History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c93.356.2

v7.c93.356.2

166-168) all the known classes of Sanskrit works with regard to their usefulness and relation to Veda and ordinary worldly experience. Only a few sentences will be set out here and in the notes. Therefore, he provides that all Smṛtis are authoritative according to the purpose they serve. Those parts of Smṛtis that are concerned with Dharma and Mokṣa have the Veda as their source, while whatever parts of Smṛtis are concerned with wealth (*artha*) and worldly pleasures (*kāma*) are based on worldly practices. The same rule applies to the hortatory passages of *Itihāsa* (the Mahābhārata) and Purāṇas, both of which are often spoken of as Smṛti. The episodes and tales in these two should be taken as *arthavādas*. Then he refers to the descriptions of the divisions of the earth and the vaṁśas (dynastic lists) (both of which are among the subjects treated of in the Purāṇas) and sets out the purposes they might serve. The six Vedāṅgas (grammar, metrics, etymology, astronomy &c.) are useful as kratvartha and puruṣārtha, and Mīmāṁsā and Nyāya (logic) have been established (worked up) from worldly experience by means of *pratyakṣa* (direct perception) and inference based upon the technique evolved by a continuous and unbroken line of learned men; that no single person would have been able to put together for the first time such a large collection of arguments ²⁰⁵² (as in the Mīmāṁsāśāstra). For the necessity of Nyāya (in the interpretation of the Veda) he relies upon Manu XII. 105-106.