Gautama Dharmasutra

Gautama Dharmasūtra is a Sanskrit text and likely one of the oldest Hindu Dharmasutras (600-200 BCE), whose manuscripts have survived into the modern age.[1][2][3]

The Gautama Dharmasutra was composed and survives as an independent treatise,[4] unattached to a complete Kalpa-sūtras, but like all Dharmasutras it may have been part of one whose Shrauta- and Grihya-sutras have been lost to history.[1][5] The text belongs to Samaveda schools, and its 26th chapter on penance theory is borrowed almost completely from Samavidhana Brahmana layer of text in the Samaveda.[1][5]

The text is notable that it mentions many older texts and authorities on Dharma, which has led scholars to conclude that there existed a rich genre of Dharmasutras text in ancient India before this text was composed.[6][7]

  1. ^ a b c Robert Lingat 1973, p. 19.
  2. ^ Patrick Olivelle 2006, p. 178 with note 28.
  3. ^ Daniel H.H. Ingalls 2013, p. 89.
  4. ^ Patrick Olivelle 2006, p. 186.
  5. ^ a b Patrick Olivelle 2006, p. 74.
  6. ^ Robert Lingat 1973, pp. 19–20.
  7. ^ Timothy Lubin, Donald R. Davis Jr & Jayanth K. Krishnan 2010, p. 38.