History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v1.c6.s5.12

v1.c6.s5.12

The earliest reference to Gautama as an author on dharma occurs in the Baudhāyanadharmasūtra. Baudhāyana discusses the authoritativeness of usages peculiar to the north or the south and quotes Gautama as saying that it is wrong to hold that certain customs must be held authoritative in certain countries (even though opposed to Vedic tradition and smṛti). This refers to G. Dh. S. 11. 20. In another place Baudhāyana gives it as his view that a Brāhmaṇa, if he cannot make a living by teaching, officiating as a priest or by gifts, should earn his livelihood as a Kṣatriya and quotes the views of Gautama as opposed to this⁶⁵. The extant Gautama on the other hand teaches the same view as that of Baudhāyana⁶⁶. Buhler made the plausible suggestion that the sūtra in the extant Gautama is an interpolation. Govindasvāmī, the commentator of Baudhāyana, suggests that another Gautama is referred to by Baudhāyana. It is possible to suggest that in the Ms. of Gautama used by Baudhāyana the sūtra about living as a Kṣatriya did not occur and the next sūtra about living as a Vaiśya alone occurred. Chapter 19 of the Gautamadharmasūtra which forms an introduction to prāyaścittas in Gautama seems to have been borrowed wholesale by Baudhāyana (III. 10) with slight changes. That Baudhāyana borrows follows from the fact that the chapter in Baudhāyana occurs in the middle of the discussion about prāyaścittas and not as an introduction, which is the case in Gautama. Baudhāyana treats of penances in several places (II. 1, III. 5. 10 and IV. 1. 4). There are besides many sūtras in both Gautama and Baudhāyana that exhibit a close correspondence, e. g.