Dharmashastra as a Genre

Dharmashastra is not just a corpus of scriptural texts. It is rather a genre in its own right, of writings comprising prescriptive codes of righteous conduct in spheres whether familial, societal, ritualistic, legal, or even political.

Introduction to the Book

For the first time, this book offers a quintessential view of the Dharmashastra (smrti) literature. Which today, along with its digests and commentaries, looks like a vast reservoir of literary works that have been accumulating over the centuries since their legendary beginnings with Manu.

Purpose and Scope

This book not only tries to show how Dharmashastra works are representative of the ancient/medieval political, social and cultural milieus, but is also a painstaking attempt to gauge their influence in conditioning the Indian way of life and psyche.