The Strategic Evolution of Dharmic Authority The history of ancient Indian jurisprudence is not a record of static devotion to a singular, immutable truth, but rather a sophisticated narrative of shifting legal hierarchies and the strategic evolution of authority. The transition from the ritualistic fixations of the Vedic age to the comprehensive social-legal codes of the Smritis represents a deliberate jurisprudential pivot. This was an essential maneuver designed to manage a vast "congeries of communities" under a unified Brahminical framework. The transition lies in the professional legitimacy of the Brahminical class. For this elite to maintain social order, they had to master the "art of circumlocution" to resolve the inherent "riddles" and textual contradictions within the sacred corpus. By developing complex hermeneutical stratagems, they ensured that the law remained a tool for social control, even when its foundational texts offered incohere...