History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c93.109

v7.c93.109

Having declared in the first sūtra that after a person has studied the Veda and because he has done so, PMS proceeds to say that he should start on the consideration of what dharma¹⁹²⁸ is. The 2nd sūtra, therefore, defines ‘dharma as an act conducive to a man's highest good, that is characterized by an exhortative (vedic) text.’ Śabara explains that ‘codanā’ means a sentence that urges or exhorts a person to do an act. So this conveys that the means of knowledge (pramāṇa) as regards dharma are vedic sentences and it also means that what is characterized or indicated by codanā is dharma i. e. the nature (svarūpa) of Dharma is made manifest. The word ‘artha’ is put in to exclude acts (from being designated dharma) that may be mentioned in the veda but the result of doing which is evil, such as the sentence ‘one practising black magic (to harm a person) may perform the Śyena sacrifice.’ This is not dharma, but adharma, since the practice of black magic is condemned as sinful. This vedic sentence does not say that one should inflict injury, it only says that śyenayāga brings about injury and if one desires to inflict injury, śyena is the means.¹⁹²⁹ The Ślokavārtika remarks that the words, ‘codanā’, ‘upadeśa’ and ‘vidhi’ are synonyms according to Śabāra, the bhāṣyakāra. The word 'vidhi' is often translated as injunction (i. e. an authoritative order) but in common parlance 'injunction' means 'restraining a person from doing something.' Therefore, the word, 'codanā' or 'vidhi' has often been translated in these pages as 'exhortatory passage or exhortation.' The result is that dharma means a religious act (a yāga) which confers highest good. In Ṛg. X 90. 16 'yajña' is spoken of as the first (or ancient) dharma (yajñena yajñam-ayajanta devāstāni dharmāṇi prathamānyāsan) and Śabara (in the bhāṣya on P. M. S I. 1. 2) quotes this verse for the proposition that the Veda expressly says that dharma means 'yāga'. That Vedas have been promulgated for yajña is stated by the Vedāṅgajyotiṣa¹⁹³⁰ verse 3 (Vedā hi yajñārthamabhipravṛttāḥ). Medieval Dharmaśāstra writers like the Mitākṣarā (on Yāj. II. 135), Dāyatattva (p. 172), Vy. M. (p. 157) quote a verse ascribed to Devala or Kātyāyana, which provides that all wealth is created for sacrifices, that, therefore, one should expend it on purposes of dharma and not on women, fools and irreligious people¹⁹³¹ (vide H. of Dh. Vol. III. p. 609 n. 1155 for further passages of similar import and their application).