Knowra Dharmaśāstra Dharmaśāstra Dharmaśāstra is a genre of Sanskrit texts prescribing dharma through discussions of law, social duties, and religious conduct. Its works combine normative rules with guidance on ritual, ethics, and social order.
Dharma : A broad Indian concept encompassing duty, right conduct, law, and the order that sustains life and society. Dharmaśāstra texts organize their prescriptions around this expansive and context-sensitive idea.
Ācāra : Established customary conduct regarded in Hindu legal thought as a source of dharma. Dharmaśāstra texts treat approved custom alongside scripture and remembered tradition.
Manusmṛti : An influential Sanskrit Dharmaśāstra text, also known as the Laws of Manu. Its extensive prescriptions on social duties, law, and conduct made it the genre’s best-known work.
Hindu law : Legal traditions governing Hindu communities, shaped by religious texts, custom, institutions, and modern legislation. Dharmaśāstra writings became major sources within this wider and changing legal tradition.
Śruti : The body of Hindu sacred literature regarded as revealed, including the Vedas and their associated texts. Dharmaśāstra is remembered and composed tradition, not the revealed textual category that supplies its highest authority.
Veda : The oldest authoritative body of sacred literature in Hindu traditions, composed in Sanskrit. Dharmaśāstra authors ground the authority of dharma in Vedic revelation.
Vyavahāra : The domain of legal procedure and adjudication in classical Hindu jurisprudence. Its rules translate Dharmaśāstra principles into courts, disputes, and judgments.
Yājñavalkya Smṛti : A Sanskrit Dharmaśāstra text that organizes rules on conduct, legal procedure, and expiation. Its structured treatment of legal procedure became especially influential in later legal scholarship.
Hindu inheritance law : Rules governing the transmission of property within Hindu families, shaped by classical texts and later law. Dharmaśāstra commentaries supplied competing principles for inheritance and family property.
Arthaśāstra : A Sanskrit genre addressing statecraft, political economy, administration, and strategy. It treats governance through pragmatic political analysis rather than Dharmaśāstra’s normative account of duty.
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