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INTRODUCTION.
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these follow the authorities for his doctrines, which consist either of Vedic passages or of verses, the latter being partly quotations taken from individual authors or works, partly specimens of the versified maxims current among the Brâhmans, and sometimes memorial verses composed by the author himself. But chapters XXV-XXVIII contain not a single Sutra. They are made up entirely of Anushtubh Slokas, and the phrases 1“ I will now declare,''Listen to my words,' which are so characteristic of the style of the later metrical Smritis and of the Puranas, occur more frequently than is absolutely necessary. Again, in the first twenty-four and the last two chapters the language is archaic Sanskrit, interspersed here and there with Vedic anomalous forms. But in the four chapters on secret penances we have the common Sanskrit of the metrical Smritis and Puranas, with its incorrect forms, adopted in order to fit inconvenient words into the metre. Nor is this all. The contents of a portion of this suspicious section are merely useless repetitions of matters dealt with already in the preceding chapters, while some verses contain fragmentary rules on a subject which is treated more fully further on. Thus the description of the Krikkhra and Kândrâyana penances, which has been given XXI, 20 and XXIV, 45, is repeated XXVII, 16, 21. Further, the enumeration of the purificatory texts XXVIII, 10-15 is merely an enlargement of XXII, 9. Finally, the verses XXVIII, 16–22 contain detached rules on gifts, and in the next chapter, XXIX. the subject is begun once more and treated at considerable length. Though it would be unwise to assume that all genuine productions of the old Sutrakâras must, throughout, show regularity and consistency, the differences between the four chapters and the remainder of the work, just pointed out, are, it seems to me, sufficient to warrant the conclusion that they do not belong to the author of the Institutes. Under these circumstances it might be assumed that the whole section is simply an interpolation. But that would be going too far. For, as other Dharma-sútras show, one or even several chapters on secret penances belonged to such works.
See XXV, 1; XXVII, 10; XXVIII, 10, 20.
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