The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c10.s13.23

c10.s13.23

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*.