Hindu dharma in the Vedas and smritis means commands and prohibitions, not universal principles.

Evidence

What is this Hindu religion? Is it a set of principles, or is it a code of rules? Now the Hindu religion, as contained in the Vedas and the smritis, is nothing but a mass of sacrificial, social, political, and sanitary rules and regulations, all mixed up. What is called religion by the Hindus is nothing but a multitude of commands and prohibitions. Religion, in the sense of spiritual principles, truly universal, applicable to all races, to all countries, to all times, is not to be found in them; and if it is, it does not form the governing part of a Hindu’s life. That for a Hindu dharma means commands and prohibitions is clear from the way the word dharma is used in the Vedas and the smritis and understood by the commentators. The word dharma as used in the Vedas in most cases means religious ordinances or rites. — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 995

Categorization

• DEFINE: Shows that the Sanskrit word dharma itself, in its Vedic usage, meant injunctive rules — grounding Ambedkar’s reframing in textual evidence.