dharmas ́a ̄stras nothing more than “a pious wish of its metaphysically-minded,
ceremonial ridden priestly promulgators, and but seldom a stern reality” (Das
1914: 8). It is possible, though, to find a middle ground between the two extreme
positions. Most, if not all, the injunctions or prohibitions contained in the several
su ̄tras ands ́lokasmay reflect real situations, real customs and practices. Even
when texts appear contradictory, they represent the different kinds ofdharma
that were observed within certain groups of individuals, regional, social, pro-
fessional, etc. Some of the injunctions and prohibitions contained in the texts
were dharma for the members of specific groups only, but all these rules needed
to be incorporated in the overarching, authoritative, and prescriptive texts on
the subject ofdharma. None of the groups concerned may have known the
dharmas ́a ̄stras as they were eventually written down and transmitted in manu-
script form. They may have been ignorant of the dharma of other groups, but they
perfectly knew the specific rules, transmitted orally from father to son, or from
teacher to disciple, which they themselves were supposed to live by (Rocher
1993).
References
Das, Govinda. 1914: The Real Character of Hindu Law. Banaras: Chowkhamba.
Derrett, J. Duncan M. 1973a: Dharmas ́a ̄stra and Juridical Literature. Wiesbaden:
Harrassowitz.
——. 1973b: History of Indian Law (Dharmas ́a ̄stra). Leiden: Brill.
Flood, Gavin. 1996: An Introduction to Hinduism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
pp. 51–74.
Halbfass, Wilhelm. 1988: “Dharma in Traditional Hinduism,” in India and Europe: An
Essay in Understanding. Albany: State University of New York Press, pp. 310–33.
Jolly, Julius. 1928: Hindu Law and Custom. Calcutta: Greater India Society. Translated
from the German (Recht und Sitte, einschliesslich der einheimishen Litteratur, Strassburg:
Triibner, 1896) by Batakrishna Ghosh.
Kane, Pandurang Vaman. 1930–77: History of Dharmas ́a ̄stra (Ancient and Medieval
Religious and Civil Law). 5 vols. in 8 parts (some parts in 2nd ed.). Poona: Bhandarkar
Oriental Research Institute. [Vol. 1, 2nd ed., in two parts (1968, 1975), contains a
historical survey ofdharmas ́a ̄tra literature.]
Lingat, Robert. 1973: The Classical Law of India. Translated from the French (Les sources
du droit dans le système traditionnel de l’Inde, The Hague: Mouton, 1967) with additions
by J. Duncan M. Derrett. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Müller, F. Max. 1959. A History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature. Allahabad.
Olivelle, Patrick. 1999: The Dharmas ́u ̄tras: The Law Codes of Ancient India. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Renou, Louis. 1947: Les éoles védiques et la formation du véda. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale.
Rocher, Ludo. 1986: The Pura ̄n.as. History of Indian Literature, vol. 2. Wiesbaden:
Harrassowitz.
——. 1993. “Law Books in an Oral Culture,” in Proceedings of the American Philosophical
Society137: 254–67.
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