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India

Gautama Dharmasutra

Gautamadharmasutra

Attributed to Gautama (a name shared with several unrelated Vedic-era figures) · c. 600-400 BC · North India (exact location uncertain) (India) · law

The Gautama Dharmasutra, probably the oldest surviving text of its genre, lays out in terse aphoristic prose the duties of the four varnas and life-stages, rules for kings, and procedures for expiation, establishing a literary form later Dharmasutras and eventually Manusmriti would expand.

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Fed into

  • Manusmriti · compiled c. AD 100-200, drawing on older Dharmasutra material; a minority view dates parts as early as the 2nd century BC

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