The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c8.130

c8.130

It is needless to notice the other Dharma Sûtras here. Viṣṇu, though in Sûtra form, is so heavily interpolated as to be a product of practically about the third century A.D. The Vaikhânasa Dharma Sûtra, which represents one of the younger offshoots of the Taittirîya school, cannot be earlier than the third century A.D. Besides, it is in its four praśnas, only a treatise on domestic law. The Dharma Sûtra of Hiraṇyakeśin closely follows the Âpastambas from which that school probably derived its origin. It yields nothing fresh to the student of institutions. The Mânava Dharma Sûtra is lost to us, though its ideas may be imbedded in the later Smṛiti of Manu. The Dharma Sûtra of Śaṅkha-Likhita is referred to by Kumârila,¹ and is said to have been specially studied by the Vâjasaneyins but it has not yet been discovered.