Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c7.126

c7.126

The fondness for adages and parables which is still common in India found a particularly rich field of activity in the sphere of Dharma. M. reads like a didactic poem and even rises not seldom to poetical altitudes. Even the Dharmasūtras are full of verses which are again seen in M. for the most part, word for word; Vas. thus has 39 Ślokas and Vi. more than 160 Ślokas in common with M. Thus, if it is certain that a large mass of memorial verses were existing at an early date, it was in all probability just for the Dharmaśāstrins, who knew these verses by heart, to draw up whole works in metre and to versify the existing Dharmasūtras, be they of their own or of other Vedic schools.