A History of Sanskrit Literature c12.42

c12.42

Sūtras need not necessarily go back to the oldest period of Indian law, as this style of composition was never entirely superseded by the use of metre. Thus there is a *Vaikhānasa dharma-sūtra* in four *praçnas*, which, as internal evidence shows, cannot be earlier than the third century A.D. It refers to the cult of Nārāyaṇa (Vishṇu), and mentions Wednesday by the name of *budha-vāra*, "day of Mercury." It is not a regular Dharma Sūtra, for it contains nothing connected with law in the strict sense, but is only a treatise on domestic law (*gṛihya-dharma*). It deals with the religious duties of the four orders (*āçramas*), especially with those of the forest hermit. For it is with the latter order that the Vaikhānasaṣ, or followers of Vikhanas, are specially connected. They seem to have been one of the youngest offshoots of the Taittirīya school.