History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.t2.561

v4.c63.t2.561

This discussion about smṛtis based on the Veda or on perceptible purposes or motives is taken up in the digests on dharmaśāstra. For example, Aparārka¹⁶³⁴ (pp. 626–627) quotes long passages from the Bhaviṣyapurāṇa dividing the contents of smṛtis into five categories and exemplifying that division, viz. (1) those based on a visible purpose or motive, (2) those based on unseen or spiritual motives or purposes, (3) those based on both visible purposes and unseen or spiritual purposes, (4) those based on reasoning, (5) those that merely re-iterate what is already well-known or determined. All these except the first variety are based according to the Bhaviṣyapurāṇa on the Veda. The examples of the five kinds given by the same Purāṇa are respectively as follows: (1) the smṛti (viz. Arthaśāstra or Daṇḍanīti) in which there is a discussion about six guṇas (*sandhi* &c.), the four upāyas (*sāma*, *dāna* &c.), the various superintendents of state departments (*adhyakṣa*) and of *kaṇṭakas*; (2) the prescription that one should perform the *sandhyā* worship or that one should not partake of dog's flesh; (3) a *brahmacārin* should carry a staff of *palāśa* (the staff serves for one's protection, which is a seen purpose, but that it should be of palāśa and of no other tree is based on an unseen motive); (4) when one text declares that *homa* should be performed after sunrise and another declares that it should be performed before sunrise, reasoning requires that there should be an option (vide Manu II. 15); (5) when Manu declares (in VI. 38) that a brāhmaṇa should leave home to become a wandering ascetic he simply re-iterates what is laid down in such Vedic passages as Bṛ. Up. III. 5. 1 (*vyutthāyātha bhikṣācaryam caranti*) or Jābāla Up. 4.