35. The Parāshara Smriti
Volume I: Part I pp. 459–466
While Yājñavalkya mentions Parāśara, the extant Parāśarasmṛti is probably a recast of an older smṛti. Evidence for an earlier tradition includes the Garuḍapurāṇa's chapter 107, which provides a summary of thirty-nine verses of the Parāśarasmṛti. Furthermore, it appears from Kauṭilya's writings that there was a work by Parāśara on politics, within which vyavahāra was also dealt with. The name Parāśara itself is indeed ancient. The extant Parāśara Smṛti, structured into twelve chapters and comprising five hundred and ninety-two verses, exclusively deals with ācāra and prāyaścitta. This text mentions nineteen smṛti writers and frequently cites the views of Manu, even containing several identical verses. The age of this Parāśarasmṛti is generally estimated to be between 100 and 500 A.D. Beyond this, there is also a Bṛhat-Parāśara Saṁhitā, a distinctly later work with its own contents, spanning twelve chapters and three thousand verses. Other Parāśara-related works include a Vṛddha Parāśara, quoted by Aparārka, and a Jyotiḥ-Parāśara, cited by significant scholars such as Hemādri, Bhaṭṭoji, and in the Smṛti-candrikā.
— Synopsis by P.V. Kane, from History of Dharmaśāstra
35. The Parāshara Smriti
35. The Parāśara Smṛti
This work has been published several times, but the edi- tion of Jīvananda ( part II. pp. 1–52 ) and that in the Bombay Sanskrit Series with the voluminous gloss of the great Mādhava are the best knowṇ In the following pages Jīva- nanda's edition has been useḍ
The smṛti of Parāśara must have been an ancient one as Yāj. ( I.4 ) mentions him among the ancient writers on dharma. . But it is doubtful whether we possess the ancient smṛti of Parāśara. The extant smṛti is probably a recast of it as it mentions Yāj. in the first chap. (p. 2). The Garuḍapurāṇa in chap. 107 gives a summary (in 39 verses) of the Parāśara-smṛti. In doing so it takes parts of the latter and pieces them together. For example, verses 2-4 in the Garuḍapurāṇa (chap. 107) are ‘śrutiḥ smṛtiḥ sadācāro yaḥ kaścid vedakar-tṛkaḥ । vedāḥ smṛtāḥ brahmaṇādau dharmā Manvādibhiḥ sadā ॥ dānaṁ kaliyuge dharmam kartāraṁ ca kalau tyajet । pāpakṛtyam tu tatraiva śāpam phalati varṣataḥ ॥ ācārāt prāpṇuyāt sarvam ṣaṭ karmāṇi dine dine । sandhyā snānaṁ japa homo devātithiyadipūjanam ॥’ These are taken verbatim or with slight changes from the Parāśara-smṛti; compare: ‘na kaścid vedakartā ca vedasmartā caturmukhaḥ । śrutiḥ smṛtiḥ sadācārā nirnetavyāśca sarvadā । tathaiva dharmam smarati Manuḥ kalpāntarāntare । tapaḥ paraṃ.. dānamekam kalau yuge ।... tyajet-deśam kṛtayuge... kartāraṁ ca kalau yuge ।...kṛte tu tatkṣaṇāt śāpaḥ... kalau saṁvatsareṇa tu ॥ chap. I. verses 20, 21–23, 25, 27 and vide 39 for verse 4 of the Garuḍapurāṇa. This establishes that the Garuḍapurāṇa regarded the Parāśara-smṛti authoritative and ancient. There is another problem to be considereḍ Kauṭilya mentions six times the views of Parāśara or the Parāśaras on various aspects of politics and state administratioṇ
The Arthaśāstra mentions the views of the Parāśaras (School following Parāśara’s views) in I. 8. 7, I. 15. 23, I. 17. 9, II. 7. 12, VIII. 1. 24, VIII. 3. 30 (of Prof. Kangle’s edition). Therefore, it appears that there was a work of Parāśara on politics, in which it is possible that vyavahāra also was dealt with.
