The Hidden History of MANU SMRITI

I appreciate your patience if you have come this far. Now let's go to chapter 2, the most controversial, the most misunderstood and the most problematic. The Manusmriti. Trust me on this, a vast majority of practicing Hindus don't know what is this book called Manusmriti and where is it coming from. Strictly speaking, many of us have no clue about what is this controversial book. So let me put this in very simple perspective. The infographic on your screen is a high level depiction of the Vedic knowledge systems. You have the four Vedas and then six Vedangas and then Upavedas and then each of these deal with a multitude of domains further underneath. And everything what you're seeing on the screen put together is essentially the Vedic knowledge systems or the corpus of the Vedic knowledge systems. And currently our interest is in Kalpa. Kalpa is a field of knowledge that deals with rituals. The Vedic rituals like Yajnas and how they need to be performed and related subjects. Now let us zoom into Kalpa, the study of rituals. So as I said Kalpa are the instructions and guidelines for the ritualistic practices and the Vedic ceremonies and daily conduct so on and so forth. Rig Veda, Sama Veda, Yajur Veda and Adharvana Veda are supported by this Kalpa as far as the Vedic ceremonies go. To explain the relationship with a small example, say for instance if I want to perform a Maharudra Yagam, for that the Sri Rudram from Yajur Vedam will be my source of all the mantras and how I perform that Rudra Yagam, the process of performing that Yagam alone comes from Kalpa while the Mantrabhaga comes from the Vedas itself. Kalpa internally has again certain subdivisions starting with the first one, Srauta Sutras. These are the instructions and guidelines for Vedic rituals, Yajna, Mantras and other Vedic oblations. Basically the corpus that is essential to perform the Yajna. Kalpa has another domain, it's called as Griha Sutras. As the name suggests, these are the instructions and guidelines that one need to follow for performing household rituals like birth, Upanayana, marriage, death so on and so forth. These are household instructions called as Griha Sutras. And then comes the most interesting part, Dharma Sutras. These are the instructions for personal and societal conduct including moral duties, legal codes, customs, governance so on and so forth. Kind of statecraft. In modern terms, you can call it as a constitution of those days. Kind of. Fourth and the last domain under Kalpa called as Sulbha Sutras. These are the geometric principles, formulas, axioms, methods for determining measurements for the Vedic rituals, constructing the Vedic altars. I did a detailed documentary on Vedic geometry that essentially comes from the Sulbha Sutras. So these are the four subdomains under Kalpa, Srauta, Griha, Dharma and Sulbha Sutras. And our focus is now Dharma Sutras. Let's zoom into Dharma Sutras but at the same time don't get lost with the chain. We started with the Vedic knowledge system, the big corpus in which you have the four Vedas and Kalpa is one of the Vedanga which supports all the four Vedas and now we zoomed into Kalpa. Under Kalpa we have these four domains and now we are going to the third level of Dharma Sutras. Now if we zoom into the Dharma Sutras which are the instructions for personal and societal conduct, moral duties, legal codes etc like I just said. There are four Rishis who authored these Dharma Sutras independently. So there are Apastambha, Gautama, Baudhayana and Vasishtha Maharshi. Each of them authored a Dharma Sutra. Apastambha wrote Apastambha Dharma Sutra, Gautama with Gautama Dharma Sutras, same way with Vasishtha Dharma Sutra, so on and so forth. The most important thing with Dharma Sutras are they are aphoristic in nature. That means they are like one liners, kind of guiding principles. They are not prescriptive, they are at a very high level. High in the sense quite deep. Most important thing to understand with Dharma Sutras are they are highly context bound, highly time bound, highly space bound. Let me give you an example. Satyameva Jayate. Not a Dharma Sutra but just I am quoting it as an example. That's so nice right. Truth alone triumphs. Okay. Satyameva Jayate. If a soldier is caught by the enemy troops, he says Satyameva Jayate and gives away all the military secrets of his own army. That's stupid. That's not Dharma. Right. Dharma always is highly dependent on time, space and context. In modern parlance if I have to say this, say for example if you take the fundamental rites, they are not absolute. You cannot say that I have absolute freedom of speech. They are always time bound, space bound and context bound. That is exactly the case with Dharma Sutras or in general for that matter Dharma itself. So now we have these four Dharma Sutras and we now go into another level deep, the level four. Now coming to the level four, under Dharma Sutras or taking Dharma Sutras as the inspiration or the guardrails, there are many authors who authored Dharma Shastras. Shastra means commandment. So these Dharma Shastras are codified guidelines for upholding Dharma in personal conduct, social ethics, religious rituals, marriage, education, legal disputes and duties of king, statecraft, so on and so forth. And here is where the most controversial Manusmriti sits. And then beside