Shastra

Shastra(Sanskrit:शास्त्र,romanized:Śāstrapronounced[ɕaːstrɐ]) is aSanskritword that means "precept, rules, manual, compendium, book or treatise" in a general sense.^[1]The word is generally used as a suffix in theIndianliterature context, for technical or specialized knowledge in a defined area of practice.^[2]

Shastrahas a similar meaning to English-logy,e.g. ecology,psychology,meaning scientific and basic knowledge on a particular subject. Examples in terms of modern neologisms include

bhautikaśāstra'physics',
rasaśāstra'chemistry',
jīvaśāstra'biology',
vāstuśāstra'architectural science',
śilpaśāstra'science of mechanical arts and sculpture',
arthaśāstra'science of politics and economics',^[3]and
nītiśāstra'compendium of ethics or right policy'.

In Western literature,Shastrais sometimes spelled asSastra,^[4]reflecting a misunderstanding of the IAST symbol 'ś', which corresponds to the English 'sh'.

Etymology

The wordŚāstraliterally means "that which has been instructed/decreed", from the rootŚāsanawhich means "instruction/decree".^[5]^[6]

Terminology

"Shastra" commonly refers to a treatise or text on a specific field of knowledge. In earlyVedicliterature, the word referred to any precept, rule, teaching, ritual instruction or direction.^[1]In late and post Vedic literature ofHinduism,Shastrareferred to any treatise, book or instrument of teaching, any manual or compendium on any subject in any field of knowledge, including religious.^[1]It is often a suffix, added to the subject of the treatise, such as

Yoga-shastra,
Nyaya-shastra,
Dharma-shastra,
Koka- orKama-shastra,^[7]
Moksha-shastra,
Artha-shastra,
Alamkara-shastra (rhetoric),
Kavya-shastra (poetics),
Sangita-shastra (music),
Natya-shastra (theatre & dance) and others.^[1]^[2]

InBuddhism,a "shastra" is often a commentary written at a later date to explain an earlier scripture orsutra.For example, Yutang Lin says that a text written by him and not given by Buddha, cannot be called a "Sutra"; it is called a "Sastra". In Buddhism, Buddhists are allowed to offer their theses as long as they are consistent with the Sutras, and those are called "Sastras."^[8]

InJainism,the term means the same as inHinduism.An example of Jaina Shastra is the 12th-centuryYoga Shastra of Hemchandracharya.^[9]

Shastra is sometimes the root of compounded Sanskrit words. A custodian ofShastra,for example, is calledShastradhari(Sanskrit:शास्त्रधारी).^[10]

References in the early texts

The term is found in several passages of the Rigveda (2nd millennium BCE), such as in hymn VIII.33.16.

नहि षस्तव नो ममशास्त्रेअन्यस्य रण्यति ।
यो अस्मान्वीर आनयत् ॥१६॥

— Rigveda8.33.16,^[11]

In this Rigvedic verse, the term means rule or instruction.

The Maitri Upanishad (mid to late 1st millennium BCE), similarly, mentions the materialistCharvakasand Brihaspati who disagreed that the Vedas are a treatise of knowledge, proposing relativism instead, in the following passage:^[12]

बृहस्पतिर्वै शुक्रो भूत्वेन्द्रस्याभयायासुरेभ्यः क्षयायेमामविद्यामसृजत्
तया शिवमशिवमित्युद्दिशन्त्यशिवं शिवमिति वेदादिशास्त्रहिंसकधर्माभिध्यानमस्त्विति

— Maitri Upanishad7.9,^[12]^[13]

The term is found in other Upanishads as well as inBhagavad Gitasuch as in verses 15.20, 16.23–16.24, and 17.1.^[14]

TheṚigvedaprātiśākhya(11.36; 14.30) uses the termShastrato refer to theprātiśākhyatradition.Kātyāyana,PatañjaliandPāṇini'sAṣṭādhyāyīuse the term. Similarly, theVedāṅgajyotiṣauses the term to refer to astronomical treatises. The termvedāṅgaśāstrāṇām,refers to theśāstraof theVedāṅgas.

