The A to Z of Hinduism by Bruce M. Sullivan

Author:Bruce M. Sullivan
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781461671893
Publisher: Scarecrow Press

MĀNAVA DHARMA ŚĀSTRA, or MANUSMRTI

Name of the most important text on the social and religious obligations (Dharma) of Hindus. The work was composed in Sanskrit, probably about the first century B.C.E. or first century C.E., and has some 2,685 verses. Within a few centuries, this text had become, and has since remained, the definitive and authoritative teaching on Varṇāśramadharma, the social and religious obligations based on one’s caste and stage of life. Almost half the verses of this text attributed to the sage Manu are found also in the Mahābhārata’ s twelfth and thirteenth books, though it is unclear which text has borrowed from the other. Manu deals with topics such as the following: how a king should rule his kingdom, the punishments appropriate to specific crimes, taxation, inheritance, rites of passage (Saṃskāra) such as marriage, relationships between married couples, and the duties of individuals of various caste groups and the four stages of life. These rules are set within the context of a clearly articulated worldview. Chapter 1 relates the creation of the cosmos and the divinely ordained place of humanity in the world. The text devotes a great deal of its attention to the unique position and status of Brahmins, insisting that they are to be treated with the utmost respect and rewarded for their vital contributions to the welfare of society. British officials in the nineteenth century established Manu’s text as the primary guide to Hindu legal traditions in their colonial administration. (See also Caste: Dharma; Four Goals of Humanity; Four Stages of Life; Jāti; Manu; Marriage; Saṃskāra.)

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