Editing Apastamba Dharmasutra (section)

==Authorship, location and dates==
{{Quote box
 |quote  = '''Duties of a teacher'''
<poem>
Next the teacher's conduct towards his pupil.
Loving him like a son and totally devoted to him,
the teacher should impart knowledge to him,
without holding anything back,
with respect to any of the Laws.
Except in emergency, moreover,
he should not employ a pupil,
for purposes to the detriment of the pupil's studies.
</poem>
 |source = — ''Apastamba Dharmasutras 1.8.23-25''<br>Translator: Patrick Olivelle{{sfn|Patrick Olivelle|1999|p=17}}
 |bgcolor=#FFE0BB
 |align  = right
}}
The Dharmasutra is attributed to Apastamba, the founder of a [[Shakha]] (Vedic school) of [[Yajurveda]].{{Sfn|Robert Lingat|1973|p=20}} According to the Hindu tradition, Apastamba was the student of Baudhayana, and himself had a student named Hiranyakesin. Each of the three founded a Vedic school, and each of their schools produced a collection of literature within the Krishna Yajurveda tradition, one that included separate [[Kalpa (Vedanga)|Kalpasutra]] compilations.{{Sfn|Robert Lingat|1973|p=20}} They were founders of their traditions, but it is unclear if they authored the Dharmasutras. It is, states Patrick Olivelle, possible that the Apastamba Dharmasutra is ascribed to Apastamba, but actually composed by others in his school.{{Sfn|Patrick Olivelle|1999|p=xxv-xxvi}}

The Apastamba tradition may be from south India, possibly near where modern [[Andhra Pradesh] and Telangana] is between Godavari and Krishna rivers, but this is not certain.{{Sfn|Patrick Olivelle|1999|p=xxvii}}{{Sfn|Robert Lingat|1973|pp=21-22}} The verse 2.17.17 of the Apastamba Dharmasutra mentions a practice of "northerners" but it in unclear what "north" means in the context it is used. (May be in Sanskrit it is Uttaradi. In Madhwa parampara, there are three Mutts-- Uttaradi, Vyasaraya and Mantralaya. In this context, majority of Apastamba tradition can be find in Madhwas) {{Sfn|Patrick Olivelle|1999|p=xxvii}} Further, the ancient grammarian [[Pāṇini|Panini]] refers to it too, and he is generally placed in northwest Indian subcontinent.{{Sfn|Patrick Olivelle|1999|p=xxvii}} Olivelle states that the three Taittiriya school Dharmasutras mention practices of north and south, but never clarify how far north or south they are referring to, but placing Dharmasutras in the southern Indian peninsula implies that Brahmanical ideas had established themselves or emerged in the south by the 1st millennium BCE.{{Sfn|Patrick Olivelle|1999|p=xxvii}} According to Olivelle, the Yajurveda schools may have been in what is north India today, and the Apastamba Dharmasutra may have been composed in north India, rather than south.{{Sfn|Patrick Olivelle|1999|p=xxvii-xxviii}} In contrast, Robert Lingat states that epigraphical evidence such as the Pallava inscriptions confirm that Apastamba tradition existed in South India, in ancient times, in parts of what became [[Madras Presidency]] in the colonial British India.{{Sfn|Robert Lingat|1973|p=22}}

Kane estimated that Apastamba Dharmasutra dates from approximately 600-300 BCE,{{Sfn|Robert Lingat|1973|p=22}} and later more narrowly to between 450 and 350 BCE.{{Sfn|Patrick Olivelle|1999|p=xxxi}} Lingat states that the internal evidence within the text hints of great antiquity, because unlike later Dharma texts, it makes no mention of Buddhism.{{Sfn|Robert Lingat|1973|p=22}} Other scholars, such as Hopkins, assert that all this can be explained to be an artifact of its relatively remote geographical origins in Andhra region.{{Sfn|Robert Lingat|1973|p=22}} Olivelle, and several other scholars, in contrast, state that the first version of Apastamba Dharmasutra may have been composed after others, but the extant version of the Apastamba text is the oldest Dharma text from ancient India.{{sfn|Patrick Olivelle|1999|p=xxviii with note 8, xxx-xxxi with note 10}}{{Sfn|Patrick Olivelle|2006|pp=178 with note 28, 186}}

Regardless of the relative chronology, the ancient Apastamba Dharmasutra, states Olivelle, shows clear signs of a maturing legal procedure tradition and that there were Dharma texts in ancient India before it was composed.{{sfn|Patrick Olivelle|2005|p=44}}{{Sfn|Robert Lingat|1973|pp=19-22, Quote: The dharma-sutra of Apastamba suggests that a rich literature on dharma already existed. He cites ten authors by name. (...).}}{{Sfn|Timothy Lubin|Donald R. Davis Jr|Jayanth K. Krishnan|2010|p=38}}