The Dharmasutra is attributed to Gautama, a
Brahmin family name, many of whose members founded the various
Shakhas (Vedic schools) of
Samaveda. The text was likely composed in the Ranayaniya branch of
Samaveda tradition, generally corresponding to where modern Maratha people reside (
Maharashtra-
Gujarat). The text is likely ascribed to revered sage Gautama of a remote era, but authored by members of this Samaveda school as an independent treatise. Kane estimated that
Gautama Dharmasastra dates from approximately 600-400 BCE. However, Olivelle states that this text discusses the progeny of Greeks with the word
Yavana, whose arrival and stay in substantial numbers in northwest India is dated after Darius I (~500 BCE). The
Yavana are called border people in the Edict of Ashoka (256 BCE), states Olivelle, and given Gautama gives them importance as if they are non-border people, this text is more likely to have been composed after the Ashoka's Edict, that is after mid 3rd century BCE. Olivelle states that the
Apastamba Dharmasutra is more likely the oldest extant text in Dharmasutras genre, followed by
Gautama Dharmasastra. Robert Lingat, however, states that the mention of
Yavana in the text is isolated, and this minor usage could well have referred to Greco-Bactrian kingdoms whose border reached into northwest Indian subcontinent well before the Ashoka era. Lingat maintains that the Gautama Dharmasastra may well pre-date 400 BCE, and he and other scholars consider it to be the oldest extant Dharmasutra. Regardless of the relative chronology, the ancient Gautama Dharmasutra, states Olivelle, shows clear signs of a maturing legal procedure tradition and the parallels between the two texts suggest that significant Dharma literature existed before these texts were composed in 1st millennium BCE. The foundational roots of the text may pre-date
Buddhism because it reveres the
Vedas and uses terms such as
Bhikshu for monks, which later became associated with Buddhists, and instead of Yati or
Sannyasi terms that became associated with Hindus. There is evidence that some passages, such as those related to castes and mixed marriages, were likely interpolated into this text and altered at the later date. ==Organization and content==