The term "śāstra"is found inYaska'sNirukta(1.2, 14), where the reference is toNirukta(etymology). An early use of the termśāstrawith reference to the literature ondharmais found in thevārttikaofKātyāyana,who uses the expressiondharmaśāstra^[15]

Chronology and authenticity

Shastras are predominantly post-Vedic literature, that is after about 500 BCE. However, it is unclear when various Shastras were composed and completed. The authenticity of the manuscripts is also unclear, as many versions of the same text exist, some with major differences.Patrick Olivelle,credited with a 2005 translation of Manu Dharma-sastra, published by the Oxford University Press, states the concerns inpostmodernscholarship about the presumed authenticity and reliability of manuscripts as follows (abridged):^[16]

TheMDh(Manusmriti) was the first Indian legal text introduced to the western world through the translation of Sir William Jones in 1794. (...) All the editions of theMDh,except for Jolly's, reproduce the text as found in the [Calcutta] manuscript containing the commentary of Kulluka. I have called this as the "vulgateversion ". It was Kulluka's version that has been translated repeatedly: Jones (1794), Burnell (1884), Buhler (1886) andDoniger(1991). (...) The belief in the authenticity of Kulluka's text was openly articulated by Burnell (1884, xxix): "There is then no doubt that the textus receptus, viz., that of Kulluka Bhatta, as adopted in India and by European scholars, is very near on the whole to the original text."
This is far from the truth. Indeed, one of the great surprises of my editorial work has been to discover how few of the over fifty manuscripts that I collated actually follow the vulgate in key readings.

— Patrick Olivelle,Manu's Code of Law (2005)^[16]

The literature of late 1st millennium BCE such asArthashastra,^[17]and Shastras of various fields of knowledge from the early 1st millennium period is of great interest as it helped the emergence of diverse schools and the spread of Indian religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism in and outsideSouth Asia.^[3]^[18]^[19]

The shastras are both descriptive and prescriptive. Among the various Shastras, Manu's code of law has been among the most studied as the colonial British government attempted to establish different laws in British India based onShariafor Muslims and Manu's code of law.^[20]^[21]^[22]

The shastras are not consistent or single-consensus documents. Dharma-sastras, for example, contain opposing views and contradictory theories. This is in part because they represent an ideal of human behaviour, while at the same time recognising the need to account for likely failings. The shastras do not present life as it was lived. Rather they reveal an idea of what life should be. The shastra texts constitute one of the great bodies of literature of the ancient world.^[23]

Sutra

Sutras are another genre of Indian texts that emerged in the 1st millennium BCE, particularly after the 600 BCE.^[24]Sutra(literally "binding thread" ) denotes a type of literary composition distinct from Shastra. In Sanskrit, "sutra" typically referred to one or moreaphorisms;hence sutras use short, aphoristic, evocative statements. In contrast, a Shastra is typically longer, with more detail and explanations. An example of a Sutra isPatanjali'sYogasutras(considered a classic Hindu treatise), while an example of Shastra isHemachandra's Yogasastra (considered a classicSvetambara Jaintreatise), both onyoga.^[25]

Shastras and Sutras are among the numerous other genres of literature that have survived fromancientandmedieval India.Other genres includeVedas,Upanishads,Vedangas,Itihasa,Puranas,Bhasyas,andSubhashitas.^[26]

Major shastras by topics

List of Shastras

Vastu Shastra(treatises on architecture)
Vaimānika Shāstra,early 20th-century, sanskrit text on "science of aeronautics"
Dharma Shastra:
These a genre ofSanskrittheological texts, and refers to the treatises (śāstras) ofHinduismondharma.There are many Dharmashastras, variously estimated to be 18 to about 100, with different and conflicting points of view.^[27]^{[note 1]}Each of these texts exist in many different versions, and each is rooted in Dharmasutra texts dated to 1st millennium BCE that emerged fromKalpa (Vedanga)studies in the Vedic era.^[29]^[30]
Kamashastra(Kama Shastra)
Yoga Vasistha
Moksopaya(mahayana uttaratantra shastra)
Artha Shastra,financial affairs
Natya Shastra,performing arts
Surya Siddantha,astronomy
Mahayana Buddhist Shastras
Samudrika Shastra
Shilpa Shastra

Notes

^Pandurang Vaman Kanementions over 100 different Dharmasastra texts which were known by the Middle Ages in India, but most of these are lost to history and their existence is inferred from quotes and citations inbhasyaand digests that have survived.^[28]