Manusmriti, there is also Naradasmriti, Yajnavalkasmriti, Parasharasmriti, Vishnusmriti, Vyasasmriti, Brihaspati Smriti, so on and so forth. All these Smritis are Dharma Shastras. They are like Indian penal code. We have one, right? So these are all kind of penal codes for lack of a better word. And let me tell you an interesting thing. Our current laws as we have, many of these Smritis have already acted as the stepping stones or the foundational bedrock for Indian penal code. If you go deep into the history, the British, they took these Smritis also, also being the operative word, they took these Smritis also into the account while formulating the laws that we are still using today. So don't hate Manusmriti. Well, I personally am not supporting or opposing it. I want to be neutral for the sake of this documentary. But that's just a point that I would like to mention. These Smritis have already shaped up the laws that we are already using in Bharat. So let's run it through top down once. We have the four Vedas, Rig, Yajur, Sama and other Vedas. And they are supported by Kalpa, a Vedanga which deals with the rituals. Under Kalpa, we had four different Sutras. One of it is Dharmasutra, authored by Apastambha, Gautama, Vaudhaya and Vasishtha. And all this is Shriti or essentially considered as part of the Vedas itself. And then we have the Smriti, which is authored by individuals. And in chain of command, the Shritis always are the ultimate authority. Smriti is always subservient to Shriti. That means the Dharmasastras are always subservient to Dharmasutras. If something is problematic with Dharmasastras, we need to fall back to or roll up to Dharmasutras. And outside of these Dharmasastras are the Itihasa, Sri Ramayana, Mahabharata and Bhagavad Gita, which also shape up the ethos of the Dharma that people have been following in Bharat. So when it comes to your social conduct or legal code, all these what you're seeing on the screen have been influencing or shaping it up since thousands of years. Now let us talk about certain commonsensical points. First and foremost, why do we need these many commandments or Dharmasastras? Why can't there be just one Dharmasastra, which is universally applicable across Bharat? Well, that has never been the culture of Bharat in first place. There is no one book you can just say that this is all it is. Even Vedas, which is the highest authority, there are four of them. So there will always be a difference in the Dharmasastras. And there has always been this extreme diversity, which has been ingrained into the culture of Bharat. And then coming to the most important point, what I want to say. First of all, get this myth or dogma out of your head that Bharat is a utopia where only noble souls were walking on the face of this country. I'm sorry. I have already given you the example of Nandinar when we started there in the beginning itself. So there is very much a possibility that people corrupt these scriptures to suit their own interest. Manusmriti would have definitely been corrupted. Maybe not just Manusmriti, Yajnavalkya Smriti or something else as well. That is the reason I have the highest authority, which is the Vedas. And with all command, conviction and confidence, I say this again and again. Show me one discriminatory word coming in from the Vedas and Upanishads. You will not be able to point a single word from Vedas, which is discriminatory in nature. And then came these Smritis where people definitely try to sneak in their perspective, the biases, so on and so forth. I'll give you a clear cut example from recent history, how this bias works and how the scriptures could be corrupted. But before getting there, the most important point, what I want to say is, if Manusmriti is problematic, let's burn it. Let's burn it. But for every copy of Manusmriti that you burn, you need to distribute 100 copies of Vajrasutri Upanishad, which says that the virtue of the birth of a person has nothing to do with the caste of that person. Would you do that? For every copy of Manusmriti that you burn, you need to distribute 100 copies of Vajrasutri Upanishad. If not, then you're a bloody hypocrite. It's as simple as that. You're just finding an excuse to attack on Sanatana Dharma, saying that Manusmriti is bad, that means the whole of Hinduism is bad. I mean, what nonsense? We have these many scriptures only in Dharmashastras. If there is a problem with Manusmriti, discard it. Like I said in the beginning, many Hindus don't even know where this brook is coming from. Generally, when it comes to Dharma, people naturally, I'm talking about the lowest level of the people, they are quite close to Ramayanam and Mahabharatam. These have been the sources of Dharma and inspiration. And if Manusmriti discriminates a certain section of people, then discard it, but distribute 100 copies of Vajrasutri Upanishad or many other references which I showed in the early part of this video. 