DHARMA. – This Sanskrit word, etymologically connected with the Latin *firmu-s*, is one of the richest in meaning: statute, custom, law, duty, virtue. Indian *dharma* encompasses both human and divine laws, establishes more duties than rights, and although it emanates from Vedic priestly schools, it draws not only from revelation (*śruti*) but also from tradition (*smṛti*). Collections of rules on the duties and rights of priests, kings, householders, and ascetics served as norms for the brahmans (v. BRAHMANA) in their decisions regarding sacred and profane law as long as the administration of justice was entrusted to them. They became legal codes with the establishment of tribunals.
The oldest collections, in aphoristic prose, such as that of the school of Apastamba (*apastambiya-dharmasūtra*, from the 5th or 4th century B.C.), are usually called *sūtra*, aphorisms, while those in verse are commonly referred to as *śāstra*, treatises. However, the two terms are often used synonymously.
In the sense of *rectitude*, *dharma* is part of the triad: virtue, utility, and love (*dharma, artha, kāma*), considered three elements of human happiness and thus the purpose of life. Corresponding to expositions of the religious and moral duties of the Āryans (*dharma-śāstra*) are treatises on the means of acquiring and preserving wealth (*artha-śāstra*) and on the art of love (*kāma-śāstra*). The most well-known are: the *Artha-