04 The Dharmasūtras

It seems that originally many, though not all, of the dharmasūtras formed part of the Kalpasūtras and were studied in distinct sūtrucaraṇas. Some of the extant dharmasūtras here and there show in unmistakable terms that they presuppose the Gṛhyasūtra of the caraṇa to which they belong. Compare Āp. Dh. S. I. 1. 4. 16 with Āp. Gṛ. S. I. 12 and II. 5; and Baud. Dh. S. II. 8. 20 with Baud. Gṛ. S. II. 11. 42 (and other sūtras).¹ The Dharmasūtras belonging to all sūtracaraṇas have not come down to us. There is no dharmasūtra completing the Āśvalāyana Śrauta and Gṛhyasūtras; no Mānavadharmasūtra has yet come to light, though the Mānava Śrauta and Gṛhya sūtras are extant; in the same way we have the Śāṅkhāyana Śrauta and Gṛhya sūtras, but no Śāṅkhāyanadharmasūtra. It is only in the case of the Āpastamba, Hiraṇyakeśin and Baudhāyana Sūtracaraṇas that we have a complete kalpa tradition with its three components of Śrauta, Gṛhya and Dharma sūtras. The Tantravārtika of Kumārila contains very interesting observations on this point. It tells us that Gautama (dharmasūtra) and Gobhila (gṛhyasūtra) were studied by the Chandogas (Sāmavedins), Vasiṣṭha (dharmasūtra) by the Ṛgvedins, the dharmasūtra of Śaṅkha-Likhita by the followers of Vājasaneya-saṃhitā and the sūtras of Āpastamba and Baudhāyana by the followers of the Taittirīya Śākhā², The Tantravārtika (p. 179) establishes it as a siddhānta (on Jaimini I. 3. 11) that all the dharma and gṛhyra sūtras are authoritative for all Āryan people. From this it appears that, although originally all sūtracaraṇas might not have possessed dharmasūtras composed by the founder of the caraṇa or ascribed to him, yet gradually certain dharmasūtras were specially taken over or appropriated by certain caraṇas. As the dharmasūlras were mostly concerned with rules about the conduct of men as members of the Āryan community and did not deal with ritual of any kind, all dharmasūtras gradually became authoritative in all schools.

The dharmasūtras were closely connected with the gṛhyasūtras in subjects and topics. Most of the Gṛhyasūtras treat of the sacred domestic fire, the divisions of Gṛhya sacrifices, the regular morning and evening oblations, sacrifices on new and full moon, sacrifices of cooked food, annual sacrifices, marriage, puṃsavana, jātakarma, upanayana and other saṃskāras, rules for students and snātakas and holidays, śrāddha offerings, madhuparka. In most cases the Gṛhyasūtras confine themselves principally to the various events of domestic life; they rarely give rules about the conduct of men, their rights, duties and responsibilities. The dharmasūtras also contain rules on some of the above topics such as marriage and the saṃskāras, rules for Brahmacarya and snātakas and holidays, on śrāddha and madhuparka. It is therefore not to be wondered at that in the Āpastamba-gṛhyasūtra the topics of the duties of the Brahmacārin and of the house-holder, of atithis and of śrāddha are meagrely treated as compared with the Āpastamba-dharmasūtra. The dharmasūtras very rarely describe the ritual of domestic life; they merely touch upon it; their scope is wider and more ambitious; their principal purpose is to dilate upon the rules of conduct, law and custom. Some sūtras are common to both the Āpastamba-gṛhya and the dharma sūtra³. Sometimes the gṛhyasūtra appears to refer to the dharmasūtra⁴. There are certain points which distinguish the dharmasūtras (the more ancient of them at least) from smṛtis : (a) Many dharmasūtras are either parts of the Kalpa belonging to each sūtracaraṇa or are intimately connected with the gṛhyasūtras. (b) The dharmasūtras some times betray some partiality in their Vedic quotations for the texts of that Veda to which they belong or in the caraṇas of which they are studied; (c) The authors of the older) dharmasūtras do not claim to be inspired seers or superhuman beings⁵, while the other smṛtis such as those of Manu and Yājñavalkya are ascribed to Gods like Brahmā. (d) The dharmasūtras are in prose or in mixed prose and verse; the other smṛtis are in verse. (e) The language of the dharmasūtras is generally more archaic than that of the other smṛtis. (f) The dharmasūtras do not proceed upon any orderly arrangement of topics, while the other smṛtis (even the oldest of them, viz. Manusmṛti) arrange their contents and treat of the subjects under three principal heads viz. ācāra, vyavahāra and prāyaścitta; (g) Most of the dharmasūtras are older than most of the other smṛtis.

Many of the technical terms used in the Gṛhyasūtras and Dharmasūtras are derived from the Saṃhitās, Brāhmanas and Śrautasūtras e.g. the following few technical words which occur in the Gṛhya and Dharma sūtras are so derived and references are given in the H. of Dh. Vol. II where they are explained; āghārau (p. 1051 n. 2360), Ājyabhāga (p. 1059 n. 2371), Abhighāraṇa (p. 528 n), Avadāna (528, 1061 n), Upastaraṇa (p. 1061 n), Pavitra ( 211 n., 1021 n), Paryagnikaraṇa (p. 1120 n), (Praṇītā p. 1022-23), Pratyabhighāraṇa (p. 1053 n). The Āp. Dh. S. (I. 4. 12. 10) makes the interesting statement “religious rites were declared in the Brāhmaṇas, the texts of those rites have been lost, (but those texts) can be inferred from the actual performance (of the rites that are in vogue): ‘brāhmaṇoktā vidhayasteṣām utsannāḥ pāṭhāḥ prayogād-anumīyante’. This shows that an early writer like Apastamba (who flourished some centuries before the Christian era) was aware that Brāhmaṇa works had once described many of the gṛhya rites, but that in his day such Brāhmaṇa texts had been lost.