The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c21.3

v1.c21.3

They are, in short, local manuals which form complete wholes only by virtue of their subject-matter, but which, to their authors, were merely sections of a greater work, the chief importance of which lay in the handing down of traditional knowledge in regard to religious practices. They may be regarded, however, as the first steps in the evolution of legal literature; for the metrical Çāstras or law-books are only the extension and completion of the rules of the Dharma Sūtras, with a gradual increase in the part allotted to civil and criminal law and a relaxation of the bond connecting the Sūtras with definite Vedic sects. The Dharma Sūtras are more universal; the Gṛihya Sūtras reflect individual schools. But even the Gṛihyas are not *Çrauta* (divinely revealed), but *Smārta* (sacred tradition).