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involve the services of a number of priests. The second branch is the Gțihya Sutras which are concerned with the numerous ceremonies applicable to the domestic life of a man and his family from birth to death. The third is the Dharma Sūtras dealing with the customary law and practice. They enumerate the duties of the castes and stages in life (Āśrama). They lay the foundation of civil and criminal law. The last is the Sulva Sutras giving minute details regarding the measurement and construction of the fire-altars and the place of sacrifice. They may thus be regarded as the oldest books of Indian geometry.
The dates of the principal Srauta Sūtras and some of the Gțihy'a Sutras have been decided between 800 and 400 B.C. G. BUHLER and J. JOLLY have placed them between the sixth and fourth (or third) centuries B.C., though others assign to them a somewhat later date. Although none of the extant Dharma Sülra is older than 600 B.C., there is no doubt that there were works of this class belonging to an earlier period.1 PHILOSOPHICAL LITERATURE
In the sixth century B.C., there was a rise of new philosophical tenets often of a revolutionary character. Many of these philosophical dogmas had a merely temporary phase and gradually faded away but a few, however, came to stay. Besides Mahāvira and Buddha, the chief heterodox religious teachers of this age were Pūrņa Kassapa, Pakudha Kachchayana, Makkhali Gośāla, Ajita Keśakambalin and Sanjaya Belatthiputta. They were renowned philosophers of their times and propounded independent views on different philosophical subjects. Their works are not available, but we know about their views from the Buddhist and Jaina literature.
The six systems of Indian Philosophy are distinguished as orthodox systems from the heterodox systems of the Buddhists, Jainas and Chārvākas, because they are all somehow reconcilable with the Vedic system, though they mutually differ in their relations to the same. The six systems are known as (1) the Sāmkhya of Kapila, (2) Yoga of Patanjali (2) Nyaya of Gautama, (4) Vaiseshika of Kaņāda, (5) Pūrva llimänisă or Jaimini, and (6) Vedānta of Bādarāyana. 1. KHDS, 1. pp. 8-9; SBE, II, XIV, Introduction.
