Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c7.26

c7.26

Baudhāyana (Bodhāyana) is the alleged author of the oldest Dharmasūtra to the Yajurveda and it has been preserved as part of a Sūtra collection.² Its high antiquity at once follows from the tradition recorded in two interpolated passages in Baudh. (ed. Hultzsch) itself, that the Baudhāyana-school is older than the Āpastamba-school and that on the whole it is the oldest of the Sūtra-schools connected with the text of the Taittirīya.³ However, also a comparison between the contents of the two works which are related to each other and not seldom agree with each other verbatim, shows that Āp. is the younger author, for he expresses stricter and therefore probably later views than Baudh. about adopted sons, levirate, Paiśāca marriage, about the preference given to the eldest son in inheritance and other points. The same is the case with their corresponding Gṛhyasūtras, and the style too of Baudh. is more archaic and awkward than that of Āp.