~Sruti & Smriti~

[bingleguy]

Good Quote indeed ! Badri sir

[bingleguy]

I feel the works which are expressly called Smritis are the law books, Dharma Sastras !

Is that true ????

[Badri]

Yes, that is true. The Smrti makes up the Dharmasastras.

But this classification as you have said earlier is contentious. To better understand this, we must know what the Dharmasastras are.

The 6th anga of the Veda is the Kalpa which deals with the methods to be followed for rituals. Obviously there are several injunctions on what to do and what not to do. These are given in the form of the Kalpa Sutras which themselves are several. A sutra is a terse utterance, a very pithy statement.

The Dharmasastras were later expounded to explain these sutras. Thus, they became elaborate treatises that deal with what to do and what not to do in order to live a life as ordained by the Shruti. This gave rise to traditions to be followed or what we also call Sastras. This is Smriti.

In that case, why should we include Itihasa-Puraanadi as part of Smriti?

To understand this, we must look at the definition of the Smriti itself.

Samskara janyam jnanam Smrtih - Knowledge born out of recollection of doing is called Smriti

We have done something previously and when we recollect that, we call it memory. This is Smriti. Itihasa and Purana are tales of people who have followed this Dharma, as expounded by the Shruti. It is actually a recounting of their samskaras. Therefore, going by the previous definition of Smriti, this also comes under the same category of Smriti.

[bingleguy]

Samskara-janyam jnanam Smrtih - Knowledge born out of recollection of doing is called Smriti

Do u feel dharma sastras were also just remembered and not written ?

[Badri]

Not so. The Dharmasastras were written. But they were the products of recollecting a life lived according to the injunctions of the Shruti.

Dharmasastras are not said to be apourusheya...they have definite human authors. To make it easy to understand, let me put it this way. The Sages who saw the truth of the Vedas then lived accordingly. When they recollected the manner in which they carried out the Vedic injunctions, they decided to put it down as Dharmasastras so that others who had not "seen" like they had can also benefit by it.