Discover

(Redirected from Dharmashastra)

'Dharmaśāstra' is a genre of Sanskrit texts and refers to the ''śāstra'', or Hindu branch of learning, pertaining to ''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. Because of its sophisticated jurisprudence, Dharmaśāstra was taken by early British colonial administrators to be the law of the land for Hindus in India. 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. 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

Contents of Dharmaśāstra

Principal Texts

Major English Translations

1. Best for beginners

2. Other major translations

3. Early translations with full-text online

References

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. Traditionally, Dharmaśāstra has, since the time of the , been divided into three major topics: 1) ''ācāra'', rules pertaining to daily rituals, life-cycle cites, and other duties of four castes or ''varna''s, 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 (culled from the contents of P.V. Kane's'' History of Dharmaśāstra'') includes the following topics:
#Sources of ''dharma''
#''Varna'', or caste
#Consecratory, or life-cycle, rites (''sanskāra''s), especially marriage
#Orders of life, or life-stages (''āśrama''s)
#Five great sacrifices (''mahāyajña''s)
#Rules for eating
#Religious gifts (''dāna'')
#Rules for renunciation (''sanyāsa'')
#Duties of a king
#Legal procedure
#Eighteen titles of law (''vyavahārapada''s)
#Categories of sin
#Expiations and penances
#Karma
#Funerary and ancestral rites ('' and ''śrāddha'')
#Pilgrimage
#Vows
#Festivals
#Propitiatory rites
In addition to these topics, Dharmaśāstra makes extensive use of the tradition of textual hermeneutics known as , which describes in great detail how to interpret the ritual texts of the Vedic corpus. The principles of have been borrowed and reapplied to a broader range of religious and legal phenomena in the Dharmaśāstra. Other cognate disciplines important for understanding Dharmaśāstra are grammar and Nyāya.

Principal Texts

While there are literally hundreds of Dharmaśāstra texts and many more commentaries and digests, the principal Dharmaśāstra texts include 1) the four Dharmasūtras of Āpastamba, Gautama, Baudhāyana, and , dating from around the third to first centuries BC, 2) the major ''s of Manu, Yājñvalkya, Nārada, , and Kātyāyana, tentatively dating from between the first and sixth centuries AD, and 3) the many commentaries and digests, including prominently those of Aparāditya, Asahāya, , , Hemādri, Jīmūtavāhana, , Mādhava, Mēdhātithi, Mitra Miśra, Raghunandana, Vācaspatimiśra, Varadarāja, Vijñāneśvara, and Viśvarūpa, among many others.

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 ''. New York: Oxford UP.

2. Other major translations

★ Jolly, Julius (trans.) 1889. ''Minor Law-Books''. SBE Vol. 33. Oxford, 1889. [contains both '' and '']

★ Kane, P.V. (ed. and trans.) 1933. '' on Vyavahāra (Law and Procedure)''. Poona: Oriental Book Agency.

★ Lariviere, Richard W. 2003. ''. 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: and Baudhāyana]

★ Jolly, Julius (trans.), The Institutes of , SBE Vol. 7, 1880.

References

★ Kane, Pandurang Vaman (1880 - 1972): History of Dharmaśāstra : (ancient and mediaeval, religious and civil law). Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute. 1962 - 1975.