Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c7.29

c7.29

The subjects dealt with by Baudh. are multifarious; thus he discusses the difference of customs in various lands, the duties of the Brahmacārin and the Snātaka, contamination and purification, sacrifice, mixed castes, duties of the king and the executive duty of the penal judge, hearing of the witnesses, the marriage law, penances, law of inheritance, position of women, bathing, the five great sacrifices and the four stages of life (*āśrama*), regulations about food, sacrifice offered to the dead, rules for ascetics, householders, hermits, minor sacrifices, penances and propitious ceremonies. Nevertheless the fourth Praśna of this work which is almost wholly composed in Ślokas, is probably a modern interpolation, and even the third Praśna is not above all suspicions,¹ although many doubtful things in it, such as the Adhy. 6 about *prasṛtiyāvaka*, now receives some support from the analogous passages in the newly discovered Hārita. The original position of the Dharma-sūtra within the whole Kalpasūtra of the Baudhāyana school may be fixed pretty accurately from the mutual references inspite of the wretched manuscript materials; the arrangement of the work seems to have been similar to that of the Āpastambīyas.²