Smriti Scriptures

Smriti scriptures are the Hindu canon division of texts remembered and attributed to a named human author, standing in contrast to the unauthored, orally fixed shruti corpus. The class spans a wide range of genres, including the two great epics the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, the eighteen Puranas and their many subsidiary texts, the Dharmashastras that codify law and conduct, and the Vedangas, the auxiliary disciplines that support Vedic study. Smriti works were freely rewritten and expanded across many centuries by different hands, so each smriti text survives today in multiple, sometimes widely differing versions, unlike the fixed wording orthodox tradition ascribes to shruti. Smriti authority in Hindu philosophy is understood as derived from and subordinate to shruti, except within the Mimamsa school, which treats the two more nearly as equals.