The extant Parāśarasmṛti is divided into twelve chapters and contains according to the last verse but only 592 verseṣ It deals only with ācāra and prāyaścitta. Mādhava introduced his disquisition on vyavahāra, which forms about a fourth of his extensive gloss, in an indirect way by regarding vyavahāra as a part of the duties of Kṣatriyas on which the Parāśarasmṛti has something to say.491 The name Parāśara is an ancient one. In Rg. VII. 18. 21 Parāśara is mentioned as a grandson of Vasiṣṭha ‘Pra ye gṛhadamamadus-tvāya Parāśaraḥ–Śatāyatuḥ–Vasiṣṭhaḥ.' The plural 'ye' in the verse requires that ‘Śatāyatuḥ' is an individual's designation (literally meaning either one who possessed hundred magic tricks or one against whom one hundred magic tricks were practised ). In the Tai. Āraṇyaka ( I. 1. 3. 37 ) we have a Vyāsa Parāśarya. In the Vaṁśa that occurs in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka II. 6. 2 and IV. 6. 3 we have a Pārāśarya. The Nirukta gives an etymology of Parāśara.2 Pāṇini attributes a bhikṣusūtra to Pārāśarya.3 ‘In the Śāntiparva ( Chapters 290–298 ) there is a lengthy dialogue between Parāśara and king Janaka.
The introductory verses of the smṛti say that sages went to Vyāsa and requested him to instruct them in the dharmas and conduct beneficial to mankind in the Kali age and that the great Vyāsa took them to his father Parāśara, son of Śakti, in the Badarikāśrama, who then propounded the dharmas of the four varṇaṣ The first chapter recites the smṛtis then known ( 19 in all ) and lays down that in the four ages of Kṛta, Tretā, Dvāpara, and Kali, the dharmas pro- claimed by Manu, Gautama, Śaṅkha-Likhita and Parāśara were respectively to be the guiding oneṣ The following are briefly the contents of the Parāśarasmṛti :—
##I. Introductory verses ; Parāśara imparts to the sages knowledge of dharma ; the dharmas of the four yugas ; diffe- rentiation of the four yugas from various points of view ; six daily duties, viz. sandhyā, bath, japa, homa, Vedic study, worship of gods, Vaiśvadeva and honouring guests, eulogy of honouring guests, the proper means of livelihood for Kṣatriya, Vaiśya and Śūdra ; II. duties of householder ; agriculture ; the five unconscious acts of injury to animal life ; III. purifi- cation from impurity due to birth and death ; IV. concerning suicide ; punishment for wife deserting her husband though poor, foolish or diseased ; definition and rules about Kuṇḍa, Golaka, Parivitti, and Parivittā ; remarriage of women ; re- wards for chaste widows ; V. expiation for minor things ( such as dog-bite ) ; about a Brāhmaṇa who has consecrated fires dying on a journey or committing suicide; VI. Expiation for killing various beasts and birds, for killing Śūdras, artisans, women, Vaiśyas, Kṣatriyas, sinful Brāhmaṇas; VII. purifications of various articles (such as vessels of wood, metal &c ); about a woman in her menses; VIII. Expiations for killing cows and oxen unwittingly in various ways; approaching a pariṣad for expiation, constitu- tion of a pariṣad ; praise of learned brāhmaṇas; IX. proper thickness of sticks for beating cows and bulls; expiations for using thicker sticks and injuries to them; X. other expia- tions such as cāndrāyaṇa for intercourse with women with whom intercourse is forbidden; the expiation called Sānta- pana ; XI. expiation for partaking food from Cāṇḍālas &c. ; rules as to whose food may be taken and whose not; purifica- tion of wells &c. when animals fall in them; XII. bath prescribed after evil dreams, vomiting, shaving &c.; expia- tions for drinking wine and nasty things through ignorance ; five kinds of bath; when bath at night allowed; what things should always be kept in the house or seen; definition of the unit of ground called gocarma ; expiations for the deadly sins of brahmahatyā, drinking liquor, theft of gold &c.
