Authoritative scripture of Hinduism, created by Rishis (sages), after inspired creativity
?ruti
or
shruti
(
Sanskrit
:
??????
,
IAST
:
?ruti
,
IPA:
[?ruti]
) in Sanskrit means "that which is heard" and refers to the body of most authoritative, ancient
religious texts
comprising the central canon of
Hinduism
.
[1]
Manusmriti
states:
?rutistu vedo vijneya?
(
Devanagari
: ?????????? ???? ????????) meaning, "Know that Vedas are ?ruti". Thus, it includes the four
Vedas
including its four types of embedded texts?the
Samhitas
, the
Upanishads
, the
Brahmanas
and the
Aranyakas
.
[2]
[3]
?ruti
s has been variously described as a revelation through
anubhava
(direct experience),
[4]
or of primordial origins realized by ancient
Rishis
.
[1]
In Hindu tradition, they have been referred to as
apauru?eya
(not created by humans).
[5]
The
?ruti
texts themselves assert that they were skillfully created by
Rishis
(sages), after inspired creativity, just as a carpenter builds a chariot.
[6]
All six
schools of Hinduism
accept the authority of
?ruti
,
[7]
[note 1]
but many scholars in these schools have denied that the
?ruti
s are divine.
[9]
[10]
A popular quote on supreme authority is ?ruti can be found in Manusmriti (Adhyaya 1, Mantra 132) that
Dharma? jijn?sam?n?n?? pram??a? parama? ?ruti?
(
Devanagari
: ????? ?????????????? ??????? ???? ???????, lit. means "To those who seek the knowledge of the sacred law, the supreme authority is the revelation
?ruti
.
Shruti (
?ruti
) differs from other sources of
Hindu philosophy
, particularly
sm?ti
"which is remembered" or textual material. These works span much of the history of Hinduism, beginning with the earliest known texts and ending in the early historical period with the later Upanishads.
[11]
Of the
?ruti
s, the Upanishads alone are widely known, and the central ideas of the Upanishadic
?ruti
s are at the spiritual core of Hindus.
[12]
[13]
Etymology
[
edit
]
The Sanskrit word "
??????
" (
IAST
:
?ruti
,
IPA:
[?ruti]
) has multiple meanings depending on context. It means "hearing, listening", a call to "listen to a speech", any form of communication that is aggregate of sounds (news, report, rumour, noise, hearsay).
[14]
The word is also found in ancient geometry texts of India, where it means "the diagonal of a tetragon or hypotenuse of a triangle",
[14]
and is a synonym of
karna
.
[15]
The word
?ruti
is also found in ancient Indian music literature, where it means "a particular division of the octave, a quarter tone or interval" out of twenty-two enumerated major tones, minor tones, and semitones.
[14]
In music, it refers the
smallest measure of sound
a human being can detect, and the set of twenty-two
?ruti
and forty four
half Shruti
, stretching from about 250 Hz to 500 Hz, is called the
Shruti octave
.
[16]
In scholarly works on Hinduism,
?ruti
refers to ancient Vedic texts from India. Monier-Williams
[14]
traces the contextual history of this meaning of
?ruti
as, "which has been heard or communicated from the beginning, sacred knowledge that was only heard and verbally transmitted from generation to generation, the Veda, from earliest
Rishis
(sages) in Vedic tradition.
[1]
In scholarly literature,
?ruti
is also spelled as Shruti.
[17]
[18]
[19]
Distinction between ?ruti and sm?ti
[
edit
]
Smriti
, literally meaning "that which is remembered," refers to a body of
Hindu
texts usually attributed to an author. Traditionally written down but constantly revised,
Smriti
in contrast to ?rutis (the Vedic literature) considered authorless, which were transmitted verbally across the generations and fixed.
[2]
Smriti
is a derivative secondary work and is considered less authoritative than
?ruti
in Hinduism.
[20]
While
?ruti
texts are fixed and their originals preserved better, each Smriti text exists in many versions, with many different readings.
[2]
In ancient and medieval Hindu tradition, Smritis were considered fluid and freely rewritten by anyone.
[2]
[21]
Both ?rutis and sm?tis represent categories of texts of different traditions of
Hindu philosophy
.
