A god who is seen as the embodiment of dharma, or religious responsibility.
The five Pandava brothers, who are the epic's protagonists, all have heavenly fathers in the Mahabharata, the later of the two major Hindu epics, and the oldest brother Yudhishthira is the son of Dharma.
Yudhishthira and his brothers are from a kingly (kshatriya) family, yet Yudhishthira cares much about truth, morality, and compassion.
None of these are traditional kshatriya attributes, which emphasize bravery and martial valor, and Yudhishthira's qualities are generally explained by evoking his heavenly father's influence.
In medieval Bengal, a new kind of Dharma cult evolved from the blending of Buddhist, Muslim, and Hindu concepts.
Dharma was worshiped as a formless one ultimate Lord in this religion (perhaps reflecting Islamic influence), yet the worship of Dharma had many parallels to Bengali Hindu rites.
Obscure Religious Cults, by Shashibhushan B. Dasgupta, was published in 1962.
Dharma Literature is a term that refers to the study of the Buddha's teachings.
Many books address the issue of dharma, or religious responsibility, either openly or implicitly.
The Vedas are the earliest Hindu holy books, and they are said to define the eternal (sanatana) dharma.
The Dharma Sutras, composed in an aphoristic (sutra) style between the seventeenth and second centuries B.C.E., are the earliest important works specifically dedicated to dharma.
The Dharma Sutras were all associated with certain Vedic schools, and were therefore mainly meant as a behavior handbook for members of that school alone, at least in principle.
The Dharma Sutras were followed by the Dharma Shastras, which enlarged and placed into verse the information in the Dharma Sutras; these writings provided instructions for all members of society and were therefore meant to be "legal" in their significance.
The Manava Dharma Shastra (Manu Smrti), written around the turn of the common period, was one of the first.
Although the most notable works were written by the sixteenth century, the process of reconsidering and developing this legal heritage via commentary has persisted till now.
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