Manava
Dharma Shastra (Manu Smrti), which
was composed around the turn of the
common era. The process of rethinking
and expanding this legal tradition
through commentary has continued
until present times, although the most
significant works were completed by the
sixteenth century.