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Shastra
Shastra (शा , IAST: Śāstra, IPA: [ʃaːst̪ rə]) is a Sanskrit word that means "precept, rules, manual,
compendium, book or treatise" in a general sense.[1] The word is generally used as a suffix in the Indian
literature context, for technical or specialized knowledge in a defined area of practice.[2]

Shastra has a similar meaning to English -logy, e.g. ecology, psychology, meaning scientific and basic
knowledge on particular subject. Examples in terms of modern neologisms include bhautikashastra
"physics", rasayanashastra "chemistry", jīvashāstra "biology", vastushastra "architectural science",
shilpashastra "science of mechanical arts and sculpture", arthashastra "science of politics,
economics"[3] and nitishastra "compendium of ethics or right policy".

In Western literature, Shastra is sometimes spelled as Sastra[4], reflecting a misunderstanding of the

IPA symbol ‘ś’, which corresponds to the English ‘sh’.

Contents
Etymology
References in the early texts
Chronology and authenticity
Sutra
See also
References

Etymology
"Shastra" commonly refers to a treatise or text on a specific field of knowledge. In early Vedic literature,
the word referred to any precept, rule, teaching, ritual instruction or direction.[1] In late and post Vedic
literature of Hinduism, Shastra referred to any treatise, book or instrument of teaching, any manual or
compendium on any subject in any field of knowledge, including religious.[1] It is often a suffix, added to
the subject of the treatise, such as Yoga-Shastra, Nyaya-Shastra, Dharma-Shastra, Koka- or Kama-
Shastra,[5] Moksha-Shastra, Artha-Shastra, Alamkara-Shastra (rhetoric), Kavya-Shastra (poetics),
Sangita-Shastra (music), Natya-Shastra (theatre & dance) and others.[1][2]

In Buddhism, a "shastra" is often a commentary written at a later date to explain an earlier scripture or
sutra. For example, Yutang Lin says that a text written by him and not given by Buddha, cannot be called
a "Sutra"; it is called a "Sastra". In Buddhism, Buddhists are allowed to offer their theses as long as they
are consistent with the Sutras, and those are called "Sastras."[6]

In Jainism, the term means the same as in Hinduism. An example of Jaina Shastra is the 12th-century
Yoga Shastra of Hemchandracharya.[7]

Shastra is sometimes the root of compounded Sanskrit words. A custodian of Shastra, for example, is
called Shashtradhari (Sanskrit: शा धारी).[8]
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References in the early texts

The term is found in several passages of the Rigveda (2nd millennium BCE), such as in hymn VIII.33.16.

निह ष व नो मम शा े अ र ित ।
यो अ ा ीर आनयत् ॥१६॥

— Rigveda 8.33.16, [9]

In this Rigvedic verse, the term means rule or instruction. The Maitri Upanishad (mid to late 1st
millennium BCE), similarly, mentions the materialist Charvakas and Brihaspati who disagreed that the
Vedas are a treatise of knowledge, proposing relativism instead, in the following passage:[10]

बृह ितव शु ो भू े ाभयायासुरे ः यायेमामिव ामसृजत्

तया िशवमिशविम ुि श िशवं िशविमित वेदािदशा िहं सकधमािभ ानम ित

— Maitri Upanishad 7.9, [10][11]

The term is found in other Upanishads as well as in Bhagavad Gita such as in verses 15.20, 16.23-16.24,
and 17.1.[12]

The Ṛigvedaprātiśākhya (11.36; 14.30) uses the term Shastra to refer to the prātiśākhya tradition.
Kātyāyana, Patañjali and Pāṇini's Aṣṭādhyāyī use the term. Similarly, the Vedāṅgajyotiṣa uses the term
to refer to astronomical treatises. The term vedāṅgaśāstrāṇām, refers to the śāstra of the Vedāṅgas.