[22]
According to Gokul Narang, the Sruti are asserted to be of divine origin in the mythologies of the
Puranas
.
[23]
For the people living during the composition of the
Vedas
the names of the authors were well known.
[24]
Ancient and medieval Hindu philosophers also did not think that ?ruti were divine, authored by God.
[9]
That
Vedas
were heard was a notion that was developed by the school or
darsana
of
P?rva-M?m??s?
.
[24]
The M?m??s? tradition, famous in Hindu tradition for its Sruti exegetical contributions, radically critiqued the notion and any relevance for concepts such as "author", the "sacred text" or divine origins of
?ruti
; the Mimamsa school claimed that the relevant question is the meaning of the Sruti, values appropriate for human beings in it, and the commitment to it.
[25]
N?stika philosophical schools such as the
C?rv?kas
of the first millennium BCE did not accept the authority of the ?rutis and considered them to be human works suffering from incoherent rhapsodies, inconsistencies and tautologies.
[26]
[27]
Sm?tis are to be human thoughts in response to the ?rutis.
[2]
Traditionally, all sm?tis are regarded to ultimately be rooted in or inspired by ?rutis.
[2]
Texts
[
edit
]
The ?ruti literature include the four Vedas:
[28]
[29]
Each of these Vedas include the following texts, and these belong to the ?ruti canon:
[30]
The literature of the
shakhas
, or schools, further amplified the material associated with each of the four core traditions.
[31]
Of the above ?rutis, the Upanishads are most widely known, and the central ideas of them are the spiritual foundation of Hinduism.
[12]
Patrick Olivelle writes,
Even though theoretically the whole of Vedic corpus is accepted as revealed truth [?ruti], in reality it is the Upanishads that have continued to influence the life and thought of the various religious traditions that we have come to call Hindu. Upanishads are the scriptures par excellence of Hinduism.
Role in Hindu Law
[
edit
]
Shrutis have been considered the authority in Hinduism.
[note 1]
Sm?tis, including the
Manusm?ti
, the
N?radasm?ti
and the
Par??arasm?ti
, are considered less authoritative than ?rutis.
[32]
????????? ???????? ?????????? ? ????????? ?
????????? ??????????????????????? ? ?
Translation 1: The whole Veda is the (first) source of the sacred law, next the tradition and the virtuous conduct of those who know the (Veda further), also the customs of holy men, and (finally) self-satisfaction (
Atmanastushti
).
[33]
Translation 2: The root of the religion is the entire Veda, and (then) the tradition and customs of those who know (the Veda), and the conduct of virtuous people, and what is satisfactory to oneself.
[34]
???? ??????? ??????? ?????? ? ???????????? ?
????????????? ??????? ???????? ??????? ??????? ?
Translation 1: The Veda, the sacred tradition, the customs of virtuous men, and one's own pleasure, they declare to be the fourfold means of defining the sacred law.
[33]
Translation 2: The Veda, tradition, the conduct of good people, and what is pleasing to oneself ? they say that is four fold mark of religion.
[34]
Only three of the four types of texts in the Vedas have behavioral precepts:
For the Hindu all belief takes its source and its justification in the Vedas [?ruti]. Consequently every rule of
dharma
must find its foundation in the Veda. Strictly speaking, the Samhitas do not even include a single precept which could be used directly as a rule of conduct. One can find there only references to usage which falls within the scope of
dharma
. By contrast, the Brahmanas, the Aranyakas and the Upanishads contain numerous precepts which propound rules governing behavior.
Bilimoria states the role of ?ruti in Hinduism has been inspired by "the belief in a higher natural cosmic order (
Rta
succeeded later by the concept
Dharma
) that regulates the universe and provides the basis for its growth, flourishing and sustenance ? be that of the gods, human beings, animals and eco-formations".
[36]
Levinson states that the role of ?ruti and sm?ti in Hindu law is as a source of guidance, and its tradition cultivates the principle that "the facts and circumstances of any particular case determine what is good or bad".
[37]
The later Hindu texts include fourfold sources of dharma, states Levinson, which include
atmanastushti
(satisfaction of one's conscience),
sadacara
(local norms of virtuous individuals), sm?ti and ?ruti.
