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INTRODUCTION.
XV
subject were acknowledged by all the schools of one Veda, it would follow that it must belong to the most ancient books of that Veda, and must have been adopted successively by all its later schools. In such a case the Satra must certainly show signs of its great antiquity. But if we look for the latter in the Våsishtha Dharma-sútra, the trouble will be in vain. Though that work contains a good deal that is archaic, yet, as will be shown presently, its numerous quotations from Vedic writings and older Dharma-sútras clearly prove that it does not belong to the oldest productions of its class, but takes even among the still existing Institutes of the Sacred Law only a secondary rank. Under these circumstances the correct interpretation of Govindasvâmin's words will be, that according to the Brâhmanical tradition, known to him, some school of Rigvedins, the name of which he did not know, or did not care to give, originally possessed the Vâsishtha Dharmasastra as its exclusive property, and that the work later, through the action of the special law schools, acquired general authority for all Brâhmans. It is a pity that no authentic information regarding the name of that school of Rigvedins has been handed down. But, considering the fact that Vedic schools are frequently named after Vedic Rishis, it seems not improbable that it was called after the Vasishtha whose authority the Dharma-sætra invokes, and that we may assume the former existence of a Vasish tha school, a Satra-karana, of the Rig-veda !, founded perhaps by a teacher of the Våsishtha gotra. This conjecture, which, it must be confessed, is not supported by any corroborative evidence from the Brâhmanical tradition, will explain why the title-pages of this and of the first part speak of a school of Vâsishtha.
The position of the Våsishtha Dharma-sätra in Vedic literature can be defined, to a certain extent, by an analysis
1 A school of Vâsishthas, belonging to the Sâma-veda, certainly existed in ancient times. I have formerly put forward a conjecture that the Vâsishtha Dharmasastra might belong to that school (Digest of Hindu Law Cases, p. xxii, first edition). But Govindasvâmin's explicit statement makes it evident that it has to be abandoned.
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