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The introduction of the means of gaining Siddhi, on
the other hand, is without a parallel in other Dharma- Sutras, and the
subject is entirely alien to the scope of such works. Its treatment,
too, shows that chapters five to eight do not belong to the author of
the major part of the Dharma- Sutra, for the description of the
preparatory ‘'restraints' or austerities contains some what more
detailed rules for a number of penances, namely, the Krccheas and the
Chandrayana, which have already been described in the preceding
Prasnas.
Moreover, the style and the language of whole, fourth
Prasna is utterly different from that of the three preceding ones, and
the differences observable are exactly the same as those between the
first five and the last four Prasnas of the, Grhya-Sutra. The epic
sloka, almost throughout, replaces the aphoristic prose, and the
common slip shod Sanskrit of the Puranas appears, instead of the
archaic forms.
Fourthly, the fourth Prasna is divided into Adhyayas,
not into Kandikas, or Khandas and Adhyayas, which are found in the
first two Prasnas. 29 It is, further,
doubtful if the third Prasna, too, is the work of Baudhayana. Though
it resembles in style and language the first two Prasnas of the book,
the last peculiarity, observed above, about the fourth Prasna, appears
here again. The first two chapters exhaust entirely the discussion of
the whole Dharma; the third contains merely supplementary information
on some points dealt with previously.
Several Adhyayas of the third Prasna have been
borrowed from other works or are abstracts. Thus the tenth chapter has
a close resemblance to the law-book of Gautama, and the sixth has some
resemblance to Vishnu, 30 and the third
comprises a summary of the doctrine of Vikhanas or of hermits living
in the forest.
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