Vol. 6, Issue 9, Part E (2020)

Abstract
Dharmasastra is a collection of ancient Sanskrit texts which gives the codes of conduct and moral principles of dharma, for sanatana dharma. Dharmasastras are the sacred law books which prescribe moral laws and principles for religion. There are eighteeen dharmasastras or smritisastras in sanatana religion. Some important of them are- Yajnavalkya smriti, Vishnusmriti, parasara smriti, Gautamasmriti and Naradasmriti etc. These are sacred literature based on human memory as distinct from the vedas, which are considered to be shruti, literary “What is heard or the product of divine revelation most modern Hindus, however, have a greater familarity with these smriti scriptures. In the North East i.e. Assam Sankaradeva preached the eka-sarana-hari-nama-dharma. Sankardeva studied various Hindu scriptures- Fourvedas, all philosophical scriptures, fourteen sastras,all puranas, dharmasastras i.e. smritisastras also. Sankardeva basically brought the essance of Vishnubhakti from Vishnusmriti to preach his hari-nama-dharma. Vishnusmriti has a strong bhakti orientation requering daily aradhana to the God Vishnu. The Vishnusmriti is divided into one hundred chapters, consisting mostly of prose text but including one or more verses at the end of each chapter. Vishnusmriti is called the Vaishnava dharmasastra.