Parāśara contains several peculiar viewṣ He speaks of only four sons (aurasa, kṣetraja, datta and kṛtrima) though he does not expressly negative a larger number (chap. 4 p. 14). He eulogises the practice of Satī (last two verses of chap. 4). The well-known verse of Nārada (Stripuṁsa-yoga 97) “naste mṛte &c.” is read at the end as “patir-anyo na vidyate” (p. 15). There are a few verses in the Indravajrā metre (e. g. on pp. 11-12 and 36). The Parāśarasmṛti quotes the views of several writers on dharma. Manu is frequently cited in the words “Manur-abravīḍ” In the 7th chapter alone those words occur four timeṣ4 None of them corresponds exactly with any verse of the Manusmṛti. Yet Manu V. 133 may be compared with the first two. Besides these, in the 9th chapter Manu’s view is quoted that on killing an ani- mal the guilty party should restore a similar one to the owner or its price.5 In the 10th he says that according to Manu uncooked food, milk or oil brought from a śūdra's house and used in cooking in a Brāhmaṇa's house could be eaten by a Brāhmaṇa. This is similar to Manu IV. 223.6 In the 12th chapter Parāśara cites the view of Manu that a Brāhmaṇa fed on food (cooked) from śūdras would become a vulture for twelve births, a pig for ten and a dog for seveṇ There is nothing corresponding to this in Manu. In the 9th chap. Manu is spoken of as one who knows all śāstraṣ7 The first verse of the 6th chapter says that Manu deals at length with expia- tion for killing animalṣ8 This is probably a reference to Manu XI. 131–141. Numerous verses in the Parāśara-smṛti are word for word the same as those of the Manusmṛti. For example, Manu I. 85–86 occur in the first chapter of Parāśara, Manu V. 160 (about a widow remaining chaste) occurs with slight variations in the 4th; Manu XII. 114–115 (about pari- ṣad) occur in the 8th chap. (p. 29); Manu XI. 212 (about the definition of Sāntapana) is the same as Parāśara (10th chap. p. 40). Several verses are common to Baudhāyana and Parāśara, e. g. Bauḍ Dh. S. I. 1. 8, 11, 14 occur in the eighth chapter of Parāśara (pp. 29, 30). The verse “na nārikēlair na ca śānabalāir” occurring in Parāśara (9th chap. p. 35) is quoted as Vasiṣṭha's by Haradatta on Gautama (22. 18). Parāśara is mentioned by name several times (chap. III.2,p.8, chap. VI. I. p. 18 and p. 23, chap. VII. 1. p. 24, chap. X. 12. p. 38). Uśanas is cited on p. 49 (chap. 12), Prajāpati (in IV. 3. p. 13), Śańkha (chap. 4 p. 15). Veda, Vedāńgas, dharmaśāstras and smṛtis are spoken of on p. 23 (6th chap.). In the 11th chap. Parāśara refers to several Vedic mantras, most of which occur in the Ṛgveda, but two of them, “tejosi śukram” and “devasya tvā” are not found in the Ṛgveda, but in the Vāj. S. (22, 1 and 1. 24 respectively). Parāśara appears to have been a practical maṇ He exhorts his readers to save their bodies first in invasions, journeys, diseases, calamities and then care for dharma. He recommends the non-observance of rules of purity in times of difficulty and adherence to the strict rules of dharma when one is at ease.9
The Mit., Aparārka, Smṛticandrikā, Hemādri and other later works quote Parāśara very frequently. Most of these are found in the extant Parāśarasmṛti. For example, vide pp. 1169, 1177, 1180, 1191 &c. of Aparārka, all of which are traced in Parāśara pp. 42, 43, 42 and 16 respectively. Viśvarūpa quotes Parāśara several times and these quotations can be verified; e. g. on Yāj. III. 16 the verse "anātham" ascribed to Parāśara is found in Parāśara chap. III p. 10; on Yāj. III. 257 ten verses are cited by Viśvarūpa from Parāśara which occur in Parāśara with considerable variations (chap. VII. pp. 20–21); on Yāj. III. 262 the verse "gavāṁ bandhana" is cited from Parāśara, which is the first verse of the 8th chapter. Therefore, it is quite clear that in the first half of the 9th century the Parāśarasmṛti that we have now was considered to be authoritative and the work of an ancient sage. It seems to have known a work of Manu, as seen above. Therefore, it must be assigned to some period between the first and the 5th century of the Christian era. In the same direction points the fact that the Garuḍapurāṇa (chap. 107) seems to have known the introductory verses of Parāśara and as shown above (p. 191) combines passages of Parāśara in a summary of its teachingṣ10 The Viṣṇu-dharmottara which is frequently quoted by Aparārka and other later works cites verses that are borrowed from Parāśara. For example, chap. 75. 1 of the former is the same as a verse of Parāśara.11 Viśvarūpa frequently quotes Parāśara e. g. on Yāj. II. 6 he quotes two verses of Parāśara by name that are Parāśara III. 45 and 47 ; on Yāj. III. 30 he cites verses of Parāśara viz. III. 5 (ekabhāt &c. ), III. 6 (nāmadhāraka°), III. 8 Ubhayatra &c. ), III. 26 (Samparkesu &c. ), on Yāj. III. 250 (Patat-yardham &c. Parāśara X. p. 40). Medhātithi on Manu V. 89 states that in the case of those who perform after-death religious rites for those who commit suicide Parāśara prescribes Taptakrœchra penance. The Mitākṣarā quotes about twenty-five verses on Yāj. III from Parāśara e. g. on Yāj. III. 250, 4½, on Yāj. III. 261 and 6½ verses, on Yāj. III. 263-64. Aparārka also quotes a few verses on ācāra (about 9) and about 90 on Yāj. III. Aparārka quotes a verse from Parāśara about the number of morsels to be eaten on ekabhakta and other observances and immediately afterwards quotes a verse of Vṛddha-Parāśara which differs from Parāśara. The Smṛti-candrikā (on āhnika pp. 94-95) quotes two verses from Vṛddhaparāśara.
