z:\ ambedkar\vol 04\vol4 03.indd MK SJ YS 21 9 2013/YS 8 11 2013 55
RIDDLE NO. 7 55
answer in the affirmative. But the recklessness with which Indian theologians claim for these Brahmanas the same title and the same age as for the Mantras, shows that the reason must have been peculiarly strong which deterred them from claiming the same divine authority for the Sutras.”
The exclusion of the Sutras from the category of Shruti is a riddle that calls for explanation.
There are other riddles which strike the student who cares to investigate into the subject. They relate to the changes in the content of the literature comprised in the term Shruti and their relative authority.
One such riddle relates to the class of literature called the Brahmanas. At one time the Brahmanas were included in the term Shruti. But later on they seem to have lost this position. For Manu [1 ] seems to exclude the “Brahamanas” from the category of Shruti as may be seen from the following extract from his Smriti :
“By Shruti is meant the Veda, and by Smriti the institutes of law ; the contents of these are not to be questioned by reason, since from them (a knowledge of) duty has shown forth. The Brahman who, relying on rationalistic treatises, shall condemn these two primary sources of knowledge must be excommunicated by the virtuous as a sceptic and reviler of the Vedas.... To those who are seeking a knowledge of duty, the Sruti is the supreme authority.”
Why were the Brahmanas excluded from Shruti ?
III
We may now turn to the class of literature called the Smritis, the most important of which are the Manu Smriti and the Yajnavalkya Smriti. The number of Smritis was ever on the increase and the composing of Smritis went on up to the advent of the British. Mitramistra refers to 57 Smritis, Nilakanta to 97 and Kamalakar to 131. The Smriti literature is bigger than any other class of religious literature regarded as sacred by the Hindus.
There are several points regarding the relation of the Smritis to the Vedas.
The first is that the Smriti was not recognized [2] as part of the Dharma Shastra literature represented by the Dharma Sutras such as that of Baudhayana, Gautama or Apastambha. A Smruti originally
1 Some may depute this on the ground that the word Veda includes “Brahamana” also. This of course is a fact. Bui it seems to me that Manu uses the term Shruti in a restricted sense so as to exclude the Brahmanas. This is supported by the fact that there is in the Manu Smriti no reference to the Brahamanas except in one place (iv. 100) where he says that only the Mantra portion need be studied.
2 On this subject see the illuminating article by Prof. Altekar on “The position of Smritis as a source of Dharma, in the Kane Memorial Volume, pp. 18-25.