z:\ ambedkar\vol 04\vol4 04.indd MK SJ YS 23 9 2013/YS 8 11 2013 145
APPENDIX I 145
Prasna 1, Adhyaya 1, Kandika 1.
The sacred law is taught in each Veda.
We will explain (it) in accordance with that.
(The sacred law), taught in the Tradition (Smriti, stands) second.
The practice of the Sishtas (stands) third.
Sishtas, forsooth, (are those) who are free from envy, free from pride, contented with a store of grain sufficient for ten days, free from covetousness, and free from hypocrisy, arrogance, greed, perplexity, and anger.
‘(Those are called) Sishtas who, in accordance with the sacred law, have studied the Veda together with its appendages, know how to draw references from that, (and) are above to adduce proofs perceptible by the senses from the revealed texts’.
On failure of them, an assembly consisting at least of ten members (shall decide disputed points of law).
Now they quote also (the following verses): ‘Four men, who each know one of the four Vedas, a Mimansaka, one who knows the Angas, one who recites (the works on) the sacred law, and three brahamanas belonging to (three different) order, (constitute) an assembly consisting, at least of ten members’.
‘There may be five, or there may be three, or there may be one blameless man, who decides (questions regarding) the sacred law. But a, thousand fools (can) not (do it).’
‘As an elephant made of wood, as an antelope made of leather, such an unlearned Brahmana; those three having nothing but the name (of their kind)’.
The view taken by the Apastamba Dharma Sutra is clear from the following extract from that Sutra:
“Now, therefore, we will declare the acts productive of merit which form part of the customs of daily life”. I.1.
“The authority (for these duties) is the agreement (samaya) of these who know the law”. I.2.
“And (the authorities for the latter are) the Vedas alone”. I.3.
A review of the Dharma Sutras show how this dogma of the infallibility of the Veda is a historical product. It shows that the (1) Veda, (2) Tradition (Smriti), (3) Practice of Sishta and (4) Agreement in an Assembly were the four different authorities about which the controversy as to which of these should be regarded as infallible. It also shows that there was a time when the Vedas were not the sole infallible authorities. That was the time represented by the Dharma Sutras of Vasistha and Baudhayana. It is only in the time of Gautama