THE DEVALA-SMRITI in its original form, is an ancient Dharmasastra treatise preceding even Adi Sankara. Its complete text has been reconstructed in two exhaustive volumes as recently as 1996 by Dr. M.L. Wadekar.
The original Dēvala-Smr̥ti is a Smriti proper, dealing with the typical Dharmasastra topics: ācāra (personal conduct), vyavahāra (worldly transactions), and prāyaścitta (atonement). The whole Smriti is split into three chapters and twenty-two sections. It also contains an appendix titled Dēvala-Jyōtiṣam that discusses Jyōtiṣa (astronomy).
The second section of the second chapter titled Mlēccita-Śud'dhih is where we find the first recorded mention of the theory and practice of Parāvartana or Ghar-Wapsi. This chapter was a later addition to the original Dēvala-Smr̥ti and was published as a standalone monograph by the Anandashram Institute, Pune in 1929. It received instant acclaim by the Hindu society.
Eventually, the Mlēccita-Śud'dhih chapter became synonymous with the Dēvala-Smr̥ti in the public imagination. It is in the same sense that Dēvala-Smr̥ti is used in this essay.
As the reconstructed work of Sri Wadekar shows, the addition of the Mlēccita-Śud'dhih chapter was made in the tenth century CE sometime in the interim after Qasim’s raid and Mahmud of Ghazni’s invasion. The opening verse of this chapter clearly states the name of its author as Dēvala Muni who “was seated in the Sukhāsana on the banks of the Sindhu River.” The fact that this Devala was the namesake of a more ancient predecessor is evident.
The whole of Mlēccita-Śud'dhih is in the question-and-answer format, which harks back to the Upanishadic tradition. Thus, beginning with the second Pāda of the first verse, we are told that a group of ascetics, sadhus and saints approach Dēvala Muni. The first to their two opening questions go straight to the point:
“Bhagavan! How may the Brahmanas, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Sudras carried off by the Mlecchas attain purification once again? What sacred ablution, what purificatory rituals, and what penance must they undertake in this regard? What sacred observances must they follow? Pray, instruct us in detail.”
The questions and Devala’s detailed answer to it opens a brave new world of the societal history of Sanatana Dharma at a critical juncture. What immediately stands out here is the mention of purification applicable to all the four Varnas. Also notable is the absence of the terms Antyaja or Pan̄cama (known today as Dalit), a societal unit that was non-existent in Devala’s time. Even more significantly, we observe throughout the Dēvala-Smriti as to how the Hindu society unanimously, unambiguously regarded the Mlecchas as not only inferior but unclean, repulsive and loathsome.
When we read the specific details of why Hindus became impure they were forcibly converted, the real story reveals itself. Here are some of the relevant extracts from the Dēvala-Smriti.
“Those [Hindus] that [were] forcibly carried away as slaves by the Mlecchas…[and] made to kill cows…[and] eating forbidden food…[and forced to live] together with the Mlecchas…became defiled.
“Being forcibly made slaves by the Mlecchas…[Hindus] were compelled to commit an impure act such as [1] the slaughter of the cow [2] clearing or eating the leftovers of the food of the Mlecchas [3] eating the flesh of the donkey, camel or village-pig [4] intercourse and dining together with their women.”
To this day, the Mleccha psyche has remained unchanged. What has changed is only the mode of conversion. As Arun Shourie presciently noted in Eminent Historians:
"Does the Indian who has converted to Islam require Hindu reformers or nationalist leaders to instigate him into shunning the kafirs, into giving up every vestige of the ways of the non-believers? From the very advent of Islam into India, Islamic preachers and reformers have had one singular aim: to exorcise every syncretistic notion and practice. From the moment of his conversion, indeed as part of the ceremony of conversion itself, the convert is made to do things which will rupture - violendy rupture - his links with his Hindu past. Precisely for the… reason that the Hindus revere the cow - beef has a special place in this rupturing: in the feast that follows, the new convert is forced or… induced to eat beef openly and publicly." [Emphasis added]
Over the last twenty years or so, this disgusting act of public beef-eating has become a symbol of defiance. Sadly, it is being made by certain brainwashed sections of the Hindu society that have not converted to Islam; their beef-eating is an act of protest against what their own tradition regards as sacred. No Jihad-hungry Sultan or Nawab did this to them; it was done by school and college textbooks written from the 1970s onwards.
The Dēvala-Smriti prescribes expiation ceremonies for every permutation and combination of defilement undergone by a Hindu. These are classified on the basis of the severity of the impurity and the duration of the Hindu’s contact with the Mlecchas. Dr. D.R. Bhandarkar furnishes a brilliant summary of the overall situation and how Devala dealt with it.
"…even a cursory perusal of this Smriti leaves the impression on the mind that in that period the forcible carrying away of the Hindus had become a matter of common occurrence. This is possible only at a time when there was a vigorous attempt on the part of the Muslim power to conquer India… In the Smriti there is a distinct reference to the cases of persons whose father or mother had embraced the Mlechchha religion. In such cases the son is advised to offer pindas neither to his father nor to his mother" who has been so converted, but to his grandfather and other forefathers. Surely no Indians are known to have espoused the Mlechchha religion up till the Muhammadan conquest. The phenomenon of a Hindu becoming a Mlechchha arose for the first time when the Muhammadans began to penetrate into this country… the Smriti speaks of Mlechchha-sabha in one place and enjoins expiation on Hindus who have touched or remained together for a long time with the Mlechehhas in such an assembly." [Emphasis added]
The primacy and centrality of the Dēvala-Smriti cannot be emphasised enough. Among other things, it shows how alert the Hindu society was in the matter of safeguarding itself against a new and deadly threat whose true nature it was only beginning to fathom.
To be continued
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