Dharma Shastra

The Dharma Shastras are based on the difficult to read Dharma Sutras.

Introduction

The textual corpus of Dharma Shastras were composed in poetic verses, are part of the Hindu Smritis, constituting divergent commentaries and treatises on duties, responsibilities and ethics to oneself, to family and as a member of society.

The texts include discussion of ashrama (stages of life), varna (social classes), purushartha (proper goals of life), personal virtues and duties such as ahimsa (non-violence) against all living beings, rules of just war, and other topics.

Texts

The extant Dharma Shastra texts are listed below:

• The Manusmriti ( 2nd to 3rd century CE) is the most studied and earliest metrical work of the Dharma Shastra textual tradition of Hinduism. The medieval era Buddhistic law of Myanmar and Thailand are also ascribed to Manu, and the text influenced past Hindu kingdoms in Cambodia and Indonesia.
• The Yājñavalkya Smṛti (~4th to 5th-century CE) has been called the "best composed" and "most homogeneous" text of the Dharma Shastra tradition, with its superior vocabulary and level of sophistication. It may have been more influential than Manusmriti as a legal theory text.
• The Nāradasmṛti (~5th to 6th-century CE) has been called the "juridical text par excellence" and represents the only Dharma Shastra text which deals solely with juridical matters and ignoring those of righteous conduct and penance.
• The Viṣṇusmṛti (~7th-century CE) is one of the latest books of the Dharma Shastra 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.

British Influence

Of the four extant Dharma Shastras, Manusmriti, Yajnavalkyasmriti and Naradasmriti are the most important surviving texts. But, states Robert Lingat, numerous other Dharma Shastras whose manuscripts are now missing, have enjoyed equal authority.

Between the three, the Manusmriti became famous during the colonial British India era, yet modern scholarship states that other Dharma Shastras such as the Yajnavalkyasmriti appear to have played a greater role in guiding the actual Dharma.

Further, the Dharma Shastras were open texts, and they underwent alterations and rewriting through their history.

Contents of Dharma Shastras and Dharmasutras

All Dharma, in Hindu traditions, has its foundation in the Vedas. The Dharma Shastra texts enumerate four sources of Dharma – the precepts in the Vedas, the tradition, the virtuous conduct of those who know the Vedas, and approval of one's conscience (Atmasantushti, self-satisfaction).

The Dharma Shastra texts include conflicting claims on the sources of dharma. The theological claim therein asserts, without any elaboration, that Dharma just like the Vedas are eternal and timeless, the former is directly or indirectly related to the Vedas.

Yet these texts also acknowledge the role of Smriti, customs of polite learned people, and one's conscience as source of dharma.

The historical reality, states Patrick Olivelle, is very different from the theological reference to the Vedas, and the dharma taught in the Dharma Shastra has little to do with the Vedas. These were customs, norms or pronouncements of the writers of these texts that were likely derived from evolving regional ethical, ideological, cultural and legal practices.

The Dharmasutra and Dharma Shastra texts, as they have survived into the modern era, were not authored by a single author. They were viewed by the ancient and medieval era commentators, states Olivelle, to be the works of many authors.

Robert Lingat adds that these texts suggest that "a rich literature on dharma already existed" before these were first composed. These texts were revised and interpolated through their history because the various text manuscripts discovered in India are inconsistent with each other, and within themselves, raising concerns of their authenticity.

The Dharma Shastra texts present their ideas under various categories such as Acara, Vyavahara, Prayascitta and others, but they do so inconsistently. Some discuss Acara but do not discuss Vyavahara, as is the case with Parasara-Smriti for instance, while some solely discuss Vyavahara.

Achara

Achara (आचार) literally means "good behavior, custom". It refers to the normative behavior and practices of a community, conventions and behaviors that enable a society and various individuals therein to function.

Vyavahara

Vyavahara (व्यवहार) literally means "judicial procedure, process, practice, conduct and behaviour". The due process, honesty in testimony, considering various sides, was justified by Dharma Shastra authors as a form of Vedic sacrifice, failure of the due process was declared to be a sin.

The Vyavahara sections of Dharma texts included chapters on duties of a king, court system, judges and witnesses, judicial process, crimes and penance or punishment. However, the discussions and procedures in different Dharmasutra and Dharma Shastra texts diverge significantly.

Some Dharma Shastra texts such as that attributed to Brihaspati, are almost entirely Vyavahāra-related texts. These were probably composed in the common era, around or after 5th-century of 1st millennium.

Prayaschitha

Prayaschitha (प्रायश्चित्त) literally means "atonement, expiation, penance". Prayaschitha is asserted by the Dharmasutra and Dharma Shastra texts as an alternative to incarceration and punishment, and a means of expiating bad conduct or sin such as adultery by a married person.

Thus, in the Apastambha text, a willing sexual act between a male and female is subject to penance, while rape is covered by harsher judicial punishments, with a few texts such as Manusmriti suggesting public punishments in extreme cases.

Those texts that discuss Prayaschitha, states Robert Lingat, debate the intent and thought behind the improper act, and consider penance appropriate when the "effect" had to be balanced, but "cause" was unclear. The roots of this theory are found in the Brahmana layer of text in the Samaveda.

Contributions by different Hindu schools of thought

The Mimamsa school of Hindu philosophy developed textual hermeneutics, theories on language and interpretation of Dharma, ideas which contributed to the Dharmasutras and Dharmasastras. The Vedanga fields of grammar and linguistics – Vyakarana and Nirukta – were the other significant contributors to the Dharma-text genre.

Mimamsa literally means the "desire to think", states Donald Davis, and in colloquial historical context "how to think, interpret things, and the meaning of texts".

In the early portions of the Vedas, the focus was largely on the rituals; in the later portions, largely on philosophical speculations and the spiritual liberation (moksha) of the individual.

The Dharma-texts, over time and each in its own way, attempted to present their theories on rules and duties of individuals from the perspective of a society, using the insights of hermeneutics and on language developed by Mimamsa and Vedanga.

The Nyaya school of Hindu philosophy, and its insights into the theories on logic and reason, contributed to the development of and disagreements between the Dharmasastra texts, and the term Nyaya came to mean "justice".