Variety and Integration in the Pattern of Indian Culture

Abstract

EVEN if one uses Sanskrit only as the instrument of investigation, it is apparent that Indian culture was a current which, as it flowed and spread, was fed by many a stream and absorbed many a small and stagnant pool. With volume, it gathered often bewildering variety, which was synthesized in a systematic plan. That diverse sources contributed to its making is obvious, but to identify each of them, to survey all the material accepted, and to be reasonably precise in the innumerable details that such a study involves, seems a stupendous and baffling task. It is possible, however, to point out certain instances in which the main tradition embraced smaller group-cultures and incorporated regional elements. As this culture became consolidated throughout India, it employed certain characteristic methods wherever it went, not only in India and the peripheral regions, but in all those trans-Indian territories to which it expanded. Sanskrit was the ultimate medium of transmission used by the main body of this culture and Sanskritization the chief technique of the take-over. Hence an examination of Sanskrit literature, in its different branches, will prove useful in investigating the incorporation of regional and folk elements. Without going into questions of pre-Vedic or Indus Valley cultures, or the problem of contributions by Munda, Austric, Dravidian, and Mongoloid, data can be found in Sanskrit literature which help to illuminate Hindu sociology, religion, and the arts during the historic period. Dharma is one of the vital concepts of this culture; in fact, it can broadly be used in the sense of culture itself. The Dharma Skstras are the practical codes which lay down religious and civil duties and regulate and systematize conduct in all departments of life. It is therefore proper to turn to them first and look for the ingredients of the dharma that they propound. The authors of the Smrtis and Dharma Sfitras and Grhya SfItras, such as Gautama, Apastamba, A.valayana, Manu, and others, approached this problem with a sense of realism and a spirit of accommodation. The sources of dharma are Veda, Smrti which derives its authority from Veda, the conduct of the good, and the conscience of right-minded persons. But there are practices and customs which differ in different parts of the country; where do these stand with reference to the principle of ultimate Vedic authority? That this question is discussed both in the Dharma

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