A History of Sanskrit Literature c30.s1.1

c30.s1.1

IT was perfectly natural that when Sūtras began to be composed on matters of ritual there should be adopted the practice of including in these texts instructions on matters closely akin to ritual, the daily life of the people, their duties of all kinds, including matters which more advanced civilization would classify as questions of etiquette and social usage, moral, legal, or religious. Included of course in such rules must be regulation of all issues affecting caste, especially the vital one of marriage, and, as it was clearly customary for Brahmins to be approached to act as arbitrators in disputes or to advise as to the due custom, these books came to serve in some measure as rudimentary texts on law. Sūtras of this kind were distinguished as Dharmasūtras from those dealing with the more formal and the domestic ritual, the Çrautasūtras and Gṛhyasūtras, but we may assume that no very vital distinction was originally felt between the various parts, and the whole could rank as one Kalpasūtra. Like Sūtras in general, they were composed in prose, usually as briefly as possible, but with Çlokas or Triṣṭubh verses here and there interposed to justify a doctrine or sum it up effectively.