[37]
Transmission
[
edit
]
The ?rutis, the oldest of which trace back to the second millennium BCE, had not been committed to writing in ancient times. These were developed and transmitted verbally, from one generation to the next, for nearly two millenniums. Almost all printed editions available in the modern era are copied manuscripts that are hardly older than 500 years.
[38]
Michael Witzel
explains this oral tradition as follows:
The Vedic texts were orally composed and transmitted, without the use of script, in an unbroken line of transmission from teacher to student that was formalized early on. This ensured an impeccable textual transmission superior to the classical texts of other cultures; it is, in fact, something like a
tape-recording
.... Not just the actual words, but even the long-lost musical (tonal) accent (as in old Greek or in Japanese) has been preserved up to the present.
Ancient Indians developed techniques for listening, memorization and recitation of ?rutis.
[40]
Many forms of recitation or
pathas
were designed to aid accuracy in recitation and the transmission of the
Vedas
and other knowledge texts from one generation to the next. All hymns in each Veda were recited in this way; for example, all 1,028 hymns with 10,600 verses of the Rigveda was preserved in this way; as were all other Vedas including the
Principal Upanishads
, as well as the Vedangas. Each text was recited in a number of ways, to ensure that the different methods of recitation acted as a cross check on the other. Pierre-Sylvain Filliozat summarizes this as follows:
[41]
- Samhita-patha
: continuous recitation of Sanskrit words bound by the phonetic rules of euphonic combination;
- Pada-patha
: a recitation marked by a conscious pause after every word, and after any special grammatical codes embedded inside the text; this method suppresses euphonic combination and restores each word in its original intended form;
- Krama-patha
: a step-by-step recitation where euphonically-combined words are paired successively and sequentially and then recited; for example, a hymn "word1 word2 word3 word4...", would be recited as "word1word2 word2word3 word3word4 ...."; this method to verify accuracy is credited to Vedic sages Gargya and Sakalya in the Hindu tradition and mentioned by the ancient Sanskrit grammarian Panini (dated to pre-Buddhism period);
- Krama-patha
modified: the same step-by-step recitation as above, but without euphonic-combinations (or free form of each word); this method to verify accuracy is credited to Vedic sages Babhravya and Galava in the Hindu tradition, and is also mentioned by the ancient Sanskrit grammarian Panini;
- Jata-p??ha
,
dhvaja-p??ha
and
ghana-p??ha
are methods of recitation of a text and its oral transmission that developed after 5th century BCE, that is after the start of Buddhism and Jainism; these methods use more complicated rules of combination and were less used.
These extraordinary retention techniques guaranteed an accurate ?ruti, fixed across the generations, not just in terms of unaltered word order but also in terms of sound.
[40]
[42]
That these methods have been effective, is testified to by the preservation of the most ancient Indian religious text, the
?gveda
(
c.
1500 BCE).
[41]
This part of a Vedic student's education was called
sv?dhy?ya
. The systematic method of learning, memorization and practice, enabled these texts to be transmitted from generation to generation with inordinate fidelity.
[43]
See also
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
Elisa Freschi (2012): The Vedas are not
deontic
authorities in absolute sense and may be disobeyed, but still recognized as an deontological
epistemic
authority by a Hindu orthodox school;
[8]
(Note: This differentiation between epistemic and deontic authority is true for all Indian religions)
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
James Lochtefeld (2002), "Shruti", The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Vol. 2: N?Z, Rosen Publishing.
ISBN
9780823931798
, page 645
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty (1988), Textual Sources for the Study of Hinduism, Manchester University Press,
ISBN
0-7190-1867-6
, pages 2-3
- ^
A Bhattacharya (2006), Hinduism: Introduction to Scriptures and Theology,
ISBN
978-0595384556
, pages 8-14
- ^
Michael Myers (2013).
Brahman: A Comparative Theology
. Routledge. pp. 104?112.
ISBN
978-1-136-83572-8
.
