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The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c10.s13: The Dharma Sūtras

The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c10.s13

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The Dharma Sūtras

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At the outset it is proper to introduce a formal distinction¹⁷ between the *Dharma Sūtras* and the *Dharma Śāstras* (also called *Smritis*). The *Sūtras* are in prose (or in mixed prose and verse), the latter in verse. The topics are not arranged in an orderly manner in the *Sūtras* while the *Śāstras* (*Smritis*) are particular in observing the threefold grouping of topics, namely, *āchāra*, (customs), *vyavahāra* (law) and *prāyaśchitta* (penance). The *Sūtras* are older than the *Śāstras*.

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¹⁷ P. V. Kane : *History of Dharmaśāstras* Vol. I. (Poona 1930) pp. 12, 131.

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The authors of *Dharmasūtra* or *Dharmaśāstra* may be named below :¹⁸ ,

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¹⁸ *Ibid.*, pp. 19, 30, 45, 46, 59, 71, 148. M. Winternitz : *Geschichte* (Leipzic 1921) Vol. III. pp. 480, 482. Jolly : *Recht und Sitte* (Strassburg 1897) available in Engl. transl. (by B. Ghosh) as *Hindu Law and Custom* (Calcutta 1928).

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Gautama (c 550 B.C.)
Hārīta (c 500 B.C.)
Baudhāyana (c 450 B.C.)
Āpastamba (c 400 B.C.)
Hiraṇyakeśi, whose work is almost identical with Apastamba's.
Vaśiṣṭha (c 150 B.C.)
Manu (*Smriti*) (c 150 A.C.)

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The chronology is of course open to question.

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All the treatises mentioned above belong to the *Dharmasūtra* class with the exception of the *Manu Samhitā* which is a *Dharmaśāstra* or a *Smriti*. It may be observed that Max Müller and Bühler (*Sacred Books of the East*, Vol. XXV) have suspected the existence of a *Sūtra* by Manu which may have been later developed into the metrical *Śāstra*.

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The writers of other *Dharma Sūtras*¹⁹ may be enumerated here without reference to the chronological order: Atri, Uśanas, Kanva and Kānva, Kāśyapa and Kaśyapa, Gārgya, Chyavana, Jātu-Karaṇya, Devala, Paithīnasi, Budha, Brihaspati, Bharadvāja and Bhāradvāja, Śatātapa, Sumantu.

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¹⁹ P. V. Kane: *History of Dharmaśāstras* Vol. I. (Poona 1930) pp. 107-131.

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Manu, Atri, Viṣṇu, Hārīta, Yājnavalkya, Uśanas, Āngiras, Yama, Āpastamba, Samvarta, Kātyāyana, Brihaspati, Parāśara, Vyāsa, Śaṁkha, Likhita, Dakṣa, Gautama, Śatātapa and Vaśiṣṭha are the promulgators of *Dharma Śāstras* according to *Yājnavalkya Smriti* (I, ch. i, Introduction 4-5).²⁰

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²⁰ S. C. Vasu: *Yājnavalkya-Smriti* in the *Sacred Books of the Hindus* Series, Panini Office, Allahabad.

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The *Mitākṣarā* commentary on the above is as follows:

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"The *Dharma Śāstra* propounded by Yājnavalkya should also be studied. Such is the implied meaning of the above passage.

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"This is not an exhaustive enumeration (*parisaṃkhyā*) but is merely illustrative. Therefore, the *Dharma Śāstras* of Baudhāyana and others are not excluded.

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"As each of these *Smṛitis* possesses authority, so the points not mentioned by one may be supplied from others.

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"But if one set of Institutes contradicts the other, then there is an option (to follow any one of them) according to Manu, II, 14.

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"*Bālambhaṭṭa's* gloss on the above furnishes much interesting information on the subject."

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Devala gives the following list of the *Dharma Śāstras* : 1. Manu, 2. Yama, 3. Vaśiṣṭha, 4. Atri, 5. Dakṣa, 6. Viṣṇu, 7. Āṅgiras, 8. Uśanas, 9. Vākpati, 10 Vyāsa, 11. Āpastamba, 12. Gautama, 13. Kātyāyana, 14. Nārada, 15. Yājnavalkya, 16. Parāśara, 17. Saṃvarta, 18. Śaṃkha, 19. Hārīta, 20. Likhita.

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In this list Nārada is an addition, while in Yājnavalkya's list we have Śatātapa instead.

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The *Saṃkha* gives the following list :—1. Atri, 2. Brihaspati, 3. Uśanas, 4. Āpastamba, 5. Vaśiṣṭha, 6. Kātyāyana, 7. Parāśara, 8. Vyāsa, 9. Śaṃkha, 10. Likhita, 11. Saṃvarta, 12. Gautama, 13. Śatātapa, 14. Hārīta, 15. Yājnavalkya, 16. Prachetas and the rest. By the phrase "and the rest" is meant, according to the *Mitākṣarā* cited above, 17. Budha, 18. Devala, 19. Sumantu, 20. Jāmadgni, 21. Viśvāmitra, 22. Prajāpati, 23. Paiṭhīnasi, 24. Pitāmaha, 25. Baudhāyana, 26 .Chhāgaleya, 27. Jābāla, 28. Chyavana, 29. Marīchi, 30. Kāśyapa.

