- The Parāsara Smrti
This work has been published several times, but the edi. tion of Jivananda (part II. pp. 1-52 ) and that in the Bombay Sanskrit Series with the voluminous gloss of the great Mādhava are the best known. In the following pages Jika nanda’s edition has been used.
The smști of Parāśara must have been an ancient one as Yāj. (1.4 ) mentions him among the ancient writers on dha wim
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But it is doubtful whether we possess the ancient smṛti of Parāśara. The extant smrti is probably a recast of it as it mentions Yāj. in the first chap. (p. 2 ). The Garuḍapurnya in chap. 107 gives a summary (in 39 verses ) of the Parāśara smrti. In doing so it takes parts of the latter and pieces them together. For example, verses 2-4 in the Garuḍapurāụa (chap. 107 ) are’ srutiḥ smrtiḥ sadācāro yah kaścid vedakar tṛkah | vedāḥ smitāļ brahmañāılau dharmā Manvādibhiḥ sadā Il dānam kaliyuge dharmaḥ kartāram ca kalau tyajet i pā pakrtyam tu tatraiva sāpam phalati varsataḥ Il ācārāt prāpnuyāt sarvam sat karmūni dine dine i sandhyā snānam japo homo devātithyādipūjanam li’ These are taken verbatim or with slight changes from the Parāśara-smrti; compare:’na kaścid veda kartā ca vedasmartā caturmukhaḥ i srutiḥ smrtiḥ sadācārā nirnetavyāśca sarvadā i tathaiva dharmam smarati Manuḥ kalpāntarāntare 1 tapaḥ paraṁ… dānamekaṁ kalau yuge l… tyajet-deśam kṣtayuge… kartāram ca kalau yuge I…krte tū tatkśanāt sāpaḥ… kalau samvatsarena tu ll chap. I. verses 20, 21–23, 25, 27 and vide 39 for verse 4 of the Garuḍa-purāṇa. This eastablishes that the Garuḍapurāṇa regarded the Parāśara-smrti authoritative and ancient. There is another problem to be considered. Kautilya mentions six times the views of Parāsara or the Pārāśaras on various aspects of politics and state administration.
The Arthasāstra mentions the views of the Pārāśaras (School following Parāśara’s views ) in I. 8. 7, I. 15. 23, I. 17. 9, II. 7. 12, VIII. 1. 24, VIII. 3. 30 ( of Prof. Kangle’s edition). Therefore, it appears that there was a work of Pārāśara on politics, in which it is possible that vyavahāra also was dealt with.
The extant Parāśarasmrti is divided into twelve chapters and contains according to the last verse but only 592 verses. It deals only with ācāra and prayascitta. Mādhava intro duced his disquisition on vyuvahūrı, which forms about a fourth of his extensive gloss, in an indirect way by regarding vyavahāra as a part of the duties of Ksatriyas on which the Parāsarasmṛti has something to say.491
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491 क्षत्रियो हि प्रजा रक्षन् शस्त्रपाणिः प्रचण्डवत् । विजित्य परसैन्यानि दिति धर्मेण
99 Il PTTUEæfa chap. I. p. 6. (B. S. Series ); ‘TA TARE व्यवहाराणामन्तर्भावमभिप्रेत्य पराशरः पृथग्व्यवहारकाण्डमकृत्वा मिति…मेष qara qaaat daarmt Finart i PT. HT, p. 8. Ya
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The name Parāśara is an ancient one. In æg. VII. 18. 21 Parāśara is mentioned as a grandson of Vasistha Pra ye grhadamamadus-tvāyā Parāsarah-Satayātur-Vasiṣthah.’ The plural ‘ye’ in the verse requires that Satayātuḥ’ is an individual’s designation (literally meaning either one who possessed hundred magic tricks or one against whom one hundred magic tricks were practised ). In the Tai. Aranyaka ( I. 1. 3. 37 ) we have a Vyāsa Pārāsarya. In the Vamba that occurs in the Bṣhudāranyaka II. 6.2 and IV. 6. 3 we have a Pārāśarya. The Nirukta gives an etymology of Pārābara. 492 Pāṇini attributes a bhiksusūtra to Pārāśarya.s$3 ‘In the Sāntiparva ( Chapters 290-298 ) there is a lengthy dialogue between Parāśara and king Janaka.
