Interpretation of Law | Baudhayana Dharmasutra

Baudhayana's Dharmasutra forms a part of the Kalpasutra, similar to Apastamba. And just like Apastamba's Dharmasutras, it consists of books based on questions. What does it mean to follow law? Quite often, the society grapples with challenges regarding the prevalence of laws and with the interpretation of the same.

Turns out, things weren't much different back in history, as the following sutra tries to lay out a direction for such instances. What will be the outcome when a law means different things to different people. Will it mean that a judgement needs to be pushed, no matter what the consequences are? Or should the judgement be instead, reserved, until later.

Baudhayana sides with the latter option as he explains in the following sutra.

"The Law has many gates and its path is narrow and difficult to follow. When there is a doubt, therefore, one man, however learned, should not pronounce on it."

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