[6] Like the dozens of other texts in this genre, the Vashistha Dharmasutra is a treatise on Dharma that discusses duties, responsibilities and ethics to oneself, to family and as a member of society.
[7] However, like many Dharmasutras and Dharmasastras of Hinduism, the manuscripts of this text that have survived show evidence of revisions and some very corrupt passages.
[8][9] By giving gifts a man obtains all his wishes, a long life, and rebirth as a handsome vedic student.
Some of the topics discussed in this Dharmasūtra are sources of law, sins, marriage, governance, social classes, rites of passage (birth, menstruation, marriage, cremation), good conduct, orders of life (ashrama), charity and guests, adoption, excommunication and loss of caste, readmission to caste, mixed classes, crimes, murder, adultery, theft, suicide, killing animals, penances, punishment for minor and major crimes, gifts, and others.
The Vashistha Dharmasutra states that the desire to know Dharma is for the "sake of attaining the highest goal of man", and one who knows it and follows is the righteous one.