Page:History of India Vol 1.djvu/238

190 of Manu, from which the later metrical Code of Manu was compiled, and which was held in high esteem in the Sutra Period, just as the metrical Code of Manu is honoured at the present day.

Among the Dharma Sutras still extant, the Vasishtha belonging to the Rig-Veda, the Gautama belonging to the Sama-Veda, and the Baudhayana and Apastamba belonging to the Black Yajur-Veda are accessible in English translations.

In point of time Gautama is the oldest, and we find Baudhayana transferring a whole chapter of Gautama's into his Sutra, while Vasishtha, in his turn, borrowed the same chapter from Baudhayana.

We have spoken of the Srauta Sutras which treat of the duties of a worshipper, and of the Dharma Sutras, which define the duties of a citizen. But man has other responsibilities beyond those of a worshipper and a citizen. As a son, a husband, and a father, he has duties to perform towards the members of his family. He has rites to perform in connection with domestic occurrences, which are quite different from the elaborate ceremonials taught in the Srauta Sutras. A distinct class of rules was necessary to fix the details of the domestic rites, and these regulations are given in the Grihya Sutras.

Much interest attaches to these simple domestic rites performed at the domestic fireside, and not at the hearths which had to be specially lighted at great sacrifices. The domestic fire was kindled by each householder on his marriage, and the simple rites, the