The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c21.5

v1.c21.5

The preponderance of domestic ceremonies in the Gṛihya Sūtra results in Dharma, or social, matter being introduced rather adventitiously, as when the rules concerning the choice of wives are given, whereas Gṛihya, domestic, rules belong as much to the Dharma Sūtras as to the Gṛihya Sūtras themselves. The difference is that the weight in the Dharmas is laid on the wider relation of man to the state, so that those sections which deal with the family become condensed and subordinate. Specimens of southern Gṛihya Sūtras are also not lacking. Thus as the Dharma of Āpastamba reflects a South-Indian origin, so also the Gṛihya Sūtra of Khādira belongs to Southern India; and it is an indication that Sūtra literature extends far beyond the time of Buddha that this should be the case. Such also may be surmised to be the fact (rather than that Vedic schools were domiciled in South India at a much earlier period) from the circumstance that the Sūtra of Khādira is a later and more concise version of the Sūtra of Gobhila. There are other examples of this endeavour to revise a Sūtra on lines of economy, each later writer reducing the work of his predecessor as much as possible or convenient, conciseness being the test of Sūtra excellence. Gobhila’s work is detailed and lengthy; Khādira’s is virtually the same work in condensed form. Everything that could be omitted, such as explanatory digressions, smaller details of ceremonies, etc., was left out, solely to make the work easier to remember. But clearness as well as conciseness was aimed at and attained by a fresh arrangement of the older matter.