Shastra

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Shastra (

romanized: Śāstra pronounced [ɕaːstrɐ]) is a Sanskrit word that means "precept, rules, manual, compendium, book or treatise" in a general sense.[1] The word is generally used as a suffix in the Indian literature context, for technical or specialized knowledge in a defined area of practice.[2]

Shastra has 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

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

In Western literature, Shastra is sometimes spelled as Sastra,[4] reflecting a misunderstanding of the IAST symbol 'ś', which corresponds to the English 'sh'.

Etymology

The word Śāstra literally means "that which has been instructed/decreed", from the root Śāsana which means "instruction/decree".[5][6]

Terminology

"Shastra" commonly refers to a treatise or text on a specific field of knowledge. In early Vedic literature, the word referred to any precept, rule, teaching, ritual instruction or direction.[1] In late and post Vedic literature of Hinduism, Shastra referred 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

  1. Yoga-shastra,
  2. Nyaya-shastra,
  3. Dharma-shastra,
  4. Koka- or Kama-shastra,[7]
  5. Moksha-shastra,
  6. Artha-shastra,
  7. Alamkara-shastra (rhetoric),
  8. Kavya-shastra (poetics),
  9. Sangita
    -shastra (music),
  10. Natya-shastra (theatre & dance) and others.[1][2]

In Buddhism, a "shastra" is often a commentary written at a later date to explain an earlier scripture or sutra. 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]

In Jainism, the term means the same as in Hinduism. An example of Jaina Shastra is the 12th-century Yoga Shastra of Hemchandracharya.[9]

Shastra is sometimes the root of compounded Sanskrit words. A custodian of Shastra, for example, is called Shastradhari (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 मम शास्त्रे अन्यस्य रण्यति ।
यो अस्मान्वीर आनयत् ॥१६॥

— Rigveda 8.33.16, [11]

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

The Maitri Upanishad (mid to late 1st millennium BCE), similarly, mentions the materialist Charvakas and 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 Upanishad 7.9, [12][13]

The term is found in other Upanishads as well as in Bhagavad Gita such as in verses 15.20, 16.23–16.24, and 17.1.[14]

The Ṛigvedaprātiśākhya (11.36; 14.30) uses the term Shastra to refer to the prātiśākhya tradition. Kātyāyana, Patañjali and Pāṇini's Aṣṭādhyāyī use the term. Similarly, the Vedāṅgajyotiṣa uses the term to refer to astronomical treatises. The term vedāṅgaśāstrāṇām, refers to the śāstra of the Vedāṅgas.

The term "śāstra" is found in

Yaska's Nirukta (1.2, 14), where the reference is to Nirukta (etymology). An early use of the term śāstra with reference to the literature on dharma is found in the vārttika of Kātyāyana, who uses the expression dharmaśāstra[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.

postmodern scholarship about the presumed authenticity and reliability of manuscripts as follows (abridged):[16]

The MDh (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 the MDh, except for Jolly's, reproduce the text as found in the [Calcutta] manuscript containing the commentary of Kulluka. I have called this as the "vulgate version". It was Kulluka's version that has been translated repeatedly: Jones (1794), Burnell (1884), Buhler (1886) and Doniger (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 as Arthashastra,[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 outside South 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 on Sharia for 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

Main article: Sutra

Sutras are another genre of Indian texts that emerged in the 1st millennium BCE, particularly after the 600 BCE.

Svetambara Jain treatise), both on yoga.[25]

Shastras and Sutras are among the numerous other genres of literature that have survived from

Bhasyas, and Subhashitas.[26]

Major shastras by topics
  1. Vastu Shastra
    (treatises on architecture)
  2. Vaimānika Shāstra, early 20th-century, sanskrit text on "science of aeronautics"
  3. śāstras) of Hinduism on dharma. 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 from Kalpa (Vedanga) studies in the Vedic era.[29][30]
  4. Kamashastra (Kama Shastra)
  5. Yoga Vasistha
  6. Moksopaya
    (mahayana uttaratantra shastra)
  7. Artha Shastra
    , financial affairs
  8. Natya Shastra, performing arts
  9. Surya Siddantha, astronomy
  10. Mahayana Buddhist Shastras
  11. Samudrika Shastra
  12. Shilpa Shastra

See also

Notes

  1. bhasya and digests that have survived.[28]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Monier Williams, Monier Williams' Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Oxford University Press, Article on zAstra
  2. ^
    ISBN 0-8239-2287-1
    , page 626
  3. ^
    ISSN 0899-3718
    .
  4. ISBN 978-9004037403
    , pages 34–36
  5. ^ "Knowledge-Net of Amarakosha (अमरकोश-ज्ञान-जालम्)".
  6. ^ "शासना at Spokensanskrit.org".
  7. ISBN 978-0684839813
  8. ^ The Unification of Wisdom and Compassion Dr. Yutang Lin
  9. OCLC 21760707
  10. ^ disctionary meaning of Shastradhari
  11. ^ transl. "Neither in thy decree nor mine, but in another's he delights,The man who brought us unto this." Rig Veda ऋग्वेदः मण्डल ८ Wikisource
  12. ^ a b Max Muller, Maitri Upanishad 7.9, Oxford University Press, page 342
  13. ^ Maitri Upanishad 7.9 Wikisource
  14. ISBN 978-0873958318
  15. ISBN 0-19-568935-6
    , p.169
  16. ^
    ISBN 978-0195171464
    , pages 353–354, 356–382
  17. ISBN 978-0199891825
    , pages 30–32
  18. 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. doi:10.1111/1467-923X.71.s1.4
    .
  21. 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. ISBN 978-0-19-959334-7
    pbk
  24. ISBN 978-0195644418
    , page 205-206
  25. 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. ISBN 978-0300179293
    , pages 179–180
  28. ^ Kane, P.V. History of the Dharmaśāstras Vol. 1 p. 304
  29. ISBN 0-8239-2287-1
    , pages 191–192
  30. ^ Patrick Olivelle 1999, pp. xxiii–xxv.
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