Smarta tradition
The Smarta tradition is a movement in Hinduism that developed and expanded with the Puranas genre of literature. It reflects a synthesis of four philosophical strands, namely Uttara Mīmāṃsā, Advaita, Yoga, and theism. The Smarta tradition rejects theistic sectarianism, and is notable for the domestic worship of five shrines with five deities, all treated as equal – Ganesha, Shiva, Shakti, Vishnu and Surya. The Smarta tradition contrasted with the older Shrauta tradition, which was based on elaborate rituals and rites. There has been a considerable overlap in the ideas and practices of the Smarta tradition with other significant historic movements within Hinduism, namely Shaivism, Brahmanism, Vaishnavism, and Shaktism.
The Smarta tradition developed during Classical Period of Hinduism around the beginning of the Common Era, when Hinduism emerged from the interaction between Brahmanism and local traditions. The Smarta tradition is aligned with Advaita Vedanta, and regards Adi Shankara as its founder or reformer. Shankara championed the thesis that ultimate reality is impersonal and Nirguna and any symbolic god serves the same equivalent purpose. Inspired by this belief, the Smarta tradition followers, along with the five Hindu gods, include a sixth impersonal god in their practice. The tradition has been called by William Jackson as "advaitin, monistic in its outlook".
The term Smarta also refers to Brahmins who specialise in the Smriti corpus of texts named the Grihya Sutras, in contrast to Shrauta Sutras. Smarta Brahmins, with their focus on the Smriti corpus, are contrasted from Srauta Brahmins, who specialise in the Śruti Corpus, that is, rituals and ceremonies that follow the Vedas.
Etymology
Smārta is an adjective derived from Smriti. The smriti are a specific body of Hindu texts usually attributed to an author, traditionally written down but constantly revised, in contrast to Srutis considered authorless, that were transmitted verbally across the generations and fixed.Smarta has several meanings:
- Relating to memory
- Recorded in or based on the Smriti
- Based on tradition, prescribed or sanctioned by traditional law
- Orthodox Brahmin versed in or guided by traditional law and Vedanta doctrine
History
Both Alf Hiltebeitel and Gavin Flood locate the origins of the Smarta Tradition in the Classical Period of Hinduism, particularly with the nondualist interpretation of Vedanta, when Hinduism emerged from the interaction between Brahmanism and local traditions.The "Hindu Synthesis"
Hiltebeitel situates the origins of the Smarta tradition in the ongoing interaction between the Vedic-Brahmanic tradition and non-Vedic traditions. According to him, a period of consolidation in the development of Hinduism took place between the time of the late Vedic Upanishad and the period of the rise of the Guptas, which he calls the "Hindus synthesis", "Brahmanic synthesis", or "orthodox synthesis". It develops in interaction with other religions and peoples:The smriti texts of the period between 200 BCE and 100 CE proclaim the authority of the Vedas, and "nonrejection of the Vedas comes to be one of the most important touchstones for defining Hinduism over and against the heterodoxies, which rejected the Vedas." The Smriti texts interpret the Vedas in a number of ways, which gave rise to six darsanas of Hindu philosophy. Of the six Hindu darsanas, the Mimamsa and the Vedanta "are rooted primarily in the Vedic sruti tradition and are sometimes called smarta schools in the sense that they develop smarta orthodox current of thoughts that are based, like smriti, directly on sruti." They emphasize the Vedas with reason and other pramanas, in contrast to Haituka schools which emphasize hetu independent of the Vedas while accepting the authority of the Vedas. Of the two Smarta traditions, Mimamsa focused on Vedic ritual traditions, while Vedanta focussed on Upanishadic knowledge tradition.
Around the start of the common era, and thereafter, a syncretism of Haituka schools, the Smarta schools with ancient theistic ideas gave rise to a growth in traditions such as Shaivism, Vaishnavism and Shaktism. The revived Smarta tradition attempted to integrate varied and conflicting devotional practices, with its ideas of nondual experience of Atman as Brahman. The rapprochement included the practice of pancayatana-puja, wherein a Hindu could focus on any saguna deity of choice such as Vishnu, Shiva, Durga, Surya and Ganesha as an interim step towards realizing the nirguna Brahman. The growth of this Smarta Tradition began in the Gupta period, and likely was dominated by Dvija classes, in particular the Brahmins, of the early medieval Indian society. This Smarta tradition competed with other major traditions of Hinduism such as Shaivism, Vaishnavism, and Shaktism. The ideas of Smarta were historically influential, creative with concepts such as of Harihara and Ardhanarishvara, and many of the major scholars of Shaivism, Vaishnavism, Shaktism, and Bhakti movement came out of the Smarta tradition.