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In the *Bhaviṣya Purāṇa*²¹ we find the following addressed by Īśvara to Guha : "Having pondered over the texts of the eighteen *Purāṇas*, O Child, and over the texts of the *Smritis*, beginning with Manu and which are thirty-six in number, I now tell thee.”

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²¹ For the entire discussion about the number and the authority of the *Smṛitis* see Vasu as in the previous footnote.

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This shows that the *Smritis* are 36 in number. The *Smritis* like the 1. Vriddha-Śatātapa, 2. Yogi-Yājnavalkya, 3. Vriddha-Vaśiṣṭha, 4. Vriddha-Manu, 5. Laghu-Hārīta, &c. should be included in the well-known thirty-six under their original authors. For example, Manu includes the ordinary and the Vriddha Manu, and so on. The list becomes more lengthy in the account furnished by Ratnākara, who says, “We find in the *Bhaviṣya Purāṇa* itself the enumeration of other *Smritis* like Gobhila, Riṣyaśriṁga, etc., which are over and above the thirty-six; so we conclude that thirty-six does not exhaust the number of *Smritis*, but is only an enumeration made by the *śiṣṭas*.” Those which are found as *Grihya Sūtras* and their *Pariśiṣṭas*, &c., belong to a different category: like the *Purāṇas*. We are told by the *Bhaviṣya* that *Maitrāyaṇīya*, the *Chhāndogya*, the *Kaṭha*, the *Āpastamba*, the *Bhavrichas*, their *Pariśiṣṭas* and those called *Khilas* are also *Smritis*.

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The *Viṣṇu-Dharma*, the *Śiva-Dharma*, the *Mahābhārata*, and the *Rāmāyaṇa* and the rest are also to be included among *Smritis*. As says the *Bhaviṣya*:—“The eighteen *Purāṇas*, the history of Rāma (*Rāmāyaṇa*), the *Viṣṇu-Dharma-Śāstra*, &c., the *Śiva-Dharma*, the fifth Veda called the *Mahābhārata* composed by Kriṣṇa Dvaipāyana, the *Sauradharma*, the *Mānavokta Dharma*, are also taken as such by the wise” (IV. v. 87-88).

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The words “as such” in the above mean that they are also followed by the great men, and are authoritative. Because they are not decried or dispraised by any and are followed by great men, so they are to be taken also as *Smritis*. The opinion that the *Smritis* are thirty-six only in number, or twenty-four only in number, is held only by some and is contradicted by others, and is not authoritative.

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That the *Smritis* are *Dharma-Śāstras* (Institutes of Sacred Law) we learn from Manu II. 10, where it is said "The *Vedas* should be known as *Śruti*; and the *Dharmaśāstras* as *Smriti*."

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According to Āṅgiras the wise say that the following are *Upa-Smritis* :—Jābāli, Nachiketa, Chhandas, Laugākṣi, Kaśyapa, Vyāsa, Sanatkumāra, Śatadru, Janaka, Vyāghra, Kātyāyana, Jātukarṇya, Kapinjala, Baudhāyana, Kanāda, and Viśvāmitra."

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In Hemādri's *Dāna-Khaṇḍa* the following more are enumerated : "Vatsa, Pāraskara, Pulastya, Pulaha, Kratu, Riṣyaśringa, Ātreya, Babhru, Vyāghra, Satyavrata, Bharadvāja, Gārgya, Kārṣṇājini, Laugākṣi, and Brahma-Sambhava."

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The *Smritis* of Prajāpati, Yama, Budha, and Devala which are enumerated in the *Kalpataru* are quoted by Hemādri as authority in connection with other authorities.

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The *Kalpataru* holds that the four sciences mentioned in the *Viṣṇu Purāṇa* (III. 6, 26), as they relate to positive physical sciences, should be taken as authority and *Dharma* in matters worldly. Those sciences are "the *Āyurveda* (medicine), the *Dhanurveda* (archery), the *Gandharvaveda* (music), and the *Arthaśāstra* (the science of wealth). The sciences are altogether eighteen according to the *Viṣṇu Purāṇa*."

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So also in the *Śiva Purāṇa*, the *Vāyavīya Saṃhitā*, it is said: "O Romaharṣaṇa! O all-knowing! thou hast obtained through good luck a complete knowledge of all the *Purāṇas* from Vyāsa. The four *Vedas*, the six *Aṃgas*, the *Mīmāṃsā*, the *Nyāya*, the *Purāṇa* and the *Dharma Śāstra* are fourteen *Vidyās*. The *Āyurveda* (medicine), the *Dhanurveda* (archery), the *Gandharvaveda* (music) and the *Arthaśāstra* (the science of wealth) are the additional four, making the *Vidyās* eighteen. Of all these eighteen *Vidyās*, treating of different topics, the original author and direct prophet is the Trident-handed Śiva: such is the saying." (*Śiva Purāṇa*, I. 23).

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Though all these are sources of law, yet each one of them does not deal with all matters; and sometimes they contradict one another. Therefore, the commentator says that though each of them is an authority, yet the lacunae of one should be supplied from the other, where one is incomplete; and where they differ there is option. Manu (II, 14) has also taught this option in regard to the *Smṛitis*. But when two *Śrutis* are conflicting, both are held to be law, says he; for both are pronounced by the wise to be valid."

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