It is to be noted that Aparārka (p. 1061 on Yāj. III. 250 ) quotes three verses from the Bhaviṣyatpurāṇa which mention that a brāhmaṇa who kills another brāhmaṇa (not learned in the Veda ) may perform the penance declared by Parāśara and cites ten verses from Parāśara-smṛti of which most are found in the printed Parāśara XII Jīvānanda pp. 50–51 ) though not all.
There is an extensive work called Bṛhat-Parāśara-saṃhitā (published by Jīvānanda, part II. pp. 53-309). It is divided into 12 chapters and the last verse says that it contains 3300 verses and that Suvrata proclaimed the śāstra imparted by Parāśara. The introductory verses contain the same story as that in the Parāśara-smṛti and many of the verses in the first chapter of the two works (such as those about the 19 writers on dharma &c. ) are almost the same in both. The total of verses in the printed work comes to about 3000 and not 3300. It appears that the work is a recast of the Parāśarasmṛti made by Suvrata. The subjects of the twelve chapters are :—I. Introductory, the proper sphere of Āryas; summary of contents; II. Disquisition on the 6 daily karmans, sandhyā, bath, japa, worship of gods, Vaiśvadeva and honouring guests; Gāyatrī; the dharmas of the Varṇas ; III. duties and manners of a householder; agriculture, honour to cows; IV. forms of marriage; duties of wives; Jātakarman and other rites; gifts; proper persons to receive gifts; V. concern- ing śrāddhas; VI. impurity on birth and death; prāyaścittas for various acts; VII. cāndrāyaṇa and other penances; VIII. gifts; IX. rites for propitiating Gaṇeśa and the planets, Rudra &c; X Rājadharma; dharmas of forest hermit and yati; XI. the different varieties of Brahmacārin, householder, forest hermit and yati; XII. prāṇāyāma and other angas of yoga.
This Bṛhat-Parāśara contains a considerable number of verses mostly in the Indravajrā metre and a few in the Vasantatilakā (e. g. p. 134 ).
The Bṛhat-Parāśara appears to be a late work. It is a recast of the Parāśara-smṛti. It contains the Vināyakaśānti as elaborated by Yājñavalkya, since it speaks of only one Vināyaka (9th chap. p. 247 ) and not of four as in M. Gṛ. S. On p. 249 it quotes Yāj. I. 285 ( about the names of Vināyaka ) with the readings found in the Mit. It speaks of the rāśis (p. 244 ). It is not quoted by Viśvarūpa, the Mit. or Aparārka. It is mentioned in Bhaṭṭoji's comment on the Caturvimśati- mata (p. 138 ) and by Nandapaṇḍita in the Dattakamīmāṁsā, which quotes a verse ( Bṛhat-Parāśara p. 153 ).13
A Vṛddha-Parāśara is quoted by Aparārka ( on Yāj. III. 318 ) immediately after Parāśara and as holding a different view.14 Mādhava also quotes a Vṛddha-Parāśara ( Parāśara- Mādhavīya vol. I, part I, p. 230 ). This seems to be a different work from the Parāśara-smṛti and the Bṛhat-Parāśara. Hemādri ( Caturvarga° vol. III, part 2, p. 48 ) and Bhaṭṭoji in his gloss on Caturvimśatimata (p. 138 ) quote a Jyotiḥ- Parāśara.
The Smṛti-candrikā quotes a few verses from a work called Jyotiḥ-Parāśara in Śrāddhakāṇḍa.