The term "śāstra" is found in Yaska's Nirukta (1.2, 14), where the reference is to Nirukta (etymology).
An early use of the term śāstra with reference to the literature on dharma is found in the vārttika of
Kātyāyana, who uses the expression dharmaśāstra[13]

Chronology and authenticity

Shastras are predominantly post-Vedic literature, that is after about 500 BCE. However, it is unclear
when various Shastras were composed and completed. The authenticity of the manuscripts is also
unclear, as many versions of the same text exist, some with major differences. Patrick Olivelle, credited
with a 2005 translation of Manu Dharma-sastra, published by the Oxford University Press, states the
concerns in postmodern scholarship about the presumed authenticity and reliability of manuscripts as
follows (abridged):[14]

The MDh (Manusmriti) was the first Indian legal text introduced to the western world
through the translation of Sir William Jones in 1794. (...) All the editions of the MDh, except
for Jolly's, reproduce the text as found in the [Calcutta] manuscript containing the
commentary of Kulluka. I have called this as the "vulgate version". It was Kulluka's version
that has been translated repeatedly: Jones (1794), Burnell (1884), Buhler (1886) and Doniger
(1991). (...) The belief in the authenticity of Kulluka's text was openly articulated by Burnell
(1884, xxix): "There is then no doubt that the textus receptus, viz., that of Kulluka Bhatta, as
adopted in India and by European scholars, is very near on the whole to the original text."

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This is far from the truth. Indeed, one of the great surprises of my editorial work has been to
discover how few of the over fifty manuscripts that I collated actually follow the vulgate in
key readings.

— Patrick Olivelle, Manu's Code of Law (2005)[14]

The literature of late 1st millennium BCE such as Arthashastra,[15] and Shastras of various fields of
knowledge from the early 1st millennium period is of great interest as it helped the emergence of diverse
schools and the spread of Indian religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism in and outside South
Asia.[3][16][17]

The shastras are both descriptive and prescriptive. Among the various Shastras, Manu's code of law has
been among the most studied as the colonial British government attempted to establish different laws in
British India based on Sharia for Muslims and Manu's code of law.[18][19][20]

The shastras are not consistent or a single consensus documents. Dharma-sastras, for example, contain
opposing views and contradictory theories. This is in part because they represent an ideal of human
behaviour, while at the same time recognising the need to account for likely failings. The shastras do not
present life as it was lived. Rather they reveal an idea of what life should be. The shastra texts constitute
one of the great bodies of literature of the ancient world.[21]

Sutra
Sutras are another genre of Indian texts that emerged in the 1st millennium BCE, particularly after the
600 BCE.[22] Sutra (literally "binding thread") denotes a distinct type of literary composition from
Shastra. In Sanskrit, "sutra" typically referred to one or more aphorisms; hence sutras use short,
aphoristic, evocative statements. In contrast, a Shastra is typically longer, with more detail and
explanations. An example of a Sutra is Patanjali's Yogasutras (considered a classic Hindu treatise), while
an example of Shastra is Hemachandra's Yogasastra (considered a classic Svetambara Jain treatise),
both on yoga.[23]

Shastras and Sutras are among the numerous other genres of literature that has survived from ancient
and medieval India. Other genres include Vedas, Upanishads, Vedangas, Itihasa, Puranas, Bhasyas, and
Subhashitas.[24]

See also
Vaimānika Shāstra
Dharma Shastra
Kamashastra (Kama Shastra)
Yoga Vasistha
Moksopaya (mahayana uttaratantra shastra)
Artha Shastra
Mahayana Sutras
Samudrika Shastra
shilpa shastra

