Description

The Dharmasutra Parallels present in synoptic layout of the passages in the four Dharmasutras of Apastamba, Gautama, Baudhayana and Vasistha the deal with identical topics. The Dharmasutras are the four surviving written works of the ancient Indian tradition on the subject of dharma, or the rules of behavior a community recognizes as binding on its members. A close study of these early legal treatises is essential if we are to understand not only the legal but also the cultural and religious history of the three or four centuries prior to the common era, a period that saw the beginnings of many of the features that we commonly associate with Indian civilization.