Śāstra Literature

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ŚĀSTRA LITERATURE

ŚĀSTRA LITERATURE . The Sanskrit term śāstra means, first, "precept, command, rule"; hence, a treatise in which precepts on a particular topic have been collected; and, finally, any branch of technical lore. Vāstuśāstra, for example, refers both to a treatise on vāstu ("architecture") and to the science of architecture generally; Cikitsāśāstra indicates both a treatise on medicine and the science of medicine; and so forth.

This article will be primarily concerned with the śāstra s connected with the three goals (trivarga ) that a Hindu is supposed to pursue during life: dharma ("spiritual obligations"), artha ("material welfare"), and kāma ("pleasure, enjoyment"). It is worth noticing that the texts in each of these three categories, to a greater or lesser extent, also recognize the importance of pursuing the other two goals. In fact, a harmonious pursuit of the trivarga is a necessary condition to reach a Hindu's ultimate goal: mokṣa, final liberation from the cycle of deaths and rebirths (saṃsāra ).

Most important—and most voluminous—are the Dharmaśāstras. They basically cover the same material as the Dharmasūtras, but they are more detailed and better organized, are mostly in verse (the thirty-two syllable anuṣṭubh, or śloka ), and are considered to be more recent. Like the Dharmasūtras, they are attributed to ancient sages or "seers" (ṛṣi ), the most important of whom was Manu. The date of the Manava Dharmaśāstra (Laws of Manu) is uncertain, but falls somewhere between about 200 bce and 100 ce. It was followed, probably in this order, by the Dharmaśāstras attributed to Yājñavalkya, Viṣṇu, Nārada, Bṛhaspati, Kātnāyana, and others.

The Dharmaśāstras, together with the sūtra s, constitute what is known as the smṛti (from the root smṛ, "to remember"); hence the titles Manusmṛti (the Mānava Dharma-śāstra ), Yājñavalkyasmṛti, and so forth. The smṛti is considered to be a form of revelation based on the Vedas, which in turn form the śruti (from the root śru, "to hear"). The śruti is the only more authoritative body of writings than the smṛti; the śāstra s themselves state that, in case of a conflict between śruti and smṛti, the former shall prevail. Although all smṛti s theoretically have equal authority, in practice the Manusmṛti is recognized as being superior to the others.

The Manusmṛti represents the Indian ideal of a Dharmaśāstra. After an introductory section on the creation, the text devotes five chapters to the description of the saṃskāra s, that is, those ritual performances that mark off the successive periods in a Hindu's life, and of the duties to be performed in each of the four principal stages (āśrama s). The next three chapters concentrate on the dharma of one individual: the king. He is to protect those among his subjects who adhere to their own dharma against those who do not. The section on the king's dharma (rājadharma ) naturally includes those passages for which the text first became known to Westerners, those on Hindu law. (Hence the title Laws of Manu.) Among the miscellaneous topics treated in the last three chapters are the duties and occupations of the different castes (varṇa ) including "mixed castes," expiations of sins, and the rules governing specific forms of rebirth.

The beginning of this century witnessed the discovery—and publication—of the text of the Arthaśāstra attributed to Kauṭilya (or Kauṭalya; occasionally Cāṇakya or Viṣṇugupta). Even though minor Arthaśāstra texts had been known before that time, and even though some Arthaśāstra materials also appear in the Dharmaśāstras, until 1905 the text called Arthaśāstra was known from a few quotations only. Kauṭilya, unlike the composers of the Dharmaśāstras, is a historic figure. If he was indeed a minister of the Maurya king Candragupta, he must have lived at the end of the fourth century bce. Some scholars, however, do not believe in Kauṭilya's authorship; based on detailed comparisons of elements in the Arthaśāstra with their appearance in various other works of Sanskrit literature, they assign the text later dates, down to the fourth century ce.

The Arthaśāstra, in prose occasionally mixed with verse, is a manual for the king and for the successful administration of his kingdom. It provides detailed prescriptions on the various administrative departments, the duties of their heads, and their internal organization. Perhaps the text has become even better known for its ideas on foreign policy. Each king is considered a potential world conqueror (cakravartin ), and the Arthaśāstra provides him with various ways to achieve that goal. Kauṭilya's view that one's neighbor is, by definition, one's enemy who must be defeated with the support of his neighbor (who is, again by definition, a temporary ally), and his ruthless instructions on how to use spies and secret agents, are some of the reasons why he has been labeled "the Indian Machiavelli."

Within the area of Kāmaśāstra literature the principal text is undoubtedly the Kāma Sūtra attributed to Vatsyayana. The Kāma Sūtra shares a number of important characteristics with the Arthaśāstra: The Kāma Sūtra is also mostly in prose, interspersed with verses; like Kauṭilya, Vātsyāyana repeatedly quotes the opinions of predecessors, some of whom are the same as those named by Kauṭilya; and most important, both texts exhibit a number of passages that correspond, word for word. There seems to be general agreement that Vātsyāyana lived after Kauṭilya; his date, therefore, varies according to the individual scholar's opinion on the age of the Arthaśāstra.

The Kāma Sūtra instructs the nāgaraka, the prosperous citizen, on how to enjoy life to its fullest. Even though this involves, to a certain extent, the nāgaraka 's relationship with women—including married women and courtesans—the Kāma Sūtra also treats numerous other topics that shed light on the way of life and worldview of one section of ancient Indian society.

The true nature and purpose of the Indian śāstra s is still the object of much discussion among scholars. Contrary to the early belief of Westerners—which led to the adoption, in 1772, of "the shaster" as the main source of Hindu family law in British India—it was soon recognized that, at least as far as the Dharmaśāstras are concerned, they may very well have painted an ideal picture that did not necessarily correspond to real life situations. Hence the high expectations on the occasion of the discovery of the Arthaśāstra; scholars believed, and wrote at length, on the extent to which a book on artha was bound to provide a more realistic description of classical Indian society. The author of this article prefers to look upon the śāstra s as—no doubt highly stylized and systematized—compendia of existing customs and practices. They provided the overall theoretical framework that authorized each individual—mostly groups of individuals—to engage in the practice (prayoga ) of their traditionally recognized ways of behavior.

Bibliography

The most encyclopedic treatment of Dharmaśāstra is P. V. Kane's History of Dharmaśāstra, 5 vols. (Poona, 1930–1962). For a brief survey, see J. D. M. Derrett's Dharmaśāstra and Juridical Literature (Wiesbaden, 1973). The Manusmṛti has been translated in volume 25 of the "Sacred Books of the East" (Oxford, 1886); other translations in this series are the Viṣṇusmṛti in volume 7 (Oxford, 1880) and the Nāradasmṛti and Bṛhaspatismṛti, both in volume 33 (Oxford, 1889). The most recent edition and translation of the Arthaśāstra is R. P. Kangle's The Kauṭilīya Arthaśāstra, 3 vols. (Bombay, 1960–1965); that of the Kāma Sūtra is S. C. Upadhyaya's Kāma Sūtra of Vatsyāyāna (Bombay, 1961). For a bibliography on this subject, see Ludwik Sternbach's Bibliography on Dharma and Artha in Ancient and Mediaeval India (Wiesbaden, 1973).