Dharmasindhu
By Swami Harshananda
Dharmasindhu literally means ‘Ocean of dharma’.
For over two millennia, the society has been guided and regulated by a special class of literature known as the dharmaśāstras. These works have prescribed rules of conduct for a person both at the individual and at the social level.
Dharmaśāstras Features[edit]
The Dharmaśāstra literature has three aspects:
- The dharmasutras
- The dharmasutras mainly deal with ācāra and vyavahāra (code of conduct in personal and social life).
- The smṛtis
- The smṛtis technically refers to the secondary scriptures like Manusmṛiti which remind one, of the great spiritual truths contained in the Śruti or Vedas.
- The nibandhas
- The nibandhas are the digests containing a lot of information on various aspects of dharma. It also consists of various applications of dharma, culled from a number of authoritative sources.
Conception of Dharmasindhu[edit]
The Dharmsindhu of Kāśīnātha Upādhye is also known as the Dharmasindhusāra or Dharmābdhisāra. It is a leading and popular work, especially in the Maharashtra State, guiding religious observances. It might have been composed during the period A. D. 1790-91. It seems to have derived it's inspiration from another more well known work called Nirnayasindhu of Kamalākara (A. D. 1612).
Essence of Dharmasindhu[edit]
The book is divided into three paricchedas or sections. The topics dealt with in it may be summarized as follows:
- Divisions of the year
- The seasons and the times considered auspicious or inauspicious for religious and social rites
- Sacraments like upanayana and marriage
- Āhnika or the daily duties of a dvija (a member of the first three castes)
- Śrāddhas or obsequial rites
References[edit]
- The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore