King Tribhuvana Malla Deva in 1083 The Dharmashastras are based on ancient
Dharmasūtra texts, which themselves emerged from the literary tradition of the Vedas (Rig, Yajur, Sāma, and Atharva) composed in 2nd millennium BCE to the early centuries of the 1st millennium BCE. These Vedic branches split into various other schools (
shakhas) possibly for a variety of reasons such as geography, specialization and disputes. Each Veda is further divided into two categories namely the Saṃhitā which is a collection of
mantra verses and the
Brahmanas which are prose texts that explain the meaning of the Samhita verses. Towards the end of the Vedic period, after the middle of the 1st millennium BCE, the language of the Vedic texts composed centuries earlier grew too archaic to the people of that time. This led to the formation of Vedic Supplements called the
Vedangas which literally means 'limbs of the Veda'.
The Dharmasutras The Dharmasutras were numerous, but only four texts have survived into the modern era. The most important of these texts are the sutras of
Apastamba,
Gautama,
Baudhayana, and
Vasistha. These extant texts cite writers and refer opinions of seventeen authorities, implying that a rich Dharmasutras tradition existed prior to when these texts were composed. The extant Dharmasutras are written in concise
sutra format, with a very terse incomplete sentence structure which are difficult to understand and leave much to the reader to interpret. The Dharmasastras are derivative works on the Dharmasutras, using a
shloka (four 8-syllable verse style
chandas poetry, Anushtubh meter), which are relatively clearer. The Dharmasutras can be called the guidebooks of dharma as they contain guidelines for individual and social behavior, ethical norms, as well as personal, civil and criminal law. They discuss the duties and rights of people at different stages of life like studenthood, householdership, retirement and renunciation. These stages are also called
ashramas. They also discuss the rites and duties of kings, judicial matters, and personal law such as matters relating to marriage and inheritance. The Dharmasūtras of Āpastamba and Baudhāyana form a part of larger Kalpasutra texts, all of which has survived into the modern era. The verse style was used to compose the Dharmaśāstras such as the
Manusmriti, the Hindu epics, and the
Puranas. is the most studied and earliest metrical work of the Dharmaśāstra textual tradition of
Hinduism. The medieval era Buddhistic law of
Myanmar and
Thailand are also ascribed to Manu, and the text influenced past Hindu kingdoms in
Cambodia and
Indonesia. • The (~ 4th to 5th-century CE) has been called the "best composed" and "most homogeneous" text of the Dharmaśāstra tradition, with its superior vocabulary and level of sophistication. It may have been more influential than Manusmriti as a legal theory text. • The (~ 5th to 6th-century CE) has been called the "juridical text par excellence" and represents the only Dharmaśāstra text which deals solely with juridical matters and ignoring those of righteous conduct and penance. • The (~ 7th-century CE) is one of the latest books of the Dharmaśāstra tradition in Hinduism and also the only one which does not deal directly with the means of knowing
dharma, focusing instead on the
bhakti tradition. In addition, numerous other Dharmaśāstras are known, partially or indirectly, with very different ideas, customs and conflicting versions. For example, the manuscripts of and the have not been found, but their verses have been cited in other texts, and scholars have made an effort to extract these cited verses, thus creating a modern reconstruction of these texts. Scholars such as Jolly and Aiyangar have gathered some 2,400 verses of the lost Bṛhaspatismṛti text in this manner. Brihaspati-smriti was likely a larger and more comprehensive text than Manusmriti, yet both Brihaspati-smriti and Katyayana-smriti seem to have been predominantly devoted to judicial process and jurisprudence. The writers of Dharmasastras acknowledged their mutual differences, and developed a "doctrine of consensus" reflecting regional customs and preferences. Of the four extant Dharmasastras, Manusmriti, Yajnavalkyasmriti and Naradasmriti are the most important surviving texts. But, states Robert Lingat, numerous other Dharmasastras whose manuscripts are now missing, have enjoyed equal authority. Between the three, the Manusmriti became famous during the colonial British India era, yet modern scholarship states that other Dharmasastras such as the Yajnavalkyasmriti appear to have played a greater role in guiding the actual Dharma. Further, the Dharmasastras were open texts, and they underwent alterations and rewriting through their history. ==Contents of Dharmasutras and Dharmaśāstra==