Idea of Ahimsa and Asceticism in Ancient Indian Tradition

Author(s): Bansidhar Bhatt
Publisher: B J Institute

Page 13

THE IDEA OF AHMSA ....
regulations of Vedic ritual practices and ceremonies. They are classified in three heads, viz. srauta satras, texts dealing particularly with Vedic sacrificial ceremonies, grhyasutras, dealing with domestic rituals and householders' duties like sacraments (samskaras), etc. and are concerned with family life, dharma satras, describing human duties, right conduct laws abiding the persons of various classes (varņas) and stages (aśramas), taking into account the entire community as a whole. The latter two types of the satra texts coincide with each other in their subject-matter. The fourth type called the sulbasotras, is relatively of later origin, and deals with mathematical calculations, etc. for fire-altars and sacrificial places. No importance is attached to it in the present discussion.
All these satra works give us some contradictory views from different sources. On account of a wide gap between such instances of contradictory nature and their traditional explanations, it is difficult to draw from them any decision regarding their contents and historical developments. Some satras mention names of some known or unknown "authors" or followers of their traditions or schools, some satras present a complex and composite structure, rendering it difficult to ascribe them to a single author. The textual material of the satra works seems to have been orally or otherwise transmitted and developed with additions and alterations, if any, by means of explanation and remarks of scholiasts of the same school of thought. Different satra texts actually came into existence in different times and different regions. We have to take all such factors into account.
It is also to be added that the dharma satras abound in materials relevant to the ahimsa concept. They furnish us partly and eventually with social and cultural aspects of the society, but it is, however, here risky to rely exclusively on them and to draw from them a real picture of the society so far as the ethical conduct of the peoples of those days is concerned. In short, these compendia reflect only a partial picture of the day to day life of a common man of the time. Generally the dharmasatras do not show any influence of the existing reform religions, viz. Jainism and Buddhism. They seem to have originated possibly before the reform religions came into existence. Among the dharmasatras, those of Āpastamba, Baudhayana, Vasistha, and Gautama existed relatively earlier. Their time may roughly be calculated between the 6th and the 2nd century before the Christ
(cf. Gonda-2.). Many dharma satras quite often refer to the