(The Indian Express has launched a new series of articles for UPSC aspirants written by seasoned writers and erudite scholars on issues and concepts spanning History, Polity, International Relations, Art, Culture and Heritage, Environment, Geography, Science and Technology, and so on. Read and reflect with subject experts and boost your chance of cracking the much-coveted UPSC CSE. In the following article, Devdutt Pattanaik, a renowned writer who specialises in mythology and culture, shares his perspective on the Manusmriti and the Caste System.) Everybody talks about the Manusmriti nowadays and links it to the caste system. But what exactly is it? To understand this, we must understand a little bit of Indian history. The Mauryan kingdom was India's first empire, which established its power through various trade routes extending from Pataliputra to different corners of India in the north, south, east, and west. This is indicated by the royal edicts of Ashoka. When one reads the royal edicts of Ashoka, one realises that the land was dominated by two schools of thought: the Sramanas, or the monastic orders such as Buddhists and Jains, and the Brahmanas, who valued the Vedic way. The entire edict system does not really refer to anything majorly religious. While it tilts in favour of Buddhism, there doesn't seem to be a preference for any religion. It was around this time that the idea of empire and monarchy became very powerful, and kingdoms were established across India. This is when the old Vedic way seems to be of relevance. The old Vedic way served pastoral and agricultural communities, which is evident in Vedic poetry and Vedic prose known as Brahmanas, which involved large congregational ceremonies involving fire altars and invocation of gods who live in the sky, known as devas. The transition from Vedic ways to mercantilism But that world came to an end, and a new world based on mercantilism emerged, with highways connecting markets across North India to Central Asia and even beyond the Vindhya mountains to the Deccan and to the Eastern and Western coasts of India. The Vedic way had to be reimagined, and this was the time when the Brahmanas started popularising a new theory based on the Varnashrama system. The Dharma Shastras were manuals put together by Brahmins that explained how people should live their lives. They segregated society into four major categories and every individual's life into four phases. They stated that we have to live our lives according to the category we belong to, following the vocations of our category. We have to live our lives first as a student, then as a householder, then as a renunciate, and finally as a hermit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTISPSxpXkE?si=ZDfPX7amOmoHrdzA&w=560&h=315 In other words, they valued both the family vocation and marriage. This was clearly a counter to the Buddhist model, which involved not marrying, giving up the family vocation, and becoming a hermit. This is when the early Dharma Shastras started being written. The early Dharma Shastra were known as Dharma Sutras as they were written in terse prose or aphorisms or sutras. These were written by men like Gautama and Baudhayana around 300 BC, and became popular. Along with Dharma Shastra, texts like Kama Shastra, which talks about pleasure, Artha Shastra, which talks about economics, and various Vedic philosophies about liberation, which can be called Moksha Shastra, emerged. We find all these ideas even in the Mahabharata text in the Shanti Parva and the Anushasana Parva. How is the Manusmriti different from earlier Dharma Shastras? Around the 3rd century, when the Gupta kings were rising in Northern India, the Manusmriti was being put together. The Manusmriti was slightly different from the earlier Dharma Sutras. It abandoned the Sutra style and followed the Shloka style, which is more poetic. This was traditionally found in religious scriptures. The Manusmriti, also known as the Mānavadharmaśāstra, also claimed that it is the work of Manu, the first human being, and that the book was written on the instructions of Brahma. It brought a religious flavour to the Dharma Shastras. Suddenly, Dharma Sutras were no longer secular texts written by Brahmins, but outcomes of a religious doctrine, claiming origins in the Veda. Finally, it included large parts of ideas otherwise found in Artha Shastras, dealing with kingship, how a king should live his life, royalty, and laws to govern the country, which were not found in the earlier Dharma Shastras. The earlier Dharma Shastras were more focused on how individuals should live their lives. They did not deal much with state matters. The Manusmriti dealt a lot with state matters, making it extremely popular amongst kings. There were many commentaries and essays (nibandha) written on the Manusmriti, and it spread to many kingdoms across India as well as Southeast Asia. For example, the kings of Burma and Thailand referred to the Manusmriti. However, in Southeast Asia, they focused on the royal aspects of the Manusmriti and did not bother with caste. In India, it seems it is the caste part that took precedence over the rules and regulations to govern the state, which is why it has become rather infamous. Criticism of Dharma Shastras The bottom line is the Dharma Shastras believe there are different laws for different people depending on the communities to which they belong. This differentiation of people based on their status in society goes against the principle of equality, which is why it is challenged by scholars today. It also views women as the inferior gender, not equal to men. This was common in all societies until the rise of women’s rights movements in the 20th century. All Dharma Shastras believe that laws have to change with space, time, and people, and no law is fixed or rigid. This is what makes the Dharma Shastras very different from the religious commandments found in other parts of the world. It is highly flexible, which works in its favour. Post Read Question What is Manusmriti? How is it different from earlier Dharma Shashtras? Discuss the salient features of Manusmriti. In India, it seems that the caste part of the Manusmriti took precedence over state matters. Comment. (Devdutt Pattanaik is a renowned mythologist who writes on art, culture and heritage.) 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