References

^^a ^b ^c ^dMonier Williams, Monier Williams' Sanskrit-English Dictionary,Oxford University Press,Article onzAstra
^^a ^bJames Lochtefeld (2002), "Shastra" in The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Vol. 2: N-Z, Rosen Publishing,ISBN 0-8239-2287-1,page 626
^^a ^bBoesche, Roger(January 2003)."Kautilya'sArthaśāstraon War and Diplomacy in Ancient India ".The Journal of Military History.67(1). Society for Military History: 9–37.doi:10.1353/jmh.2003.0006.ISSN 0899-3718.
^JDM Derrett (1973), Geschichte, Volume 1, Series Editor:Jan Gonda,Brill,ISBN 978-9004037403,pages 34–36
^"Knowledge-Net of Amarakosha (अमरकोश-ज्ञान-जालम्)".
^"शासना at Spokensanskrit.org".
^Alex Comfort and Charles Fowkes (1993), The Illustrated Koka Shastra: Medieval Indian Writings on Love Based on the Kama Sutra, Simon & Schuster,ISBN 978-0684839813
^The Unification of Wisdom and Compassion Dr. Yutang Lin
^Amritlal Savchand Gopani (1989), The Yoga Shastra of Hemchandracharya: A 12th Century Guide to Jain Yoga, Prakrit Bharti Academy,OCLC 21760707
^disctionary meaning of Shastradhari
^transl. "Neither in thydecreenor mine, but in another's he delights,The man who brought us unto this."Rig Veda ऋग्वेदः मण्डल ८Wikisource
^^a ^bMax Muller,Maitri Upanishad 7.9,Oxford University Press, page 342
^Maitri Upanishad 7.9Wikisource
^Sanskrit: इति गुह्यतमंशास्त्रमिदमुक्तं मयानघ । एतद्बुद्ध्वा बुद्धिमान्स्यात्कृतकृत्यश्च भारत ॥ १५-२०॥;
English Translation: Winthrop Sargeant (2009), The Bhagavad Gita: Twenty-fifth–Anniversary Edition, State University of New York Press,ISBN 978-0873958318
^Olivelle, P. (2006).Explorations in the Early History of the Dharmaśāstrain P. Olivelle (ed.)Between the Empires: Society in India 300 BCE to 400 CE,New York: Oxford Unuiversity Press,ISBN 0-19-568935-6,p.169
^^a ^bPatrick Olivelle (2005), Manu's Code of Law, Oxford University Press,ISBN 978-0195171464,pages 353–354, 356–382
^Patrick Olivelle (2013), King, Governance, and Law in Ancient India: Kauṭilya's Arthaśāstra, Oxford UK: Oxford University Press,ISBN 978-0199891825,pages 30–32
^Robert Lingat (1973), The Classical Law of India, University of California Press,ISBN 978-0520018983,page 77;
Steven Collins (1993), The discourse of what is primary, Journal of Indian philosophy, Volume 21, pages 301–393
^Keay, John, India, A History, New York, Grove Press, 2000
^Rudolph, Susanne Hoeber; Rudolph, Lloyd I. (August 2000). "Living with Difference in India".The Political Quarterly.71(s1). Wiley: 20–38.doi:10.1111/1467-923X.71.s1.4.
^Gaborieau, Marc (June 1985). "From Al-Beruni to Jinnah: Idiom, Ritual and Ideology of the Hindu-Muslim Confrontation in South Asia".Anthropology Today.1(3). Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland: 7–14.doi:10.2307/3033123.JSTOR 3033123.
^Pollock, Sheldon, From Discourse of Ritual to Discourse of Power in Sanskrit Culture, Journal of Ritual Studies 4:2, 1990, 315-45
^Doniger, Wendy, The Hindus, An Alternative History, Oxford University Press, 2010,ISBN 978-0-19-959334-7pbk
^Arvind Sharma(2000), Classical Hindu Thought: An Introduction, Oxford University Press,ISBN 978-0195644418,page 205-206
^Olle Quarnström (2002), The Yogaśāstra of Hemacandra: A Twelfth Century Handbook of Śvetāmbara Jainism, Harvard University Press,ISBN 978-0674009349
^Ludwik Sternbach (1973), Subhashita – A forgotten chapter in the histories of Sanskrit literature, in Indologica Taurinensia, Torino, Vol I, pages 169–254
^John Bowker (2012), The Message and the Book: Sacred Texts of the World's Religions, Yale University Press,ISBN 978-0300179293,pages 179–180
^Kane, P.V.History of the DharmaśāstrasVol. 1 p. 304
^James Lochtefeld (2002), "Dharma Shastras" in The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Vol. 1: A-M, Rosen Publishing,ISBN 0-8239-2287-1,pages 191–192
^Patrick Olivelle 1999,pp. xxiii–xxv.

[29] Pandurang Vaman Kanementions over 100 different Dharmasastra texts which were known by the Middle Ages in India, but most of these are lost to history and their existence is inferred from quotes and citations inbhasyaand digests that have survived.^[28]

[monierwilliamszastra-1] Monier Williams, Monier Williams' Sanskrit-English Dictionary,Oxford University Press,Article onzAstra

[lochtefeldshastra626-2] James Lochtefeld (2002), "Shastra" in The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Vol. 2: N-Z, Rosen Publishing,ISBN 0-8239-2287-1,page 626

[Boesche2003-3] Boesche, Roger(January 2003)."Kautilya'sArthaśāstraon War and Diplomacy in Ancient India ".The Journal of Military History.67(1). Society for Military History: 9–37.doi:10.1353/jmh.2003.0006.ISSN 0899-3718.