The introductory verses of the smrti say that sages went to Vyāsa and requested him to instruct them in the dharmas and conduct beneficial to mankind in the Kali age and that the great Vyāsa took them to his father Parāśara, son of Sakti, in the Badarikāśrama, who then propounded the dharmas of the four varnos. The first chapter recites the smṛtis then known ( 19 in all) and lays down that in the four ages of Kr̥ta, Tretā, Dvāpara, and Kali, the dharmas pro claimed by Manu, Gautama, Sarkha-Likhita and Parāśara were respectively to be the guiding ones. The following are briefly the contents of the Parāśarasınști :
I. Introductory verses ; Pārāsara imparts to the sages knowledge of dharma ; the dharmas of the four yugas ; diffe rentiation of the four yugas from various points of view; six daily duties, viz. sandhyā, bath, jupa, homa, Vedic study, worship of yods, Vaisvadeva and honouring guests, eulogy of honouring guests, the proper means of livelihood for Ksatriya, Vaisya and Sūdra ; II. duties of householder; agriculture ; the five unconscious acts of injury to animal life; III. purifi. cation from impurity due to birth and death; IV. concerning suicide; punishment for wife deserting her husband though poor, foolish or diseased ; definition and rules about Kuụda, Golaka, Parivitti, and Parivitta; remarriage of women; re wards for chaste widows ; V. expiation for minor things (suoti as dog-bite ); about a Brāhmaṇa who has consecrated fiber
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dying on a journey or committing suicide ; VI. Expiation for killing various beasts and birds, for killing Sūdras, artisans, women, Vaisyas, Ksatriyas, sinful Brāhmanas; eulogy of Brāhmanas; VII. purifications of various articles ( such as vessels of wood, metal &c); about a woman in her menses ; VIII. Expiations for killing cows and oxen unwittingly in various ways; approaching a pariṣad for expiation, constitu tion of a parisud; praise of learned brāhmaṇas; IX. proper thickness of sticks for beating cows and bulls; expintions for using thicker sticks and injuries to them; X, other expia tions such as cāndrāyana for intercourse with women with whom intercourse is forbidden; the expiation called Sānta pana; XI. expiation for partaking food from Cāndālas &c. ; rules as to whose food may be taken and whose not; purifica tion of wells &c. when animals fall in them; XII. bath prescribed after evil dreams, vomitting, shaving &c.; expia tions for drinking wine and nasty things through ignorance ; five kinds of bath; when bath at night allowed; what things should always be kept in the house or seen ; definition of the unit of ground called yocurma ; expiations for the deadly sins of brahmahatyā, drinking liquor, theft of gold &c.
Parāśara contains several peculiar views. He speaks of only four sons (aurasu, kṣetraja, datta and kṛtrima ) though he does not expressly negative a larger number (chap. 4 p. 14). He eulogises the practice of Satī (last two verses of chap. 4). The well-known verse of Nārada ( Stripumsa-yoga 97) “naste mṛte &c. ” is read at the end as “patir-anyo na vidyate’ (p. 15). There are a few verses in the Indravajrā metre (e. g. on pp. 11-12 and 36). The Parāśarasmrti quotes the views of several writers on dharma. Munu is frequently cited in the words “Manur-abravid.” In the 7th chapter alone those words occur four times.484 None of them corres ponds exactly with any verse of the Manusmști. Yet Manu V. 133 may be compared with the first two. Besides these, in the 9th chapter Manu’s view is quoted that on killing an ani mal tbe guilty party should restore a siinilar one to the owner
494 मार्जारमक्षिकाकीटमृदङ्गकृमिदर्दुराः । मेध्यांमध्यं स्पृशन्त्येव नोच्छिष्टान्मनुर.
aaia II. There are two more endings with air प्रभासादीनि तीर्थानि गङ्गाद्याः सरितस्तथा । विप्रस्य दक्षिणे कण सामन्यं Haart 11 RETT chap. 7; compare at 7.4. 1. 4. 2. for the Bat.
