Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c7.44

c7.44

The quotations from Gaut. are of primary importance for the determination of the age of this work, of which the one in Baudh. 1, 2, 7 and the reference to a view of the son of Utathya i. e. of Gaut. in M. 3, 16, may be traced in substance, if not literally, in Gaut. 11, 20 and 4, 26.² About the quotation in Vas. see below. The Bṛh. 25, 38 too quotes our Gaut. (28, 18). Of older law teachers Gaut. mentions only M. (21, 7), by which however, is meant not the well-known law-book of M. but an older work (cf. § 4) if it does not refer merely to the mythical first parent M. who is often quoted as an authority. Another important fact is that Baudh. appears to have borrowed the last Adhy. of his third Praśna from Gaut.¹ With the conclusion reached by Bühler (in his translation), that the Gaut. is the oldest of the preserved (printed) Dharmasūtras, agrees, by the way, also the view of its editor Stenzler, who in his manuscript remains (ZDMG 47, 621) held Gaut. to be the oldest author on Dharma on the ground of a notice derived from earlier times. Gaut. should probably be placed centuries before Āp. and perhaps even before Baudh.²