Dharmasutras

Topic: Society in Early India: Kinship, Varna-Jati, Women · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 2 "Kings, Farmers and Towns"; Class 12, Ch 3 "Kinship, Caste and Class - Early Societies"

Meaning

The Dharmasutras are Sanskrit books of rules about right living (dharma), written by Brahmanas from c. 500 BCE onwards. They set out how each social group, men and women, and the king should behave. Together with the later Dharmashastras, they describe the Brahmanas' ideal social order. They do not describe how society actually lived.

They matter because they are the main normative source for early Indian society. Every UPSC answer on varna, marriage or women's status leans on them. The key exam skill is knowing that they show what Brahmana authors wanted, not what every village did.

Explanation

Background: why they were written

• New towns brought new pressures.
• The new cities of the Ganga valley (the second urbanisation, when cities grew again after the Harappan cities) created new groups, new wealth and new ideas.

• Buddhism and Jainism questioned old beliefs, including the special place of Brahmanas.

• The Brahmanas responded by writing the rules down.

• The Dharmasutras tried to fix social rules in writing at a time when people doubted them.
• So these books were a reply to a challenge. They were not a calm record of a settled society.

Main features: what the rules covered

• Varna duties. Each of the four varnas (the four ranked social orders) was given its own work:
• Brahmanas: study and teach the Vedas, perform sacrifices, and give and receive gifts.
• Kshatriyas: fight wars, protect people, give justice, study the Vedas, have sacrifices performed and make gifts.
• Vaishyas: study the Vedas, have sacrifices performed and make gifts, plus farming, cattle-rearing and trade.

• Shudras: serve the three higher varnas.

• Rulers. The texts held that ideally only Kshatriyas should be kings. They also advised kings to make sure these social rules were followed.

• Marriage. The texts list eight forms of marriage. The first four were treated as "good". The rest were condemned. [2]
• Property and women.
• Women were placed under the supervision of male relatives. [2]

• Women could keep only limited property of their own, such as stridhana (gifts a woman received at her marriage).

• Purity and pollution, food and ritual. The texts gave rules on food, guests, funerals, gifts and penance. [2]

• Duties over rights. The general style of these texts stresses duties rather than rights. [2]

How the tradition grew over time

• This was not one book. It was a long tradition that kept growing:
• Major Dharmasutras: c. 500–200 BCE.
• Manusmriti, the most important Dharmashastra: c. 200 BCE – 200 CE. It covers how the world began, dharma, the eight forms of marriage, rules for women and wives, the king's law, court matters, karma, the soul and punishment. [2]

• Other Dharmashastras: still being written c. 300–600 CE.

• Status of these texts. The Manusmriti is classed as smriti ("that which is remembered"). Smriti texts explain and arrange Vedic ideas, but they are held to be less authoritative than shruti (the Vedas themselves). [2]

Results and limits

• Brahmanical norms gained authority. Texts in Pali, Prakrit and Tamil show that these norms were widely recognised as authoritative.
• But that authority was never total.
• The same texts show the norms being questioned, and sometimes rejected outright.
• The Mahabharata gives rules and also shows its heroes breaking them. When a text keeps repeating a rule, the rule was probably being broken.
• Inscriptions name real donors, traders, artisans and nuns. They often show a society different from the rulebooks.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: major Dharmasutras c. 500–200 BCE. The tradition continued through the Manusmriti (c. 200 BCE – 200 CE) and the later Dharmashastras (c. 300–600 CE).
• Place: they grew out of the Brahmanical world of north India, at the time of the new Ganga valley cities and states.
• Authors: Brahmanas. They wrote in Sanskrit, a language only a small, educated group could read.
• How we know about society beyond these texts:
• Descriptive texts, such as the Mahabharata, stories and poems, which show what people actually did.
• Pali Buddhist texts, including the Tipitaka (c. 500–100 BCE).
• Prakrit inscriptions and Jaina works.
• The Tamil Sangam corpus, which shows a distinct social vocabulary in the south. [3]

• Inscriptions, which are short, dated records left by real people. They act as a check on the rulebooks.

• The historian's checklist: before using a Dharmasutra, ask about its language, the kind of text, its author, audience, date and place. Only then weigh what it says.

Don't confuse with

• Dharmashastras. The Dharmasutras are the earlier texts (major ones c. 500–200 BCE). The Dharmashastras, such as the Manusmriti (c. 200 BCE – 200 CE) and later works (c. 300–600 CE), carry the same tradition forward.
• Manusmriti. It is one Dharmashastra, the most important one. It is not the name for the whole genre. Britannica counts 2,694 stanzas in 12 chapters and dates it to about 100 CE; for the exam, keep the NCERT range. [2]
• Shruti (the Vedas). The Vedas are shruti ("that which is heard"), the highest authority. Dharma texts like the Manusmriti are smriti and rank below the Vedas. [2]
• Descriptive texts (Mahabharata, Sangam poems, Buddhist stories). These show what people actually did. The Dharmasutras are normative: they lay down what people should do.

Prelims Hooks

• Compilation of the Dharmasutras began c. 500 BCE. The Manusmriti dates to c. 200 BCE – 200 CE. Later Dharmashastras date to c. 300–600 CE.
• Correct order: Major Dharmasutras → Manusmriti → other Dharmashastras.
• The Dharmasutras and Dharmashastras were written in Sanskrit, by Brahmanas. Trap: the Tipitaka is in Pali, not Sanskrit.
• The Manusmriti describes eight forms of marriage. It is classed as smriti, held less authoritative than shruti. [2]
• In these texts, the ideal duty of the Shudras was to serve the three higher varnas. Trade was assigned to the Vaishyas.
• Britannica: Manusmriti has 2,694 stanzas in 12 chapters. [2]

Mains Points

• Normative is not descriptive. The Dharmasutras record what a Brahmana elite wanted society to look like. Inscriptions, Buddhist and Jaina texts, and Sangam poems show a more varied reality. A good answer on early Indian society states this method before giving conclusions.
• A response to change. The Dharmasutras appeared when urbanisation, new wealth, and Buddhist and Jaina questioning were unsettling old social rules. Writing the rules down was an attempt to fix a social order that was being challenged. The texts' repeated insistence on rules suggests those rules were contested.
• Authority without monopoly. Brahmanical norms were accepted as authoritative across much of the subcontinent. Yet Pali, Prakrit and Tamil sources show them being questioned and sometimes rejected. This makes the case for the limits of the varna order and for regional variety, especially in the Tamil country. [3]

Related concepts

• Dharmashastras
• Manusmriti
• Narada Smriti
• Yajnavalkya Smriti
• Mahabharata
• Critical Edition of the Mahabharata
• V.S. Sukthankar
• Dharma

Read more

• How historians reconstruct social history