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or its price. 495 In the 10th he says that according to Manu uncooked food, milk or oil brought from a sūdra’s house and used in cooking in a Brāhmana’s house could be eaten by a Brāhmana. This is similar to Manu IV. 223.406 In the 12th chapter Parāśara cites the view of Manu that a Brāhmana fed on food (cooked) from sūdras would become a vulture for twelve births, a pig for ten and a dog for seven. There is nothing corresponding to this in Manu. In the 9th chap. Manu is spoken of as one who knows all śāstras.497 The first verse of the 6th chapter says that Manu deals at length with expia. tion for killing animals.498 This is probably a reference to Manu XI. 131-141. Numerous verses in the Parāśara-smrti are word for word the same as those of the Manusmrti. For example, Manu I. 85-86 occur in the first chapter of Parāsara, Manu V. 160 ( about a widow remaining chaste ) occurs with slight variations in the 4th ; Manu XII. 114-115 ( about pari sad ) occur in the 8th chap. (p. 29); Manu XI. 212 ( about the definition of Sāntapana ) is the same as Parāśara ( 10th chap. p. 40). Several verses are common to Baudhāyana and Parāśara, e. g. Baud. Dh. S. I. 1, 8, 11, 14 occur in the eighth chapter of Parāśara (pp. 29, 30). The verse “na Dārikelair na ca sāna bālair” occurring in Parāśara ( 9th chap. p. 35 ) is quoted as Vasistha’s by Haradatta on Gautama (22. 18). Parāśara is mentioned by name several times (chap. 111.2,p.8, chap. VI. I. p. 18 and p. 23, chap. VII. 1. p. 24, chap. X. 12. p. 38). Usanas is cited on p. 49 (chap. 12), Prajāpati (in IV. 3. p. 13), Sarkha (chap. 4 p. 15). Veda, Vedāngas, dharmaśāstras and smṛtis are spoken of on p. 23 ( 6th chap. ). In the 11th chap. Parāśara refers to several Vedic mantras, inost of which occur in the Rgveda, but two of them, " tejosi śukram” and " devasya tvā" are not found in the Rgveda. but in the Vāj. S. (22, 1 and 1. 24 respectively ). Parāśara
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appears to have been a practical man. He exhorts his readers to save their bodies first in invasions, journeys, diseases, calamities and then care for dharma. He recommends the non-observance of rules of purity in times of difficulty and adherence to the strict rules of dharma when one is at ease. 499
The Mit., A parārka, Smṛticandrikā, Hemādri and other later works quote Parāśara very frequently. Most of these are found in the extant Parāsarasmrti. For example, vide pp. 1169, 1177, 1180, 1191 &c. of Aparārka, all of which are traced in Parāśara pp. 42, 43, 42 and 16 respectively. Viéva rūpa quotes Parāśara several times and these quotations can be verified; e. g. on Yāj. III. 16 the verge “anātham" ascrib ed to Parāsara is found in Parāśara chap. III p. 10; on Yāj. III. 257 ten verses are cited by Viśvarūpa from Parādara which occur in Parāśara with considerable variations (chap. VII. pp. 20-21 ) ; on Yāj. III. 262 the verse “gavām ban dhana"is cited from Parāśara, which is the first verse of the 8th chapter. Therefore, it is quite clear that in the first half of the 9th century the Parāśarasmrti that we have now was considered to be authoritative and the work of an ancient sage. It seems to have known a work of Manu, as seen above. Therefore, it must be assigned to some period between the first and the 5th century of the christian era. In the same direction points the fact that the Garuḍapurāṇa (chap. 107 ) seems to have known the introductory verses of Parāśara and as shown above (p. 191 ) combines passages of Parāśara in a summary of its teachings.600 The Vibnu-dharmottara which is fre quently quoted by Aparārka and other later works cites verses that are borrowed from Parāśara. For example, chap. 75. 1 of the former is the same as a verse of Parāśara.51
499 देशभङ्गे प्रवासे वा व्याधिषु व्यसनेष्वपि । रक्षेदेव स्वदेहादि पश्चाद्धर्म समाचरेत् ॥
आपत्काले तु संप्राप्ते शौचाचारं न चिन्तयेत् । स्वयं समुद्धरेत् पश्चात् स्वस्थो
ETA HATRE 11 7th chap., last three versos. 500 पराशरोब्रवीद् व्यासं धर्म वर्णाश्रमादिकम् । कल्पे कल्पे क्षयोत्पत्त्या क्षीयन्ते तु
5 ATCH: || 17883<Top 107. 1 (Venkategyar Pross od. . SE 501 अनाथं ब्राह्मणं प्रेतं ये वहन्ति द्विजातयः । पदे पदे यज्ञफलमानुपूर्वाभान्ति ते ।।
PITT chap. 3. p. 12.
