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INTRODUCTION.
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first three Prasnas, necessarily lead to the conclusion that the whole remainder does not belong to Baudhayana, but consists of so-called Parisishtas, which were composed by the adherents of his school. Further, the fact that the last six Prasnas do not show everywhere the same style and language, makes it probable that the additions were made at different times and by different persons.
The Dharma-sutra seems to have undergone exactly the same fate as the Grihya-sútra. It will be obvious even to the readers of the translation that its fourth Prasna is a later addition. It consists of two parts. The first, which ends with the fourth Adhyâya, treats of penances, both public and secret ones. The second, Adhyâyas 5-8, describes the means of obtaining siddhi, the fulfilment of one's desires, and recommends for this purpose the offering of the Ganahomas after a previous sanctification of the worshipper by means of a course of austerities. The first part is perfectly superfluous, as the subject of penances has already been discussed in the first sections of the second Prasna, and again in chapters 4-10 of the third Prasna. Its rules sometimes contradict those given before, and in other cases, e.g. IV, 2, 10-12, are mere repetitions of previous statements. The introduction of the means of gaining siddhi, on the other hand, is without a parallel in other Dharma-satras, and the subject is entirely foreign to the scope of such works. Its treatment, too, shows that chapters 5-8 do not belong to the author of the bulk of the Dharma-sútra. For the description of the preparatory ' restraints' or austerities contains somewhat more detailed rules for a number of penances, e.g. the Krikkhras and the Kândrayana, which have already been described in the preceding Prasnas. Moreover, the style and the language of the whole fourth Prasna are very different from those of the three preceding ones, and the differences observable are exactly the same as those between the first five and the last four Prasnas of the Grihya-sútra. The epic Sloka nearly throughout replaces the aphoristic prose, and the common slipshod Sanskrit of the Puranas appears instead of the archaic forms. Finally, the fourth Prasna is divided into
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