References
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1. Monier Williams, Monier Williams' Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Oxford University Press, Article on
zAstra (http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/scans/MWScan/tamil/index.html)
2. James Lochtefeld (2002), "Shastra" in The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Vol. 2: N-Z, Rosen
Publishing, ISBN 0-8239-2287-1, page 626
3. Boesche, Roger (January 2003). "Kautilya's Arthaśāstra on War and Diplomacy in Ancient India" (htt
ps://muse.jhu.edu/article/40432). The Journal of Military History. Society for Military History. 67 (1):
9–37. doi:10.1353/jmh.2003.0006 (https://doi.org/10.1353%2Fjmh.2003.0006). ISSN 0899-3718 (htt
ps://www.worldcat.org/issn/0899-3718).
4. JDM Derrett (1973), Geschichte, Volume 1, Series Editor: Jan Gonda, Brill, ISBN 978-9004037403,
pages 34-36
5. Alex Comfort and Charles Fowkes (1993), The Illustrated Koka Shastra: Medieval Indian Writings on
Love Based on the Kama Sutra, Simon & Schuster, ISBN 978-0684839813
6. The Unification of Wisdom and Compassion Dr. Yutang Lin (http://www.yogichen.org/gurulin/efiles/e
0/e0103.html)
7. Amritlal Savchand Gopani (1989), The Yoga Shastra of Hemchandracharya: A 12th Century Guide
to Jain Yoga, Prakrit Bharti Academy, OCLC 21760707 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/21760707)
8. disctionary meaning of Shastradhari (http://dict.hinkhoj.com/words/meaning-of-SHASTRADHARI-in-e
nglish.html)
9. Rig Veda ऋ ेदः म ल ८ (https://sa.wikisource.org/wiki/ऋ ेद:_सू ं_८.३३) Wikisource
10. Max Muller, Maitri Upanishad 7.9 (https://archive.org/stream/upanishads02ml#page/342/mode/2up),
Oxford University Press, page 342
11. Maitri Upanishad 7.9 (https://sa.wikisource.org/wiki/मै ायिण_उपिनषद् ) Wikisource
12. Sanskrit: इित गु तमं शा िमदमु ं मयानघ । एतद् बुद् ा बु मा ा ृ तकृ भारत ॥ १५-२०॥;
English Translation: Winthrop Sargeant (2009), The Bhagavad Gita: Twenty-fifth–Anniversary
Edition, State University of New York Press, ISBN 978-0873958318
13. Olivelle, P. (2006). Explorations in the Early History of the Dharmaśāstra in P. Olivelle (ed.) Between
the Empires: Society in India 300 BCE to 400 CE, New York: Oxford Unuiversity Press, ISBN 0-19-
568935-6, p.169
14. Patrick Olivelle (2005), Manu's Code of Law, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0195171464, pages
353-354, 356-382
15. Patrick Olivelle (2013), King, Governance, and Law in Ancient India: Kauṭilya's Arthaśāstra, Oxford
UK: Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0199891825, pages 30-32
16. Robert Lingat (1973), The Classical Law of India, University of California Press, ISBN 978-
0520018983, page 77;
Steven Collins (1993), The discourse of what is primary, Journal of Indian philosophy, Volume 21,
pages 301-393
17. Keay, John, India, A History, New York, Grove Press, 2000
18. Rudolph, Susanne Hoeber; Rudolph, Lloyd I. (August 2000). "Living with Difference in India". The
Political Quarterly. Wiley. 71 (s1): 20–38. doi:10.1111/1467-923X.71.s1.4 (https://doi.org/10.1111%2F
1467-923X.71.s1.4).
19. Gaborieau, Marc (June 1985). "From Al-Beruni to Jinnah: Idiom, Ritual and Ideology of the Hindu-
Muslim Confrontation in South Asia". Anthropology Today. Royal Anthropological Institute of Great
Britain and Ireland. 1 (3): 7–14. doi:10.2307/3033123 (https://doi.org/10.2307%2F3033123).
JSTOR 3033123 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/3033123).
20. Pollock, Sheldon, From Discourse of Ritual to Discourse of Power in Sanskrit Culture, Journal of
Ritual Studies 4:2, 1990, 315-45
21. Doniger, Wendy, The Hindus, An Alternative History, Oxford University Press, 2010, ISBN 978-0-19-
959334-7 pbk

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22. Arvind Sharma (2000), Classical Hindu Thought: An Introduction, Oxford University Press,
ISBN 978-0195644418, page 205-206
23. Olle Quarnström (2002), The Yogaśāstra of Hemacandra: A Twelfth Century Handbook of
Śvetāmbara Jainism, Harvard University Press, ISBN 978-0674009349
24. Ludwik Sternbach (1973), Subhashita - A forgotten chapter in the histories of Sanskrit literature, in
Indologica Taurinensia, Torino, Vol I, pages 169-254

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