Smṛti — that which was remembered

स्मृति

Also written: smriti · smrti texts · smriti vs shruti

If śruti is the fixed centre, smṛti is everything built around it so that it can be used. It is enormously larger than śruti, it has named human authors, and — crucially — it is designed to be revised.

The families of smṛti

Vedāṅgaषड्वेदाङ्ग: Six auxiliary sciences: phonetics, ritual procedure, grammar, etymology, metre, astronomy — the toolkit for using the Veda at all.
Upavedaउपवेद: Four applied sciences derived from the Vedas: medicine, arms, music and architecture.
Itihāsaइतिहास: Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata — dharma shown in action, including its hardest cases.
Purāṇaपुराण: Eighteen Mahāpurāṇas and eighteen Upapurāṇas: cosmology, dynasty, dissolution, devotion.
Dharma Śāstraधर्मशास्त्र: Manu, Yājñavalkya, Nārada, Parāśara and others — personal, social and royal conduct.
Sūtraसूत्र: Śrauta, Gṛhya and Dharma Sūtras for ritual and household; the six Darśana Sūtras for philosophy.
Darśanaदर्शन: The six systems, each with its root sūtra and centuries of commentary.
Āgama and Tantraआगम: The revealed manuals of the Śaiva, Śākta and Vaiṣṇava traditions.
Kāvya and Stotraकाव्य: Poetry and hymn — Kālidāsa, the Śaṅkara stotras, the Ālvār and Nāyanmār hymns, the sant poetry.

Where smṛti gets its authority — and where it loses it

Smṛti has no independent standing. Its authority is borrowed, and the loan has a condition attached: it holds only so long as the smṛti restates the Veda. Manu says what happens when it does not, and he says it about smṛtis in general, including by implication his own.

या वेदबाह्याः स्मृतयो याश्च काश्च कुदृष्टयः। सर्वास्ता निष्फलाः प्रेत्य तमोनिष्ठा हि ताः स्मृताः॥

yā veda-bāhyāḥ smṛtayo yāś ca kāś ca kudṛṣṭayaḥ sarvās tā niṣphalāḥ pretya tamo-niṣṭhā hi tāḥ smṛtāḥ

Whatever remembered texts stand outside the Veda, and whatever false views there are — all of them are fruitless hereafter, for they are declared to be founded in darkness.

— Manu Smṛti 12.95

Veda-bāhya — 'outside the Veda' — is the operative word, and it is a test, not an insult. It means a smṛti passage is authoritative to the exact degree that it is traceable to śruti. Where it cannot be traced, it is not scripture at all; it is opinion carrying a scriptural typeface. The tradition's commentators used this verse for exactly that purpose for a thousand years, and it is the reason a reformer inside the tradition never needs to attack the Dharma Śāstra from outside — the demolition tool is in chapter twelve of the Dharma Śāstra.

Yājñavalkya then adds the thing Manu leaves implicit: that a rightly formed intention is itself among the roots of dharma.

श्रुतिस्मृतिसदाचारः स्वस्य च प्रियमात्मनः। सम्यक्सङ्कल्पजः कामो धर्ममूलमिदं स्मृतम्॥

śruti-smṛti-sadācāraḥ svasya ca priyam ātmanaḥ samyak-saṅkalpajaḥ kāmo dharma-mūlam idaṁ smṛtam

Śruti, smṛti, the conduct of the good, what is dear to one's own self, and desire born of right resolve — this is declared to be the root of dharma.

— Yājñavalkya Smṛti 1.7

Samyak-saṅkalpaja kāma — desire arising from a rightly formed resolve — is the item no other legal tradition of the ancient world lists as a source of law. It is carefully qualified: not appetite, but wanting that has passed through saṅkalpa, deliberate and examined intention. Placed fifth, after the texts and after the conduct of the good, it prevents the system from becoming purely textual without licensing whim.

Built to change

The Dharma Śāstra states its own conditionality. Parāśara says outright that the dharmas of the Kṛta, Tretā, Dvāpara and Kali ages differ, and that the rules of one yuga do not bind another. Manu ranks custom, region and emergency as legitimate modifiers. A smṛti rule that has lost its purpose is therefore not scripture being broken — it is smṛti operating as designed.

अन्ये कृतयुगे धर्मास्त्रेतायां द्वापरेऽपरे। अन्ये कलियुगे नॄणां युगह्रासानुरूपतः॥

anye kṛta-yuge dharmās tretāyāṁ dvāpare'pare anye kali-yuge nṝṇāṁ yuga-hrāsānurūpataḥ

The dharmas of the Kṛta age are one thing, of the Tretā and Dvāpara another, and of men in the Kali age yet another — in accordance with the decline of each age.

— Parāśara Smṛti 1.22

The same verse, almost word for word, stands at Manu Smṛti 1.85 — which means the principle is not one late author's convenience but a shared premise of the Dharma Śāstra as a class. Parāśara then draws the practical consequence in the very next verse, and it is a striking one: the central discipline of each age is different.

तपः परं कृतयुगे त्रेतायां ज्ञानमुच्यते। द्वापरे यज्ञमेवाहुर्दानमेकं कलौ युगे॥

tapaḥ paraṁ kṛta-yuge tretāyāṁ jñānam ucyate dvāpare yajñam evāhur dānam ekaṁ kalau yuge

In the Kṛta age austerity is supreme; in the Tretā, knowledge is said to be; in the Dvāpara they call it sacrifice; and in the Kali age, giving alone.

— Parāśara Smṛti 1.23

Read what that concedes. The most demanding practices — tapas and the great sacrifice — are declared unsuited to the present age by a Dharma Śāstra, and the one prescribed in their place, dāna, is the practice available to a person with no ritual training, no lineage entitlement and no leisure. The verse is a deliberate lowering of the threshold, written into law. It is also the doctrinal room in which bhakti and the Purāṇic path later expanded.

Smṛti — that which was remembered

The families of smṛti

Where smṛti gets its authority — and where it loses it

Built to change

The sources of knowledge in Sanātana Dharma

Śruti — that which was heard

Nigama and Āgama — the two revealed streams

The four Vedas

Ṛgveda

Yajurveda