[4] JDM Derrett (1973), Geschichte, Volume 1, Series Editor:Jan Gonda,Brill,ISBN 978-9004037403,pages 34–36

[5] "Knowledge-Net of Amarakosha (अमरकोश-ज्ञान-जालम्)".

[6] "शासना at Spokensanskrit.org".

[7] Alex Comfort and Charles Fowkes (1993), The Illustrated Koka Shastra: Medieval Indian Writings on Love Based on the Kama Sutra, Simon & Schuster,ISBN 978-0684839813

[8] The Unification of Wisdom and Compassion Dr. Yutang Lin

[9] Amritlal Savchand Gopani (1989), The Yoga Shastra of Hemchandracharya: A 12th Century Guide to Jain Yoga, Prakrit Bharti Academy,OCLC 21760707

[10] sctionary meaning of Shastradhari

[11] transl. "Neither in thydecreenor mine, but in another's he delights,The man who brought us unto this."Rig Veda ऋग्वेदः मण्डल ८Wikisource

[mullermaup79-12] Max Muller,Maitri Upanishad 7.9,Oxford University Press, page 342

[13] Maitri Upanishad 7.9Wikisource

[14] Sanskrit: इति गुह्यतमंशास्त्रमिदमुक्तं मयानघ । एतद्बुद्ध्वा बुद्धिमान्स्यात्कृतकृत्यश्च भारत ॥ १५-२०॥;
English Translation: Winthrop Sargeant (2009), The Bhagavad Gita: Twenty-fifth–Anniversary Edition, State University of New York Press,ISBN 978-0873958318

[15] Olivelle, P. (2006).Explorations in the Early History of the Dharmaśāstrain P. Olivelle (ed.)Between the Empires: Society in India 300 BCE to 400 CE,New York: Oxford Unuiversity Press,ISBN 0-19-568935-6,p.169

[olivellecriticaledition-16] Patrick Olivelle (2005), Manu's Code of Law, Oxford University Press,ISBN 978-0195171464,pages 353–354, 356–382

[17] Patrick Olivelle (2013), King, Governance, and Law in Ancient India: Kauṭilya's Arthaśāstra, Oxford UK: Oxford University Press,ISBN 978-0199891825,pages 30–32

[18] Robert Lingat (1973), The Classical Law of India, University of California Press,ISBN 978-0520018983,page 77;
Steven Collins (1993), The discourse of what is primary, Journal of Indian philosophy, Volume 21, pages 301–393

[19] Keay, John, India, A History, New York, Grove Press, 2000

[20] Rudolph, Susanne Hoeber; Rudolph, Lloyd I. (August 2000). "Living with Difference in India".The Political Quarterly.71(s1). Wiley: 20–38.doi:10.1111/1467-923X.71.s1.4.

[21] Gaborieau, Marc (June 1985). "From Al-Beruni to Jinnah: Idiom, Ritual and Ideology of the Hindu-Muslim Confrontation in South Asia".Anthropology Today.1(3). Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland: 7–14.doi:10.2307/3033123.JSTOR 3033123.

[22] Pollock, Sheldon, From Discourse of Ritual to Discourse of Power in Sanskrit Culture, Journal of Ritual Studies 4:2, 1990, 315-45

[23] Doniger, Wendy, The Hindus, An Alternative History, Oxford University Press, 2010,ISBN 978-0-19-959334-7pbk

[24] Arvind Sharma(2000), Classical Hindu Thought: An Introduction, Oxford University Press,ISBN 978-0195644418,page 205-206

[25] Olle Quarnström (2002), The Yogaśāstra of Hemacandra: A Twelfth Century Handbook of Śvetāmbara Jainism, Harvard University Press,ISBN 978-0674009349

[26] Ludwik Sternbach (1973), Subhashita – A forgotten chapter in the histories of Sanskrit literature, in Indologica Taurinensia, Torino, Vol I, pages 169–254

[27] John Bowker (2012), The Message and the Book: Sacred Texts of the World's Religions, Yale University Press,ISBN 978-0300179293,pages 179–180

[28] Kane, P.V.History of the DharmaśāstrasVol. 1 p. 304

[30] James Lochtefeld (2002), "Dharma Shastras" in The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Vol. 1: A-M, Rosen Publishing,ISBN 0-8239-2287-1,pages 191–192

[FOOTNOTEPatrick_Olivelle1999xxiii–xxv-31] Patrick Olivelle 1999,pp. xxiii–xxv.

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