Page:The history of caste in India.pdf/77

 all, duty. Later on, the meaning was restricted, and the ideas which were grouped under dharma became more and more definite. In Buddhistic literature the word "dharma" (dhamma), besides its common meaning, was also used technically in a philosophical sense, the elucidation of which is unnecessary for our present purposes.

In Brahminical literature the word "dharma" probably kept its field, but the different ideas which were denoted by it came to be better distinguished from one another. So dharma was divided into three branches : 1. Achāra dharma ("usages," rules of custom and ceremony); 2. Vyavahāra dharma, or (law proper), and. 3. Prāyaschitta dharma (rules regarding atonement and penances). During the time of Mānava-dharina-shāstra, the threefold division was in the state of incubation, while in Yājñavalkya's times, these divisions appear to have been already made, as he has adopted this threefold division in his well-known smriti. The writers like Nārada and Brihaspati expound Vyavahāra dharma only, and we have a number of writers treating one or other of the threefold divisions.

These few facts will enable the reader to understand that the word "dharma" has a long history of its own and one almost entirely different from that of the word "law," the use of which in place of dharma would simply increase the confusion in the science.

Though the word has undergone various changes of meaning, one original idea contained in it was never lost sight of. Dharma never implied an order or command but a moral duty. The expounder of dharma was not the king but the priest. The king could not make or unmake dharma. It was absolute, eternal and un-