100 copies. If not, and if you're saying that I'll just burn Manusmriti and that's about it, then you're a bloody hypocrite. Let's start with the very basic thing. Who is a Brahmin? Let's try to understand the first chapter. I asked this question myself in the early days when I started Project Shivoham and this was the first slogan that caught my attention. It is from Dhanur Vedam, written by Vasistha Maharshi. Here is an instruction that Vasistha Maharshi wrote in Dhanur Vedam. The translation is, the Guru should teach Dhanur Vedam to a student only after thoroughly confirming that he is a Brahmin. Now, who is a Brahmin? A Brahmin is the one who is not greedy, cunning, ungrateful or foolish. Dhanur Vedam should be taught only to Brahmins. Was that an infuriating statement? It would be infuriating if you are half educated. If you read the complete context, you'll understand that a Brahmin is the one who is not greedy, cunning, ungrateful or foolish. And that is the reason Bhagavan Shri Ram is taught Dhanur Vedam by Vasistha Maharshi. In current societal standards, you can say that, okay, Rama is a Kshatriya. But if you get deep into the scriptures, this is what they say. Let's flip to Adharvan Vedam. Why I chose Adharvan Vedam? There is a very important reason. Of all the four Vedas, the daily life, the societal standards, how a society needs to function, all these aspects are essentially derived from Adharvan Vedam. Predominantly in Bharat. Adharvan Vedam has been the source. So let's see what Adharvan Vedam is saying. Pippala Samhita 8.9 Adharvan Vedam From the Brahmin arises Saptarishis. Here try to understand the nuance. Brahmin means the supreme being. Brahmin as an English term means one of the Varna. So from Brahmin are the Kshatriyas born. Same way the Brahmins are born. Same way the Vaishyas are born. And so are the Shudras. Every living creature is born of the Brahmin. Whichever Varna you are, the source is just one and the same. And here it goes on explaining that the fisherman, people who are in the profession of fishing or the servants, thieves, gamblers, everybody comes from Brahmin. What I want to highlight here is the equanimity that Adharvan Vedam is showing towards whether you are a Vaishya or a Shudra or a Kshatriya or a Brahmana or a fisherman or a thief or a gambler, man or a woman, there is absolute equanimity that Adharvan Vedam is unequivocally establishing. If you read the entirety of Pippalada Samhita, for instance, you'll get to know that. Now let's flip to one of the Upanishads, Vajrasuchi Upanishad which ascribes to Sama Vedam. Vajrasuchi Upanishad is attributed to Adi Shankaracharya. And the name of this Upanishad as Vajrasuchi is quite interesting. Vajrasuchi means a needle made of diamond. So sharp, so hard that it'll quite pierce into our heads with its thoughts, with its questions, with its content. Hence Vajrasuchi Upanishad. My first reaction when I read through this entire Upanishad, it's quite small, it's not that big, but when I read through the complete Upanishad, I was really baffled. Why was this not made mainstream? And I'm sure that anyone who reads Vajrasuchi Upanishad will have the same reflection. Let me explain you why. I will briefly walk you through the synopsis of the Vajrasuchi Upanishad. At the outset, this is how Adi Shankaracharya starts the Vajrasuchi Upanishad. Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Sudra are the four Varanas and Brahmana is the chief among all these four Varanas in accordance to the Vedas and the Smritis. Now if a question comes to your mind, are you defending Brahmans? Well, I'm defending truth, not Brahmans or Sudras or whoever it is. So have some patience and listen to this completely. Vajrasuchi Upanishad starts with saying that Then in this Upanishad, Adi Shankaracharya raises the first question. Yes, Brahmana is the chief of all the four Varanas but who is a Brahmana? Interestingly, Adi Shankaracharya doesn't give an answer in this part of the Upanishad as to who is a Brahmana. Rather, he leaves us with a question and here is how the question goes. In this context, there is a point worthy of deep thought What makes a Brahmana a Brahmana? Is it the body? Is it the soul? Is Brahmana a class based on birth? This is exactly the question that Adi Shankaracharya is asking. Is Brahmana a class based on the birth of a person? Is Brahmana just a possessor of knowledge? Or is Brahmana the one who performs Yajna? Who is a Brahmana? After asking that open-ended question on who is a Brahmana, Adi Shankaracharya proceeds to answer that question. Categorically, Adi Shankaracharya says that the birth of a person cannot make a person to be a Brahmana. Period. The most contentious question. Is a Brahmana just by the birth? Categorically, Adi Shankaracharya says that no. And Shankaracharya gives instances of a couple of Maharshis like Rishisringa, Kaushika, Jambuka, Valmiki, Vedavyasa, Gautama, Vasistha, Agastya. Like this, all these great Rishis were not born of Brahmana parents but still these great Rishis were Brahmanas. So a birth of a person cannot make that person Brahmana. This is what Adi Shankaracharya is categorically saying. And like this, there are many other propositions and counter-propositions that Adi Shankaracharya gives in the Vajrasuchi Upanishad and finally gets to a point where he gives a precise answer on who is a Brahmana. And here is what it is on the screen. Shankaracharya says that a person who having overcome emotions, with the mind unaffected by the pride, egoism and the likes of it, that person who is possessed of these qualities is called as a Brahmana. So a person can never be called as a Brahmana just because by his birth or her birth but can be called as Brahmana only when they have the above said qualities is what Adi Shankaracharya is saying, not me.