According to Hiltebeitel, "the consolidation of Hinduism takes place under the sign of bhakti." It is the Bhagavadgita that seals this achievement. The result is a universal achievement that may be called smarta. It views Shiva and Vishnu as "complementary in their functions but ontologically identical".
Puranic Hinduism
According to Flood, the Smarta tradition originated with the development of the Puranas. The Puranic corpus is a complex body of materials that advance the views of various competing cults. Flood connects the rise of the written Purana historically with the rise of devotional cults centring upon a particular deity in the Gupta era.After the end of the Gupta Empire and the collapse of the Harsha Empire, power became decentralised in India. Several larger kingdoms emerged, with "countless vasal states". The kingdoms were ruled via a feudal system. Smaller kingdoms were dependent on the protection of the larger kingdoms. With the breakdown of the Gupta empire, gifts of virgin waste-land were heaped on brahmanas, to ensure profitable agrarian exploitation of land owned by the kings, but also to provide status to the new ruling classes. Brahmanas spread further over India, interacting with local clans with different religions and ideologies.
The early medieval Puranas were composed to disseminate religious mainstream ideology among the pre-literate tribal societies undergoing acculturation. The Brahmanas used the Puranas to incorporate those clans into the agrarian society and its accompanying religion and ideology. Local chiefs and peasants were absorbed into the caste system, which was used to keep "control over the new kshatriyas and shudras".
The Brahmanism of the Dharmashastras and the smritis underwent a radical transformation at the hands of the Purana composers, resulting in the rise of Puranic Hinduism, "which like a colossus striding across the religious firmament soon came to overshadow all existing religions". Puranic Hinduism was a "multiplex belief-system which grew and expanded as it absorbed and synthesized polaristic ideas and cultic traditions". It was distinguished from its Vedic Smarta roots by its popular base, its theological and sectarian pluralism, its Tantric veneer, and the central place of bhakti.
Many local religions and traditions were assimilated into puranic Hinduism. Vishnu and Shiva emerged as the main deities, together with Sakti/Deva, subsuming local cults, popular totem symbols and creation myths. Rama and Krsna became the focus of a strong bhakti tradition, which found expression particularly in the Bhagavata Purana. The Krsna tradition subsumed numerous Naga, yaksa, and hill and tree based cults. Siva absorbed local cults by the suffixing of Isa or Isvara to the name of the local deity, for example Bhutesvara, Hatakesvara, and Chandesvara.
Shankara and Advaita Vedanta
Traditionally, Adi Shankara is regarded as the greatest teacher and reformer of the Smarta tradition. According to Hiltebeitel, Adi Shankara established the nondualist interpretation of the Upanishads as the touchstone of a revived smarta tradition:The Sringeri Sharada monastery, according to tradition founded by Adi Shankara, in Karnataka is still the centre of the Smarta sect.
Recognition of Smarta as a tradition
Medieval era scholars such as Vedanta Desika and Vallabhacharya recognized Smarta as competing with Vaishnavism and other traditions. According to Jeffrey Timm, for example, in verse 10 of the Tattvarthadipanibandha, Vallabhacharya states that, "Mutually contradictory conclusions are non-contradictory when they are considered from their respective contexts, like Vaishnava, Smarta, etc."According to Murray Milner Jr., a professor of Sociology, the Smarta tradition refers to "Hindus who tend toward Brahmanical orthodoxy in both thought and behavior". Smartas are usually committed to a "relatively unified Hinduism" and they reject extreme forms of sectarian isolationism, reminiscent of the European discourse about the church and Christian sects. The tradition, states Milner, has roots that emerged sometime between 3rd century BCE and 3rd century CE, likely in response to the growth of Jainism and Buddhism. It reflected a Hindu synthesis of four philosophical strands: Mimamsa, Advaita, Yoga and theism.
Smarta tradition emerged initially as a synthesis movement to unify Hinduism into a nonsectarian form based on the Vedic heritage. It accepted varnasrama-dharma, states Bruce Sullivan, which reflected an acceptance of Varna and ashrama as a form of social and religious duty. In the later second half of the 1st millennium, Adi Shankara reformed and brought ideas to the movement in the form of the Advaita Vedanta philosophy. According to Upinder Singh, the Smarta tradition's religious practice emerged as a transformation of Brahmanism and can be described as Hinduism. Smarta as a tradition emphasized all gods as equal and different ways of perceiving the all-pervasive metaphysical impersonal Brahman.