Dharmaśāstra
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Dharmaśāstra (Sanskrit: धर्मशास्त्र) is a genre of Sanskrit texts and refers to the śāstra, or Indic branch of learning, pertaining to Hindu dharma, religious and legal duty. The voluminous textual corpus of Dharmaśāstra is primarily a product of the Brahmanical tradition in India and represents the elaborate scholastic system of an expert tradition.[1] Because of its sophisticated jurisprudence, Dharmaśāstra was taken by early British colonial administrators to be the law of the land for Hindus in India.[2] Ever since, Dharmaśāstra has been linked with Hindu law, despite the fact that its contents deal as much or more with religious life as with law. In fact, a separation of religion and law within Dharmaśāstra is artificial and has been repeatedly questioned.[3] Others have, however, argued for a distinction of religious and secular law within Dharmaśāstra.[4] Dharmaśāstra is important within the Hindu tradition--first, as a source of religious law describing the life of an ideal householder and, second, as symbol of the summation of Hindu knowledge about religion, law, ethics, etc.
Contents of Dharmaśāstra
All Dharmaśāstra derives its authority with reference to the Vedas, though few, if any, of the contents of most Dharmaśāstra texts can be directly linked with extant Vedic texts.[5] Traditionally, Dharmaśāstra has, since the time of the Yājñvalkyasmṛti, been divided into three major topics: 1) ācāra, rules pertaining to daily rituals, life-cycle rites, and other duties of four castes or varṇas, 2) vyavahāra, rules pertaining to the procedures for resolving doubts about dharma and rules of substantive law categorized according the standard eighteen titles of Hindu law, and 3) prāyaścitta, rules about expiations and penances for violations of the rules of dharma.
A more descriptive catalog of the contents of Dharmaśāstra (pulled from the contents of P.V. Kane's History of Dharmaśāstra)[6] includes the following topics:
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In addition to these topics, Dharmaśāstra makes extensive use of the tradition of textual hermeneutics known as Pūrva-Mīmāṃsā, which describes in great detail how to interpret the ritual texts of the Vedic corpus. The principles of Mīmāṃsā have been borrowed and reapplied to a broader range of religious and legal phenomena in the Dharmaśāstra.[7] Other cognate disciplines important for understanding Dharmaśāstra are grammar and Nyāya.
Principal Root Texts
While there are literally hundreds of Dharmaśāstra texts and many more commentaries and digests, the principal Dharmaśāstra texts include:
The Dharmasūtras
Written somewhere between the third and first centuries BC, the sūtras were concise prose expressions and abbreviated references. These texts required educated interpretations:
- Āpastamba
- Gautama
- Baudhāyana
- Vāsiṣṭha
The Dharmaśāstras
Written after the Dharmasūtras, these texts use a metered verse and are much more elaborate in their scope. Scholars have postulated that these texts are actually compilations of common gnomic verses of the times, known by the śiṣṭas. Such verses were regularly cited as legitimation for legal judgments and advice. At some point these verses were gathered together into complete texts under the name of particular sages. These texts are said to have been edited and updated with additions of verses which had not previously been included.[8] However, there is an ongoing debate amongst scholars regarding this matter. Other scholars refute the multiple authorship idea, claiming that the major texts were written by a single author at a particular time in history and remained relatively unedited as time went by. [9] Regardless, by attributing their authorship to that of well known sages like Nārada, the text takes on a superior authority. The most influential texts are listed below, along with their approximate dates:
- The Manusmṛti (200BC-200CE) is the most important and earliest metrical work of the Dharmaśāstra textual tradition of Hinduism.[10]
- The Yājñvalkyasmṛti (200-500CE) has been called the "best composed" and "most homogeneous"[11] text of the Dharmaśāstra tradition, with its superior vocabulary and level of sophistication.
- The Nāradasmṛti (100BC-400CE) has been called the “juridical text par excellence” and represents the only Dharmaśāstra text which deals solely with juridical matters and ignoring those of righteous conduct and penance[12].
- The Viṣṇusmṛti (300BCE-1000CE) is one of the latest books of the Dharmaśāstra tradition in Hinduism and also the only one which does not deal directly with the means of knowing dharma, focusing instead on the bhakti tradition.[13]
- The Bṛhaspatismṛti (200-400CE) is an attempt to reconstruct of of the lost Dharmaśāstras and pays full tribute to Manu as the ultimate authority on dharma. [14]
- The Kātyāyanasmṛti (300-600CE) is the other successful reconstruction text and specializes in vyavahāra.[15]
Commentaries and Digests
The commentaries (Bhashya) on the Dharmaśāstras were generally devoted to one particular text, or smṛti. The commentators saw themselves as interpreters of the texts, concerning themselves with explaining the meaning of the texts they were commenting on.[16] The digests (nibandhas) were arranged by topic, more or less, and drew upon many different smṛtis for their source material. For example, an author of a digest might focus on the topic of inheritance, and then discuss how several different smṛtis address the issue. In many cases it is difficult to tell the difference between a commentary and a digest because many commentaries draw upon several outside sources to legitimate the claims they make about a specific smṛti and to attempt to reconcile any disagreements between the texts.
