Śruti
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Śruti (Devanagari श्रुित, "what is heard") is a canon of Hindu sacred texts. They do not date to a particular period, but rather stretch across the entire history of Hinduism, beginning with the some of the earliest known Hindu texts, spanning into the modern period with the Upanishads.
Śruti has no author; rather, it is divine recording of the "cosmic sounds of truth", heard by rishis (saints or sages).
The main classification of shruti literature is along the lines of the four Vedas:
- Rig-Veda (hymns recited by the hotar)
- Yajur-Veda (hymns recited by the adhvaryu)
- Sama-Veda (hymns recited by the udgatr)
- Atharva-Veda (a collection of spells and charms not directly related to Vedic sacrifice)
Each of these mantra collections was increased by commentaries in various scholastic branches (shakhas), the Brahmanas, and later by mystical treatises known as Aranyakas and Upanishads. All these likewise belong to the set of works labeled as śruti. Bhagavata purana is often refered, as most of the puranas, being Smriti, however particular sections of it relating to the catur sloki and concept of svayam bhagavan are considered by some Vedantists Śruti.[1]
In addition, the Mahabharata (an Itihasa, or History, also part of the "friendly scripture" class) is considered by some to be śruti and is sometimes called the 'fifth' Veda. Sometimes the Bhagavad Gita, a chapter within the Mahabharata, is separately considered as worthy of the śruti status.
Max Muller in an 1865 lecture stated
"In no country, I believe, has the theory of revelation been so minutely elaborated as in India. The name for revelation in Sanskrit is Sruti, which means hearing; and this title distinguished the Vedic hymns and, at a later time, the Brahmanas also, from all other works, which however sacred and authoritative to the Hindu mind, are admitted to have been composed by human authors. The Laws of Manu, for instance, are not revelation; they are not Sruti, but only Smriti, which means recollection of tradition. If these laws or any other work of authority can be proved on any point to be at variance with a single passage of the Veda, their authority is at once overruled. According to the orthodox views of Indian theologians, not a single line of the Veda was the work of human authors. The whole Veda is in some way or the other the work of the Deity; and even those who saw it were not supposed to be ordinary mortals, but beings raised above the level of common humanity, and less liable therefore to error in the reception of revealed truth. The views entertained by the orthodox theologians of India are far more minute and elaborate than those of the most extreme advocates of verbal inspiration in Europe. The human element, called paurusheyatva in Sanskrit, is driven out of every corner or hiding place, and as the Veda is held to have existed in the mind of the Deity before the beginning of time..."[2]
[edit] Notes
- ^ Gupta, Ravi M. (2007). Caitanya Vaisnava Vedanta of Jiva Gosvami. Routledge. ISBN 0415405483.
- ^ “Chips from a German Workshop” by Max Muller, Oxford University Press, 1867 - Chapter 1: “Lecture on the Vedas or the Sacred Books of the Brahmans, Delivered at Leeds, 1865”, pages 17-18
