Dharma Śāstra — the literature of conduct
धर्मशास्त्र
Also written: dharma shastra · manu smriti · yajnavalkya smriti · hindu law books · धर्मशास्त्र
The Dharma Śāstras are smṛti — human, dated, and revisable. They deal with personal conduct, household duty, social organisation, inheritance, contract, evidence, penance and the obligations of a king. They are the most contested part of the corpus, and the tradition itself supplies the tools for contesting them.
The principal texts
| Text | Approx. period | Character |
|---|---|---|
| Dharma Sūtras — Āpastamba, Gautama, Baudhāyana, Vasiṣṭha | c. 600–300 BCE | The oldest layer, in terse prose, attached to Vedic schools |
| Manu Smṛti | c. 200 BCE – 200 CE | The most influential and the most criticised; 2,684 verses in twelve chapters |
| Yājñavalkya Smṛti | c. 300–500 CE | More concise and better organised; the basis of the Mitākṣarā, the dominant legal commentary |
| Nārada Smṛti | c. 400–600 CE | Almost purely juridical — procedure, evidence, contract |
| Parāśara Smṛti | c. 500 CE | Explicitly the smṛti for the Kali age; states that each yuga has its own dharma |
| Nibandhas and commentaries | c. 1000–1700 CE | Mitākṣarā, Dāyabhāga, Smṛti Candrikā — where the texts were actually applied and heavily modified |
The tradition's own limits on these texts
- Śruti overrules smṛti wherever they conflict — stated in Manu itself.
- Deśa, kāla, pātra: place, time and person modify every rule.
- Yuga-dharma: Parāśara states that the dharmas of the four ages differ and that Kali-yuga has its own.
- Āpad-dharma: rules yield in emergency, and the texts legislate the yielding.
- Sadācāra: the settled conduct of good people can establish dharma where texts are silent.
- Ātmatuṣṭi: the satisfaction of a purified conscience is a named source of dharma.
The same book that says a woman should not be independent also says that where women are honoured the gods rejoice, and that a mother exceeds a thousand fathers in worthiness of reverence. A text that contradicts itself on a point is not an authority on that point — and that judgment is made using the tradition's own rules of interpretation, not against them.
The sources of knowledge in Sanātana Dharma
The complete library: Nigama and Āgama, śruti and smṛti, the four Vedas with their four layers, the six Vedāṅg…
Śruti — that which was heard
What apauruṣeya means, how the Veda was preserved syllable-perfect for millennia without writing, and why śrut…
Smṛti — that which was remembered
The vast human-authored body: Vedāṅga, Itihāsa, Purāṇa, Dharma Śāstra, Sūtra, Darśana, Āgama and Kāvya — deriv…
Nigama and Āgama — the two revealed streams
The Vedic and the Tantric revelations: their different forms, their different eligibility rules, why every tem…
The four Vedas
Ṛgveda, Yajurveda, Sāmaveda and Atharvaveda — what each contains, the priest each belongs to, its śākhās, and …
Ṛgveda
The oldest surviving text of the tradition: 1,028 hymns in ten maṇḍalas, its structure, its great hymns, and w…
Last revised 2026-08-16. Corrections are welcome — see how this site is written.