Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c7.14

c7.14

the Āpastambīyas is the Black Yajurveda, and in fact they represent one of the five sub-divisions of the Khāṇḍikīya school which on its part is a branch of the Taittirīya school.¹ Their canonical work, however, at the present day is, and perhaps has been since when they became a particular school, the great Kalpasūtra in 30 closely connected chapters, of which our Dharmasūtra (ed. Bühler) forms the 28. and the 29. chapters. Its contents chiefly deal with the study of the Veda and other duties of the Brahman students, purifications, forbidden foods, penances, duties of Snātakas and Gṛhasthas and similar other subjects of the sacred law. Of secular law, only the law of marriage and inheritance and criminal law are briefly dealt with, but in a singular manner. Linguistically this work is full of archaic and anomalous forms and phraseology which can be explained only on the hypothesis that it was finished before the canon of Sanskrit language established by Pāṇini attained to ruling power. This fact combined with a few other criteria has induced Bühler to assign the date of composition of this Dharmasūtra to the fourth or the fifth century B.C.² The reference to Śvetaketu, who appears as a Vedic teacher even in the Śatapathabrāhmaṇa and the Chāndogyopaniṣad, in Āpastamba (1, 5, 4 ff.) as of a modern avara, is of particular importance in this respect.³ On the other hand, this author cannot be one of the earliest Vedic leaders of schools, for according to the tradition, which is corroborated by the result obtained by comparing the preserved works, Baudhāyana: and other authorities anticipated him as founders of new schools.¹