"The law codes of ancient India"--Cover.

The Dharmasutra Parallels present in a synoptic layout of the passages in the four Dharmasutras of Apastamba. Gautama, Baudhayana, and Vasistha deal with identical topics. The Dharmasutras represent the oldest extant codification of Law in ancient India. A close study of these early legal treatises is essential if we are to understand not only the legal but also the cultural and religious history of the three or four centuries prior to the common era, a period that saw the beginnings of many of the features that we commonly associate with Indian civilization.

The Dharmasutras are the four surviving works of the ancient Indian expert tradition on the subject of dharma, or the rules of behaviour a community recognizes as binding on its members. Written in a pithy and aphoristic style and representing the culmination of a long tradition of scholarship, the Dharmasutras record intense disputes and divergent views on such subjects as the education of the young and their rites of passage, ritual procedures and religious ceremonies, marriage and marital rights and obligations, dietary restrictions, the right professions for and the proper interaction between different social groups, sins and their expiations, institutions for the pursuit of holiness, king and the administration of justice, crimes and punishments, death and ancestral rites. In short, these unique documents give us a glimpse of how people, especially Brahmin males, were ideally expected to live their lives within an ordered and hierarchically arranged society. In this first English translation of the Dharmasutras for over a century, Patrick Olivelle uses the same lucid and elegant style as in his award-winning translation of the Upanisads and incorporates the most recent scholarship on ancient Indian law, society, and religion. Complex material is helpfully organized, making this the ideal edition for the non-specialist as well as for students of Indian society and religion.

Whether defined by family, lineage, caste, professional or religious association, village, or region, India's diverse groups did settle on a concept of law in classical times. How did they reach this consensus? Was it based on religious grounds or a transcendent source of knowledge? Did it depend on time and place? And what apparatus did communities develop to ensure justice was done, verdicts were fair, and the guilty were punished? Addressing these questions and more, A Dharma Reader traces the definition, epistemology, procedure, and process of Indian law from the third century B.C.E. to the middle ages. Its breadth captures the centuries-long struggle by Indian thinkers to theorize law in a multiethnic and pluralist society. The volume includes new and accessible translations of key texts, notes that explain the significance and chronology of selections, and a comprehensive introduction that summarizes the development of various disciplines in intellectual-historical terms. It reconstructs the principal disputes of a given discipline, which not only clarifies the arguments but also relays the dynamism of the fight. For those seeking a richer understanding of the political and intellectual origins of a major twenty-first-century power, along with unique insight into the legal interactions among its many groups, this book offers exceptional detail, historical precision, and expository illumination.

Two renowned neuroscientists and pioneers in documenting the benefits of Transcendental Meditation give parents a guided tour of their children's brains through contemporary science and ancient Ayurvedic typology (parents can "type" their kids and themselves) for a wealth of methods and insights to maximize your child's learning and behavioral style. Dharma Parenting offers a uniquely individual approach to raising a happy and successful child. The word "dharma" means a way of living that upholds the path of evolution, maintains balance, and supports both prosperity and spiritual freedom. For the first time, we can understand why one child learns quickly and forgets quickly while another learns slowly and forgets slowly; why one child is hyperactive and another slow moving; or why one falls asleep quickly but wakes in the night while another takes hours to fall asleep. Leading brain researchers Robert Keith Wallace and Frederick Travis combine knowledge from modern science, ancient Ayurveda, and their personal experience to show how to unfold the full potential of a child's brain, as well as how to nurture his or her inherent brilliance and goodness. The first tool of Dharma Parenting is to determine your child's--and your own--brain/body type through a simple quiz. The Eastern system of natural medicine called Ayurveda has used three distinct mind/body types (and combinations of these types) for thousands of years. Scientific studies suggest that there is a specific set of genetic, biochemical, and physiological characteristics that underlie each of the three main Ayurveda mind/body types. Coupling old and new wisdom, Dharma Parenting offers unique insight into why a child is the way he or she is and reveals how to bring each child into a state of balance. Its language is readily comprehensible by parents of any cultural background, with real-life stories to illustrate areas of universal parental concern--such as emotions, behavior, language, learning styles, habits, diet, health issues, and, most importantly, the parent-child relationship.

The Dharmasutras are the four surviving works of the ancient Indian expert tradition on the subject of dharma, or the rules of behavior a community recognizes as binding on its members. Written in a pithy and aphoristic style and representing the culmination of a long tradition of scholarship, the Dharmasutras record intense disputes and divergent views on a wide variety of religious and social issues. These unique documents give us a glimpse of how people, especially Brahmin males, were ideally expected to live their lives within an ordered and hierarchically arranged society. In this first English translation of these documents for over a century, Patrick Olivelle uses the same lucid and elegant style of his award-winning translation of the Upanisads and incorporates the most recent scholarship on ancient Indian law, society and religion. The fresh editions of the Sanskrit texts present new manuscript material, variants recorded in medieval commentaries and legal digests, and emendations suggested by philologists.

Between 300 BCE and 200 CE, concepts and practices of dharma attained literary prominence throughout India. Both Buddhist and Brahmanical authors sought to clarify and classify their central concerns, and dharma proved a means of thinking through and articulating those concerns. Alf Hiltebeitel shows the different ways in which dharma was interpreted during that formative period: from the grand cosmic chronometries of kalpas and yugas to narratives about divine plans, gendered nuances of genealogical time, royal biography (even autobiography, in the case of the emperor Asoka), and guidelines for daily life, including meditation. He reveals the vital role dharma has played across political, religious, legal, literary, ethical, and philosophical domains and discourses about what holds life together. Through dharma, these traditions have articulated their distinct visions of the good and well-rewarded life. This insightful study explores the diverse and changing significance of dharma in classical India in nine major dharma texts, as well some shorter ones. Dharma proves to be a term by which to make a fresh cut through these texts, and to reconsider their own chronology, their import, and their relation to each other.