Principal Commentaries
Commentaries on the Manu-Smṛti
- Bhāruci
- Mēdhātithi
- Manvartha-muktavali by Kullūka (Kullūkabhaṭṭa)
- Nārāyaṇa
- Raghavananda
- Nandana
Commentaries on the Yājñavalkya-Smṛti
- Bālakrīḍā by Viśvarupa
- Mitākṣarā by Vijñāneśvara
- Aparārka
- Dīpakalikā by Śūlapāṇi
- Vīramitrodaya by Mitramiśra
Commentaries on the Nārada-Smṛti
- Asahāya
Commentaries on the Viṣṇu-Smṛti
- Vaijayantī by Nandapaṇḍita
Principal Digests
Major English Translations
1. Best for beginners
- Olivelle, Patrick. 2004. The Law Code of Manu. New York: Oxford UP.
- Olivelle, Patrick. 1999. Dharmasūtras: The Law Codes of Āpastamba, Gautama, Baudhāyana, and Vāsiṣṭha. New York: Oxford UP.
2. Other major translations
- Kane, P.V. (ed. and trans.) 1933. Kātyāyanasmṛti on Vyavahāra (Law and Procedure). Poona: Oriental Book Agency.
- Lariviere, Richard W. 2003. The Nāradasmṛti. 2nd rev. ed. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
- Rocher, Ludo. 1956. Vyavahāracintāmani: a digest on Hindu legal procedure. Gent.
3. Early translations with full-text online
- Bühler, Georg (trans.), The Laws of Manu, SBE Vol. 25, 1886.
- Bühler, Georg (trans.), The Sacred Laws of the Āryas, SBE Vol. 2, 1879 [Part 1: Āpastamba and Gautama]
- Bühler, Georg (trans.), The Sacred Laws of the Āryas, SBE Vol. 14, 1882 [Part 2: Vāsiṣṭha and Baudhāyana]
- Jolly, Julius (trans.), The Institutes of Viṣṇu, SBE Vol. 7, 1880.
- Jolly, Julius (trans.), The Minor Law-Books, SBE Vol. 33. Oxford, 1889. [contains both Bṛhaspatismṛti and Nāradasmṛti]
Notes
- ^ Patrick Olivelle, Manu's Code of Law: A Critical Edition and Translation of the Mānava-Dharmaśāstra (New York: Oxford UP, 2005), 64.
- ^ For a good overview of the British attitudes toward and administration of Hindu law, see J. Duncan M. Derrett, "The Administration of Hindu Law by the British," Comparative Studies in Society and History 4:1 (1961), pp.10-52.
- ^ See, for example, Ludo Rocher, "Hindu Law and Religion: Where to draw the line?" in Malik Ram Felicitation Volume, ed. S.A.J. Zaidi. (New Delhi, 1972), pp.167-194 and Richard W. Lariviere, "Law and Religion in India" in Law, Morality, and Religion: Global Perspectives, ed. Alan Watson (Berkeley: University of California Press), pp.75-94.
- ^ On this distinction in relation to punishment, see Timothy Lubin, "Punishment and Expiation: Overlapping Domains in Brahmanical Law," Indologica Taurinensia 33 (2007): 93-122.
- ^ Robert Lingat, The Classical Law of India. trans. J.D.M. Derrett (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973), 7-8.
- ^ P.V. Kane, History of Dharmaśāstra: (ancient and mediaeval, religious and civil law). (Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 1962 - 1975).
- ^ Kisori Lal Sarkar, The Mimansa Rules of Interpretation as applied to Hindu Law. Tagore Law Lectures of 1905 (Calcutta: Thacker, Spink, 1909).
- ^ Lariviere 1989: xi
- ^ Olivelle, “Literary History”: 25
- ^ See Flood 1996: 56 and Olivelle 2005.
- ^ Lingat 1973: 98
- ^ Lariviere 1989: ix
- ^ Olivelle 2007: 149-150.
- ^ Olivelle, "Literary History": 20, 26
- ^ Olivelle, "Literary History": 27
- ^ Robert Lingat, The Classical Law of India, (New York: Oxford UP, 1973), 107.
References
- Translation by Richard W. Lariviere (1989). The Nāradasmr̥ti. University of Philadelphia.
- Flood, Gavin (1996). An Introduction to Hinduism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-43878-0.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - Olivelle, Patrick. "Dharmasastra: A Literary History"
- Olivelle, Patrick (2005). Manu's Code of Law: A Critical Edition and Translation of the Mānava-Dharmaśāstra. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-195-17146-2.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - Lingat, Robert (1973). The Classical law of India. New York: Oxford UP Publ.
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External links
- The Cooperative Annotated Bibliography of Hindu Law and Dharmaśāstra
- Alois Payer's Dharmaśāstra Site (in German, with copious extracts in English)
- "Maharishi University of Management - Vedic Literature Collection" An excellent, authentic Sanskrit reference to the texts of all 18 Smritis.