- ^
P Bilimoria (1998), 'The Idea of Authorless Revelation', in Indian Philosophy of Religion (Editor: Roy Perrett),
ISBN
978-94-010-7609-8
, Springer Netherlands, pages 3, 143-166
- ^
Hartmut Scharfe (2002), Handbook of Oriental Studies, BRILL Academic,
ISBN
978-9004125568
, pages 13-14
- ^
Klaus Klostermaier (2007), Hinduism: A Beginner's Guide,
ISBN
978-1851685387
, Chapter 2, page 26
- ^
Elisa Freschi (2012), Duty, Language and Exegesis in Prabhakara Mimamsa, BRILL,
ISBN
978-9004222601
, page 62
- ^
a
b
Roy Perrett (1998), Hindu Ethics: A Philosophical Study, University of Hawaii Press,
ISBN
978-0824820855
, pages 16-18
- ^
P Bilimoria (1990), Hindu Doubts About God - Towards a M?m?ms? Deconstruction, International Philosophical Quarterly, Volume 30, Issue 4, pages 481-499
- ^
Flood, Gavin. pp. 39.
- ^
a
b
Wendy Doniger (1990), Textual Sources for the Study of Hinduism, 1st Edition, University of Chicago Press,
ISBN
978-0226618470
, pages 2-3;
Quote:
"The Upanishads supply the basis of later Hindu philosophy; they alone of the Vedic corpus are widely known and quoted by most well-educated Hindus, and their central ideas have also become a part of the spiritual arsenal of rank-and-file Hindus."
- ^
a
b
Patrick Olivelle (2014), The Early Upanisads, Oxford University Press,
ISBN
978-0195352429
, page 3;
Quote
: "Even though theoretically the whole of vedic corpus is accepted as revealed truth [?ruti], in reality it is the Upanishads that have continued to influence the life and thought of the various religious traditions that we have come to call Hindu.
- ^
a
b
c
d
zruti
Monier-Williams' Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Cologne Digital Sanskrit Lexicon, Germany
- ^
TA Amma (1999), Geometry in Ancient and Medieval India,
ISBN
978-8120813441
, page 261
- ^
Milo? Zatkalik, Milena Medi? and Denis Collins (2013), Histories and Narratives of Music Analysis, Cambridge Scholars Publishing,
ISBN
978-1443850285
, page 509
- ^
Shruti
, Encyclopædia Britannica (2015)
- ^
Kim Knott (2016).
Hinduism: A Very Short Introduction
. Oxford University Press. p. 12.
ISBN
978-0-19-874554-9
.
Quote: There are different views among Hindus about which scriptures are
shruti
and which fall into the other important category of sacred literature,
smriti
, that which is remembered or handed down.
- ^
Wendy Doniger (1988).
Textual Sources for the Study of Hinduism
. Manchester University Press. p. 2.
ISBN
978-0-7190-1867-1
.
- ^
James Lochtefeld (2002), "Smrti", The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Vol. 2: N?Z, Rosen Publishing,
ISBN
978-0823931798
, page 656-657
- ^
Sheldon Pollock (2011), Boundaries, Dynamics and Construction of Traditions in South Asia (Editor: Federico Squarcini), Anthem,
ISBN
978-0857284303
, pages 41-58
- ^
Coburn, Thomas B. 1984. pp. 448
- ^
Gokul Chand Narang (1903).
Message of the Vedas
. Рипол Классик. pp. 39?40.
ISBN
978-5-87256-097-5
.
- ^
a
b
Staal, J.F. (2008):
Discovering the Vedas. Origins, Mantras, Rituals, Insights
, Penguin Books India, p. xv
- ^
Francis X. Clooney (1987),
Why the Veda Has No Author: Language as Ritual in Early M?m??s? and Post-Modern Theology
, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol. 55, No. 4, page 660
- ^
Richard Hayes (2000), in Philosophy of Religion: Indian Philosophy (Editor:Roy Perrett), Routledge,
ISBN
978-0815336112
, pages 187-212
- ^
Original Sanskrit version:
Sarvasiddhanta Samgraha
, pages 3-7;
English version:
The Charvaka System
with commentary by Madhava Acharya, Translators: Cowell and Gough (1882), pages 5-9
- ^
"Shruti: The Four Vedas"
.