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Viśvarūpa frequently quotes Parāśara e. g. on Yāj. II. 6 he quotes two verses of Parāśara by name that are Parāśara III. 45 and 47; on Yāj. III. 30 he cites verses of Parāśara viz. III. 5 (ekāhāt &c.), III. 6 (nāmadhārakao), III. 8 Ubhaya tra &c.), III. 26 (Samparkesu &c. ), on Yāj. III. 250 (Patat yardham &c. Parāśara X. p. 40). Medhātithi on Manu V. 89 states that in the case of those who perform after-death religious rites for those who commit suicide Parāśara prescribes Taptakrcchra penance. The Mitākṣarā quotes about twenty-five verses on Yāj. III from Parāśara e g. on Yāj. III. 250, 41, on Yāj. III. 261 and 6) verses, on Yāj. III. 263-64. Aparūrka also quotes a few verses on ācāra (about 9) and about 90 on Yāj. III. Aparārka on Yāj. III. 318 quotes a verse from Parāśara about the number of morsels to be eaten on ekabhakta and other observances and immediately afterwards quotes a verse of Vrddha-Parāśara which differs from Parāśara. The Smrti-candrika (on ūhnika pp. 94-95) quotes two verses from Vrddhaparāśara.
It is to be noted that Aparārka (p. 1061 on Yāj. III. 250 ) quotes three verses from the Bbavisyatpurāṇa which mention that a brāhmana who kills another brāhmana (not learned in the Veda ) may perform the penance declared by Parāśara and cites ten verses from Parāsara-smrti of which most are found in the printed Parāśara XII Jivānanda pp. 50-51 ) though not all.
There is an extensive work called Bșhat-Parāśara-san hitā ( published by Jivananda, part II. pp. 53-309). It is divided into 12 chapters and the last verse says that it con tains 3300 verses and that Suvrata proclaimed the sāstra imparted by Parāśara. The introductory verses contain the same story as that in the Parāśara-smrti and many of the verses in the first chapter of the two works ( such as those about the 19 writers on dharma &c.) are almost the same in both. The total of verses in the printed work comes to about 3000 and not 3300. It appears that the work is a recast of the Parāśarasmṛti made by Suvrata. The subjects of the twelve chapters are :- 1. Introductory, the proper sphere of Aryas ; summary of contents; II. Disquisition on the 6 daily karmans, sandhyā, bath, japa, worship of gods, Vaiśvadeva in honouring guests ; Gāyatrī; the dharmas of the Varnas; duties and manners of a householder; agriculture, honour toe COWB; IV. forms of marriage; duties of wives ; Jātakarma ant
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other rites ; gifts ; proper persons to receive gifts ; V. concern ing srāddhas ; VI. impurity on birth and death; prāyascittas for various acts; VII. cāndrāyana and other penances; VIII. gifts ; IX. rites for propitiating Ganesa and the planets, Rudra &c; X Rājadharma; dharmas of forest hermit and yati; XI. the different varieties of Brahmacārin, bouseholder, forest hermit and yati; XII. prāṇāyāma and other angas of yoga.
This Bșhat-Parāsara contains a considerable number of verses mostly in the Indravajrā metre and a few in the Vasantatilakā (e. g. p. 134 ).
The Bșhat-Parāśara appears to be a late work. It is a recast of the Parāsara-smrti. It contains the Vināyakaśānti es elaborated by Yājñavalkya, since it speaks of only one Vināyaka (9th chap. p. 247 ) and not of four as in M. Gr. S. On p. 249 it quotes Yāj. I. 285 ( about the names of Vināyaka ) with the readings found in the Mit. It speaks of the rāśis (P. 244 ). It is not quoted by Viśvarūpa, the Mit. or Aparārka. It is mentioned in Bhattoji’s comment on the Caturviṇgati mata (p. 138 ) and by Nandapandita in the Dattakamīmāṁsā, which quotes a verse (Bphat-Parāśara p. 153 ).802
A Vrddha–Parāśara is quoted by Aparārka (on Yāj. III. 318 ) immediately after Parāśara and as holding a different view.808 Madhava also quotes a Vrddha-Parāśara ( Parāśara Mādhaviya vol. I, part I, p. 230 ). This seems to be a different work from the Parāśara-smrti and the Bșhat-Parāsara. Hemādri ( Carturvargao vol. III, part 2, p. 48 ) and Bhattoji in his gloss on Caturvimsatimata (p. 138 ) quote a Jyotiḥ Parāsara.
The Smrti-candrikā quotes a few verses from a work called Jyotiḥ-Parāśara in Srāddhakānda.
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एकभक्तादौ ग्राससंख्यानियममाह पराशरः । सायं तु द्वादश प्रासाः प्रातः पञ्चदश स्मृताः । चतुर्विंशतिरयाच्याः परं निरशनं स्मृतम् इति । वृद्धपराशरः याच्यास्त्वन्यथाह । सायं द्वाविंशतिसाः प्रातः षड्विंशतिः स्मृताः। चतुर्विंशतिरयाच्याः परं निरशनं स्मृतम् । कुकूटाण्डप्रमाणाः स्युर्णधा वास Pagrement ii sfat 1
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