Smriti

Published on 5th August, 2018, in Mumbai Mirror. The text Manusmriti does not call itself Manusmriti (recollected reflections of Manu on social affairs); it calls itself Manavadharma-shastra (a treatise on human social conduct). It has a thousand verses for Brahmins, a thousand verses for the king and his law, only eight verses for vaishyas (merchants) and barely two for shudras (service providers). Yet the British saw it as a Hindu rulebook paralleling Sharia, the Muslim rulebook. Sharia derives authority from the words of god and god’s messenger, concepts unfamiliar to Hinduism. Manusmriti states that it is based on Shurti (Vedic ideas), Smriti (tradition), the behaviour ..