Talk:The Source of Smṛtis is the Vedas
By Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati Swami
The best testimony to the claim that the Smṛtis are founded on the Vedas is provided by the words of a mahākavi (great poet). Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja and Madhva, the founders of our religio-philosophical systems, proclaim that our Dharmasāstras are in accord with the Vedas. But they had, each of them, a doctrine to establish. Besides, they had also the goal before them of preserving the tradition and they would not naturally go against it. With a poet it is different. He has no doctrine to establish, no belief to promote. He speaks what he feels to be the truth since he does not have to lend his support to any particular concept or system.
The greatest of the mahākavis, Kālidāsa, makes a reference to the Smṛtis in his Raghuvaṁśam.
As all of you know, Daśaratha was the father of Rāma. Daśaratha's father was Aja and Aja's father was Raghu. Rāma was named Raghurāma after his great-grandfather. We do not often come across “Dāśarathi” among the names of Rāma. Usually, one is named after one’s grandfather. But Rāma did not take the name of Aja and is better known after his great-grandfather. Raghu had such fame and glory. The name Rāghava also means one belonging to the family of Raghu.
Raghu’s father was Dilīpa. For long he did not have a son. The guru of Dilīpa's family was Vasiṣṭha. Dilīpa approached him and said: “Svāmin, I don't have a child. Bless me that my family will continue and prosper.” Vasiṣṭha had a cow called Nandinī, the daughter of Kāmadhenū. The sage asked the king to look after the cow and worship her with faith. He blessed Dilīpa thus: “A son will be born to you.” Think of it — a king was asked to look after the cow. How humble he must have been!
Dilīpa took charge of the cow right away. Like a cowherd, he took Nandinī to the forest, grazed her, bathed her, and looked after her with devotion. He carried a bow with just one arrow to protect her from wild beasts. He scratched the cow, stopped on the way if she stopped, lay down if she lay down, walked if she walked. If we sit down, our shadow too will seem to sit down; if we stand up, so too our shadow; if we run, it will seem to run. “Chāyeva taṁ bhūpatir anvagacchat”, says Kālidāsa. Dilīpa followed the cow like a shadow.
Every day, as Dilīpa took the cow to graze, his wife Sudhakṣiṇā would follow him for some distance and then return home. Very religiously she would send her husband out with Nandinī and wait in the evening for them to return from the forest. Sudhakṣiṇā kept caring for Dilīpa and, if the king followed Nandinī like a shadow, she too followed him in turn like a shadow.
The duties of a pativratā are described by Janaka during the marriage of his daughter Sītā to Rāma. He says to Rāma: “My child Sītā will follow you like a shadow (chāyevā'nugatā).” This is in the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa. Kālidāsa retells the story of Rāma that Vālmīki has told. He speaks about Lava and Kuśa who came after Rāma and also about Rāma’s predecessors. And he gives his great poetical work the title of Raghuvaṁśam after Rāma’s great-grandfather Raghu of unsurpassed fame. Verily, to speak of this family is to sanctify one’s speech.
In the passage describing how Sudhakṣiṇā followed Dilīpa as he went grazing the cow, the poet makes a reference to the sages creating the Smṛtis. He does so not in pursuance of any doctrine, not also after any deliberation. He speaks spontaneously about the Smṛtis, unpremeditatedly. The poet describes how Sudhakṣiṇā follows the cow to some distance. Nandinī is in the front and Sudhakṣiṇā walks behind. The cow raises a little dust with her hoofs and the queen goes some distance looking at the hollowed dust. Kālidāsa excels all other poets in similes. There is a saying: “Upamā Kālidāsasya” (For similes, Kālidāsa is supreme). It is in the context of Sudhakṣiṇā following Nandinī that the poet brings in the simile of the queen following the cow like the Smṛtis following the Vedas.
Tasyāḥ khura-nyāsa-pavitra-pāṁsuṁ Apāṁśulānāṁ dhuri kīrtanīyām Mārgaṁ manuṣyeśvara-dharma-patnī Śruter ivārthaṁ Smṛtir anvagacchat — Raghuvaṁśam, 2.2
Pāṁsu means dust. As Nandinī goes grazing, dust is raised. Khura is hoof. Khura-nyāsa means placing of the hoof, and pavitra-pāṁsuṁ the sacred dust.
The dust raised by the cow is particularly sacred. It sanctifies any place. Such is the case even with the dust raised by an ordinary cow, not to speak of the so sacred Nandinī, Kāmadhenū’s daughter. Sudhakṣiṇā is a woman of spotless character — there is not a speck of dust on it — and such a woman now has cow dust on her. Apāṁśu means free of dust and refers to Sudhakṣiṇā of unblemished character. She goes step by step along the hollowed path following the dust raised by the hoofs of the cow. How? Like the Smṛtis composed by the sages that follow the Vedas — “Śruter ivārthaṁ Smṛtir anvagacchat”.
Anvagacchat = (she) followed. Here the upamāna (that with which a comparison is made) for the cow is Śruti or the Vedas. The “hoof steps” of the cow are to be taken as the meaning of the Vedas.
So Sudhakṣiṇā followed in the hoof steps of Nandinī like the Smṛtis following the meaning of the Vedas. Also, like the Smṛtis not going the entire way with the Vedas, she did not go all the distance with the cow. The idea is that the Smṛtis do not repeat all that is said in the Vedas. They are “notes from memory,” but they truthfully follow the Vedas in their meaning. They do not, of course, represent all thousands of mantras of the scriptures but, all the same, they tell us how to make use of the Vedas.
Sudhakṣiṇā, with her pure antaḥkaraṇa, followed her husband and, without deviating even a little, walked along the path of the dust raised by Nandinī’s hoofs. Having said so much, Kālidāsa thought he must bring in a good simile for Sudhakṣiṇā following the cow dust, and it occurred to him in a flash: “Like the Smṛtis following faithfully the meaning of the Vedas.”
The upamāna is always superior to the upameya. If a face is compared to the lotus or the moon, the lotus or the moon must be more beautiful than the face. Here Sudhakṣiṇā, of matchless purity of character, following her husband Dilīpa is likened to the Smṛtis closely following the Vedas. No better authority is needed to support the view that the Smṛtis are in accord with the Vedas.