- ^
Gavin Flood (1996), An Introduction to Hinduism, Cambridge University Press,
ISBN
978-0521438780
, pages 33-40
- ^
A Bhattacharya (2006), Hinduism: Introduction to Scriptures and Theology,
ISBN
978-0595384556
, pages 8-14
- ^
Flood, Gavin. 1997. pp. 39
- ^
James Lochtefeld (2002), "Smrti", The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Vol. 2: N?Z, Rosen Publishing.
ISBN
9780823931798
, pages 656 and 461
- ^
a
b
The Laws of Manu 2.6 with footnotes
George Buhler (Translator), The
Sacred Books of the East
, Vol. 25, Oxford University Press
- ^
a
b
Brian Smith and Wendy Doniger (1992), The Laws of Manu, Penguin,
ISBN
978-0140445404
, pages 17-18
- ^
Robert Lingat (1973), The Classical Law of India, University of California Press,
ISBN
978-0520018983
, pages 7-8
- ^
Bilimoria, Purushottama (2011), The idea of Hindu law, Journal of Oriental Society of Australia, Vol. 43, pages 103-130
- ^
a
b
Devid Levinson (2002), Encyclopedia of Crime and Punishment, Volume 1, SAGE Publications,
ISBN
978-0761922582
, page 829
- ^
Quotation of "... almost all printed editions depend on the late manuscripts that are hardly older than 500 years, not on the still extant and superior oral tradition" - M Witzel, "Vedas and Upani?ads", in: Flood, Gavin, ed. (2003), The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism, Blackwell Publishing Ltd.,
ISBN
1-4051-3251-5
, pages 68-71
- ^
M Witzel, "Vedas and Upani?ads", in: Flood, Gavin, ed. (2003), The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism, Blackwell Publishing Ltd.,
ISBN
1-4051-3251-5
, pages 68-71
- ^
a
b
Hartmut Scharfe (2002).
Handbook of Oriental Studies
. BRILL Academic. pp. 24?29, 226?232.
ISBN
90-04-12556-6
.
- ^
a
b
Pierre-Sylvain Filliozat (2006). Karine Chemla (ed.).
History of Science, History of Text
. Springer. pp. 138?140.
ISBN
978-1-4020-2321-7
.
- ^
Wilke, Annette and Moebus, Oliver. Sound and Communication: An Aesthetic Cultural History of Sanskrit Hinduism (Religion and Society). De Gruyter (February 1, 2007). P. 495.
ISBN
3110181592
.
- ^
Frits Staal (1996).
Ritual and Mantras: Rules Without Meaning
. Motilal Banarsidas. pp. 220?221.
ISBN
978-81-208-1412-7
.
Cited sources
[
edit
]
- Coburn, Thomas, B.
Scripture" in India: Towards a Typology of the Word in Hindu Life
Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol. 52, No. 3 (Sep., 1984),
- Clooney, Francis X.
Why the Veda Has No Author: Language as Ritual in Early M?m??s? and Post-Modern Theology
Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol. 55, No. 4 (Winter, 1987).
- Jho, Chakradhar. 1987.
History and Sources of Law in Ancient India
Ashish Publishing House.
- Flood, Gavin. 1997.
An Introduction to Hinduism
. Cambridge University Press
- Gupta, Ravi M. 2007. Caitanya Vaisnava Vedanta of Jiva Gosvami.
External links and further reading
[
edit
]
- Shruti and other texts (Incomplete)
, Wikisource
- Upanishads (in Sanskrit, complete list of 108)
Wikisource
- Shruti in Hinduism
, University of Pittsburgh
- Hindu Scriptures
, Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World, Georgetown University
- Introduction to the Role of ?ruti in Hindu Theology
, Francis X. Clooney (2014), Journal of Hindu Studies, Vol. 7, No. 1, pages 1?5
- Rambachan, Anantanand (1996).
"Scripture as a Source of Knowledge in Hinduism"
.
Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies
.
9
.
doi
:
10.7825/2164-6279.1127
.
- Bilimoria, Purusottama (1984). "The Renaissance Reaction to ?ruti".
Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute
.
65
(1/4): 43?58.
JSTOR
41693106
.