particular dharma for womenwas strid-
harma). These texts were almost cer-
tainly composed by brahmin (priests)
men, and reveal everything about how
these men thought things should be, but
are far less reliable with regard to actual
social practices. The men who com-
posed this literature presupposed an
unequal society, in which birthinto
high or low status groups was deter-
mined by the nature of one’s karma
(actions), whether good, bad, or mixed.
Although various groups had unequal
status, they were all necessary for soci-
ety to function harmoniously, and true
virtue lay in meticulously fulfilling one’s
prescribed social role. Doing so faithfully
was not only a source of religious merit,
but if one did one’s obligations dispas-
sionately from a sense of duty, it was
also described as one of the three paths
for liberation of the soul, the path of
Action (karmamarga). For further infor-
mation see Pandurang Vaman Kane
(trans.), A History of Dharmasastra,
1968; and K. S. Mathur, “Hindu Values of
Life: Karma and Dharma,” in T. N.
Madan (ed.), Religion in India, 1991.
Dharma
(2) A deity, seen as the personification of
dharma as religious duty. In the
Mahabharata, the latter of the two great
Hindu epics, the five Pandavabrothers,
who are the epic’s protagonists, all have
divine fathers, and the eldest brother
Yudhishthira is the son of Dharma.
Yudhishthira and his brothers belong
to a kingly (kshatriya) family, but
Yudhishthira himself shows great con-
cern for truth, righteousness, and com-
passion. None of these are proverbial
kshatriya qualities, which tend to stress
courage and martial valor, and
Yudhishthira’s qualities are usually
explained by invoking the influence of
his divine father. A different sort of
Dharma cult arose in medieval Bengal,
from the commingling of Buddhist,
Muslim, and Hindu ideas. In this cult
Dharma was worshiped as the formless
single supreme Lord (probably reflecting
the influence of Islam), but the worship
of Dharma contained many similarities
with Bengali Hindu rituals. For further
information see Shashibhushan B.
Dasgupta, Obscure Religious Cults, 1962.Dharma Literature
Many texts are explicitly or implicitly
concerned with the question of dharma,
or religious duty. These begin with the
Vedas, the oldest Hindu sacred texts,
which are believed to articulate the eter-
nal (sanatana) dharma. The first major
texts explicitly devoted to dharma are
the Dharma Sutras, texts written in an
aphoristic (sutra) style between the sev-
enth and second centuries B.C.E. At least
in theory, the Dharma Sutras were all
connected with particular schools of the
Veda, and were thus primarily intended
as a manual for behavior for members of
that school alone. The Dharma Sutras
were followed by the Dharma Shastras,
in which the material in the Dharma
Sutras was expanded and put into verse;
these latter texts included instructions
for all members of society and were thus
intended to be “legal” in their import.
Among the earliest was the Manava
Dharma Shastra (Manu Smrti), which
was composed around the turn of the
common era. The process of rethinking
and expanding this legal tradition
through commentary has continued
until present times, although the most
significant works were completed by the
sixteenth century.Dharmaputra
(“son of Dharma”) One of the epithets
of Yudhishthira, the eldest of the five
Pandavabrothers. The Pandavas are
the protagonists in the Mahabharata,
the later of the two great Hindu epics.
In the epic, Yudhishthira and his broth-
ers are the sons of various deities,
magically born when their mothers use
the power of a mantra(sacred sound).
Yudhishthira’s father is the god
Dharma, the guardian of righteous-
ness. His paternity is used to explainDharma