Chapter 1.1d - The Extensive Smṛti Literature

It is difficult to find out the number of Smṛtis that originally existed, as no work like the Anukramaṇikas or Sarvānukramas of the Ṛgveda are available on the Smṛtis. References provided by earlier works show a discrepancy regarding the number of the Smṛtis. The number of the Dharmasūtras appears to be less than that of the Dharmaśāstras. The Gautamadharmasūtra refers to no smṛtikāra, other than Manu.^[1] Names of seven authors on dharma are mentioned by the Baudhāyanadharmasūtra, except Baudhāyana himself, viz. Aupajaṅghani, Kātya, Kāśyapa, Gautama, Prajāpati, Maudgalya and Hārīta.

Vasiṣṭha enumerates five authors:

1. Gautama,
2. Prajāpati,
3. Manu,
4. Yama and
5. Hārīta.

Āpastamba mentions ten writers of which Eka, Kuṇika, etc., are known by name only. Apart from himself, Manu states Atri, the son of Utathya, Bhṛgu, Vasiṣṭha, Vaikhānasa and Śaunaka. These works do not contain a regular list of writers in one place.

It is perhaps Yājñavalkya, among the earlier writers, to give the names of twenty writers on dharma together. They are:

1. Manu,
2. Atri,
3. Viṣṇu,
4. Hārīta,
5. Yājñavalkya,
6. Uśanas,
7. Aṅgirā,
8. Yama,
9. Āpastamba,
10. Saṃvartta,
11. Kātyāyana,
12. Bṛhaspati,
13. Parāśara,
14. Vyāsa,
15. Śaṅkha,
16. Likhita,
17. Dakṣa,
18. Gautama,
19. Śātātapa and Vasiṣtha.^[2]

The Mitākṣarā adds that this list of Yājñavalkya is not an exhaustive enumeration but merely illustrative, so the names of Baudhāyana and like others are also to be understood as the writers of Dharmaśāstras.^[3] Viśvarupa in this context quotes a verse of Vṛddha Yājñavalkya enumerating ten more names.^[4] The list prepared in the Parāśarasmṛti consists of nineteen writers, which include Kāśyapa, Gārgya, Pracetas instead of Bṛhaspati, Yama, Vyāsa, referred to in the list of Yājñavalkya.^[5] The Vīramitrodaya citing the view of Śaṃkha and Likhita states that the Smṛti means the Dharmaśāstra. It further mentions the names of eighteen promulgators of the Dharmaśāstra, the names of eighteen authors on the Upasmṛti and twenty-one other Smṛtikāras.^[6] If all the Smṛtis, quoted in the later Nibandhas, Purāṇas, etc., are taken into account then the number of the Smṛtis will exceed one hundred. However, the texts of most of these Smṛtis have not yet been found. It is rightly observed by V.N. Mandlik that the number of Smṛtis might have been great and that many have been lost, that some exists as fragments, and that others are only known from quotation in other Smṛtis or digests of more modern writers.^[7] Of all the Smṛtis, the Manusmṛti, the Yājñavalkyasmṛti and the Nāradasmṛti enjoy the highest authority.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

trīṇi prathamānyanirdeśyāni manuḥ / Gautamadharmasūtra, 21.7

[2]:

Yājñavalkyasmṛti, 1. 4-5

[3]:

neyaṃ parisaṃkhyā kiṃtu pradarśanārthametat/ ato baudhāyanāderapi dharmaśastratvamaviruddham/ Mitākṣarā, Ibid., 1.4-5

[4]:

Bālakrīḍā, Ibid.,1. 4-5

[5]:

cf., Parāśarasmṛti, 1.12-15

[6]:

cf., Vīramitrodaya on Yājñavalkyasmṛti, 1. 4-5

[7]:

Mandlik, V.N., Vyavahāramayūkha or Hindu Law: Including Smṛti of Yājñavalkya,Introduction, p.xiii