01From the deodar forest to Badari
On a Himalayan peak, in a forest of deodars, the rishis find Vyasa sitting in meditation and ask him for the dharma that will help people now that the Kali Yuga has come. Vyasa declines. "I do not know every truth," he says; "it is my father who should be asked." So the son of Satyavati leads them to Badarikashrama, a place of flowering creepers, springs and shrines, where Parashara, son of Shakti, sits among the munis. Vyasa bows, asks again, and Parashara begins: "Listen, my son, and let the munis listen too." The whole smriti is that answer.
02A smriti for each yuga
The first adhyaya gives the rule that each yuga has its own lawgiver: in Krita the dharmas of Manu, in Treta those of Gautama, in Dvapara those of Shankha and Likhita, in Kali those of Parashara. It also says that in Krita tapas is foremost, in Treta knowledge, in Dvapara yajna, and in Kali dana, giving. The rest follows from that: lighter penances, a householder who may live by farming, rules shaped for an age when people are weaker.
03Each age, a lighter measure
Parashara follows the yuga rule through a run of short, memorable verses. In Krita one left the whole country where a great sinner lived; in Treta, the village; in Dvapara, only his family; in Kali, only the sinner himself. In Krita a person fell merely by speaking with him, in Treta by touching him, in Dvapara by taking his food, and in Kali only by doing the deed. In Krita the giver went to the receiver, in Treta he called him, in Dvapara he gave when asked, in Kali he gives in return for service. Even a curse ripens slower now: at once in Krita, in a year in Kali.
04Six duties and the plough
The householder's day is given in one verse: sandhya and bathing, japa, homa, worship of the devas, hospitality to guests and the vaishvadeva offering, these six every day (1.39). A brahmana who keeps them and eats what remains of the offering never sinks. The second adhyaya then allows what older smritis frowned on. In the Kali Yuga a brahmana who keeps his six duties may also farm. Parashara's conditions are humane and exact: do not yoke a bullock that is hungry, thirsty or tired, or one that is lame or sick; work a strong, fed animal for half the day, then bathe. From grain grown by his own ploughing he performs the five yajnas.
05The king as gardener
Parashara gives the king only a few verses, but one of them has outlived the rest. The kshatriya protects his people with weapon in hand and rod ready, conquers hostile armies and rules the earth by dharma (1.61). In taking his revenue he must be like a gardener in a grove, who picks flower after flower and never cuts the root, and not like the charcoal-burner, who fells the whole tree for one fire (1.62). Vidura gives Dhritarashtra the same counsel in almost the same words in the Mahabharata's Udyoga Parva (5.34.18), just after the image of the bee that takes honey without harming the flower.
06The verse Vidyasagar quoted
The fourth adhyaya contains a verse that changed a law. "Nashte mrite pravrajite klibe cha patite patau": when the husband is lost, dead, has taken sannyasa, is impotent or has fallen (patita), in these five calamities another husband is ordained for a woman (4.30). The next verse praises the widow who keeps brahmacharya. In 1855 Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar built his Sanskrit case for the remarriage of Hindu widows on this verse, arguing that Parashara is the smriti for the Kali Yuga. The Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act followed in 1856. Commentators before and after him read the verse's scope differently, and the debate was carried on in Sanskrit, from the shastra.
07Penances and five baths
From the fifth adhyaya to the twelfth the smriti is a manual of purification: what to do after touching the impure, after a fault in food, after harming an animal, after neglecting a rite. The penances are measured in fasts, the prajapatya, the krichchhra, the chandrayana, and in gifts. The last adhyaya names five kinds of bath. Agneya is a bath in sacred ash, varuna is immersion in water, brahma is sprinkling with the mantra "apo hi shtha", vayavya is dust raised by the hooves of cows, and divya is standing in rain that falls while the sun shines, which, Parashara says, is as good as bathing in the Ganga.
08Madhavacharya's commentary
In the fourteenth century Madhavacharya, minister at Vijayanagara and identified by tradition with Swami Vidyaranya of Sringeri, wrote the Parashara Madhaviya. Parashara's text gives almost no law of the courts, so Madhava supplied a full section on vyavahara of his own. The commentary became an authority in the Deccan and the South, which is why this short smriti carries such weight there.
09Where it is quoted
The yuga verse is quoted wherever a pandit explains why Kali Yuga practice differs from older rules. The smriti's chapters on ashaucha, the impurity after a birth or a death in the family, are still consulted by purohits fixing the days of observance. Its rules on the householder's daily duties, sandhya, japa, the fire offering and the feeding of guests, are read the same way: as the measure for an age in which less can be asked of people, and in which dana counts for most.
What it contains
- 1Adhyaya 1
Vyasa brings the rishis to Parashara; the dharmas proper to each yuga; the daily duties of the householder. It also gives the four varnas their work and the king his duty to protect. The longest and most quoted adhyaya.
- 2Adhyaya 2
Livelihood in the Kali Yuga, including farming. It sets the terms for a brahmana who ploughs, down to the care of the bullocks, and lists what may and may not be sold.
- 3Adhyaya 3
Ashaucha after birth and death in the family: how many days each household observes and how purity is regained. With it the Achara Kanda, the first of the smriti's two books, ends. Purohits still consult it when fixing the days of observance.
- 4Adhyaya 4
The Prayashchitta Kanda begins here. The adhyaya gives penances for those who handle the body of one who took his own life, the duties of husband and wife, the kinds of sons, and the rule for a younger brother who marries before the elder. It ends with the verses on women in calamity; 4.30 is the one Vidyasagar quoted in 1855.
- 5Adhyayas 5–12
Purification and penances for a wide range of faults, lighter than in earlier smritis. The fasts and gifts are set out case by case. The twelfth adhyaya closes with the five kinds of bath and the merit of studying this smriti.
Famous verses
तपः परं कृतयुगे त्रेतायां ज्ञानमुच्यते । द्वापरे यज्ञमेवाहुर्दानमेव कलौ युगे ॥
In the Krita Yuga tapas is supreme, in the Treta knowledge, in the Dvapara they say yajna, and in the Kali Yuga giving alone.Parashara Smriti 1.23
कृते तु मानवा धर्मास्त्रेतायां गौतमाः स्मृताः । द्वापरे शाङ्खलिखिताः कलौ पाराशराः स्मृताः ॥
In the Krita Yuga the dharmas of Manu apply, in the Treta those of Gautama, in the Dvapara those of Shankha and Likhita, and in the Kali those of Parashara.Parashara Smriti 1.24
कृते सम्भाषणादेव त्रेतायां स्पर्शनेन च । द्वापरे त्वन्नमादाय कलौ पतति कर्मणा ॥
In the Krita one fell merely by speaking with a sinner, in the Treta by touching him, in the Dvapara by taking his food; in the Kali one falls only by the deed itself.Parashara Smriti 1.26
पुष्पं पुष्पं विचिनुयान्मूलच्छेदं न कारयेत् । मालाकार इवारामे न यथाङ्गारकारकः ॥
Let the king pick flower by flower and never cut the root, like a gardener in a grove, not like the charcoal-burner.Parashara Smriti 1.62
क्षुधितं तृषितं श्रान्तं बलीवर्दं न योजयेत् । हीनाङ्गं व्याधितं क्लीबं वृषं विप्रो न वाहयेत् ॥
Do not yoke a bullock that is hungry, thirsty or weary; let the brahmana not drive one that is maimed, sick or weak.Parashara Smriti 2.3
Madhavacharya's Parashara Madhaviya made it an authority across the Deccan and South India.