Religions of South Asia 9.2 (2015) 137–163 ISSN (print) 1751-2689 doi:10.1558/rosa.v9i2.31072 ISSN (online) 1751-2697 © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2016, Oice 415, The Workstation, 15 Paternoster Row, Sheield S1 2BX. Dharma and ‘Custom’: Semantic Persistence, Semantic Change and the Anxieties of the Principled Few AdAm BowleS 1 School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry The University of Queensland St lucia Qld 4072, Australia a.bowles1@uq.edu.au ABSTRACT: This article does three things. First, it argues that the usage of dhar- ma in the sense of ‘customary practice’, which is found in compounds such as deśadharma and kuladharma, can be traced back to the Atharvaveda. Second, it ar- gues that in the Dharmaśāstra tradition this usage of the word dharma as ‘custom’ ought to be distinguished from cra, which is also often taken in the sense of ‘custom’, because cra frequently implies a hieratic sense of ‘customary behav- iour’, especially in its association with the cultured practices of particular elites (the sat, sdhu, or śiṣṭa). Therefore, dharma in the usage this article is concerned with is a broader term for ‘custom’ than cra. And, third, it suggests that when the Dharmaśāstra writers restricted the currency of such customary dharmas to cases where existing sacred texts (śruti or smti) could not be called upon, they were reairming that such dharmas were worldly rather than transcendent, and not to be confused with the transcendent dharma the principled few now identi- ied with these sacred texts—a development attributable to other changes that shifted the word dharma to the very centre of brahmanic ideology. KeYwoRdS: Atharvaveda; custom; dharma; Dharmaśāstra. Some time ago, a brahmin arrived at the house of a craftsman as a guest. After carefully observing the customary practices (cra) there, delighted, he said to the craftsman: ‘long have I lived alone on the peak of Himavat and observed many lands (bahavo deśḥ) teeming with various customary practices (nndharmasamkula). And these people were not in conlict (na … virudhyante) with any law (dharma), for 1. dr Adam Bowles is Senior lecturer in Asian Religions at The University of Queensland in Australia. He has published three volumes concerning the Mahbhrata, co-edited The Churning of the Epics and Purṇas (in press), and co-authored the monograph A History of State and Religion in India (Routledge, 2012). He has authored a number of other articles and book chapters on topics such as dharma, the Mahbhrata, and the maratha polity.