History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c96.s1.38

v7.c96.s1.38

When reforms are suggested in these days, conservative people put forward the plea that ours is ‘sanātana-dharma’²⁶¹² and so no changes should be introduced. But the words ‘sanātana dharma’ do not mean that Dharma always stands still or is immutable; all that those words mean is that our culture is very ancient and has a long tradition behind it but they do not mean that Dharma permits no change. As a matter of fact fundamental changes in conceptions, beliefs and practices have been made from ancient times to the medieval times by means of various devices. Attention may be drawn to a few Veda was all in all in very ancient times but in the Upaniṣads this was changed, the Muṇḍaka I. 1. 5 designating the four Vedas as inferior knowledge (aparā vidyā) and the knowledge of the immutable *brahman* as the higher vidyā; in the Chān. Up. VII. 1.4, the four Vedas and several other branches of knowledge are called by Sanatkumāra (whom Nārada approached for instruction) mere name (nāma). Yajñas were the most important religious practice in the early Vedic period, but the Muṇḍaka Up. I. 2. 7 designates them as leaky boats and regards those who hold them as the best thing to be fools. Vide above pp. 1265-72 about changes in the views on anuloma marriages, on the topic of whose food may be partaken even by a brāhmaṇa, the abrogation of many Vedic practices by the doctrine of Kalivarjya (matters forbidden in Kali age) &c. Manu, Yāj, Viṣṇudharmasūtra, Viṣṇu and other purāṇas expressly provide that one should not observe but give up what was once Dharma, if it has come to be hateful to the people and if it would end in unhappiness (vide p. 1270 n. 2071 above). The Śāntiparva²⁶¹³ expressly states that what was *adharma* (in one age) may become *dharma* in another and that dharma and adharma are both subject to the limitations of country and time. Kāma also was not neglected, as the Kāmasūtra (particularly its chapter on 'nāgaraka-vṛtta' I. 4) will show. The extensive Nātyaśāstra of Bharata (containing about 5000 verses) is a witness to the aesthetic enjoyment of dance, music and drama in ancient India by thousands of ordinary men and women.