History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v1.c6.s1.1.3

v1.c6.s1.1.3

The foregoing brief discussion establishes how the word *dharma* passed through several transitions of meaning and how ultimately its most prominent significance came to be ‘the privileges, duties and obligations of a man, his standard of conduct as a member of the Aryan community, as a member of one of the castes, as a person in a particular stage of life.’ It is in this sense that the word seems to be used in the well-known exhortation to the pupil contained in the Taittirīya-upaniṣad (I. 11) ‘speak the truth, practise (your own) *dharma* &c.’ It is in the same sense that the Bhagavadgītā uses the word *dharma* in the oft-quoted verse ‘svadharme nidhanaṁ śreyaḥ.’ The word is employed in this sense in the *dharmaśāstra* literature. The Manusmṛti (1. 2) tells us that the sages requested Manu to impart instruction in the *dharmas* of all the *varṇas*. The Yājñyavalkya-smṛiti (I. 1) employs it in the same sense. In the Tantra-Vārtika¹¹ also we are told that all the dharma-sūtras are concerned with imparting instruction in the *dharmas* of *varṇas* and *āśramas*. Medhātithi commenting on Manu says that the expounders of *smṛtis* dilate upon *dharma* as five-fold, *e. g.* *varṇadharma*, *āśrama-dharma*, *varṇāśrama-dharma*, *naimittikadharma* (such as *prāyaścitta*) and *guṇadharma* (the duty of a crowned king, whether Kṣatriya or not, to protect)¹². It is in this sense that the word *dharma* will be taken in this work.