The Aspects of Dharma

The varna scheme is. Differentiation of duty by birth is what Articles 14, 15, 16 and 17 repudiate, and A.S. Narayana Deekshitulu v. State of Andhra Pradesh, AIR 1996 SC 1765, is the judicial application.

Facts. Archakas and other office holders of Hindu temples in Andhra Pradesh challenged provisions of the Andhra Pradesh Charitable and Hindu Religious Institutions and Endowments Act 1987 which abolished hereditary rights in temple offices, contending that the offices were part of religious practice protected by Articles 25 and 26.

Held. The legislation was upheld: the office of an archaka is secular even though its duties are religious, and hereditary succession to it is not an essential religious practice. The Court held that "religion" in Articles 25 and 26 was used in the sense conveyed by dharma, that the two words are commonly but wrongly used interchangeably, and that English had no parallel word to dharma.

Why it matters here. The Court kept the concept of dharma and abolished the hereditary transmission of an office. That is precisely the separation an answer on the aspects should make: stage and role survive, birth does not.

Raja dharma

The duty of the ruler, treated in the next chapter, and the aspect with the most modern significance.

Apad dharma

The dharma of distress: the recognition that in extremity the ordinary obligation may be modified. A person may do in famine or calamity what he may not do otherwise.

Why it matters. It shows the tradition to be rule-governed rather than rigid, and it has a direct modern parallel in the general exceptions to criminal liability, in necessity, and in doctrines of frustration and force majeure.

Example. Taking food in a famine, which the texts excuse and which modern criminal law reaches through necessity.

Yuga dharma

The dharma appropriate to an age. The tradition holds that what is required changes with the character of the times, which supplies an internal warrant for change and is the classical answer to the charge that the system was static.

Example. The texts themselves record that practices permitted in an earlier age are forbidden in the present one, which is a doctrine of temporal variation stated from inside the tradition.

How the aspects interact

A person is subject to several at once. A king who is also a householder is bound by sadharana dharma, by his ashrama dharma, and by raja dharma, and the tradition's hard cases are conflicts between them. The Mahabharata is largely a treatment of such conflicts, and the Bhagavad Gita's question is precisely a conflict between a warrior's vishesha dharma and his obligations as a kinsman.

Resolution. The general rule is that the more specific dharma governs where it applies, and that raja dharma prevails in matters of public order because the consequences of a ruler's default fall on everybody.

A worked example

A physician in a famine has medicine sufficient for ten of the hundred who need it.

Sadharana dharma. Ahimsa and truthfulness bind him: he may not injure, and he may not lie about what he has.

Vishesha dharma. His obligation as a physician is to treat, which he cannot discharge fully.

Apad dharma. In extremity the ordinary obligation is modified, so failing to treat ninety is not a breach in the way it would be in ordinary times.

What remains binding. The general dharma. He may not distribute by favour or take payment for preference, because sadharana dharma does not admit of relaxation in the way a role-specific duty does.

The modern parallel. Triage protocols, the necessity defence, and the professional obligation to act without discrimination, which reach the same answers by different reasoning.

Quick revision

1. Frame: the four purusharthas, dharma, artha, kama and moksha, with artha and kama to be pursued within dharma.
2. Sadharana dharma: general, binding on all, and the aspect that survives Articles 14 and 15. Truthfulness, non-injury, not stealing, purity, restraint, forbearance, giving, absence of anger.
3. Vishesha dharma: role-specific, as of a physician, soldier, judge or teacher.
4. Varnashrama: four varnas and four ashramas, brahmacharya, grihastha, vanaprastha and sannyasa. Stage survives; birth does not.
5. Raja dharma: the ruler's duty, treated separately.
6. Apad dharma: the dharma of distress, with modern parallels in necessity, frustration and force majeure.
7. Yuga dharma: variation with the age, the tradition's internal warrant for change.
8. A person is subject to several at once; the more specific governs, and raja dharma prevails in matters of public order.

Test yourself

1. Name the aspects of dharma and state each in a phrase. Sadharana dharma, general duty binding on all; vishesha dharma, the special duty of a role or office; varnashrama dharma, duties of social order and stage of life; raja dharma, the duty of the ruler; apad dharma, the dharma of distress permitting departure in extremity; and yuga dharma, the dharma appropriate to an age.

2. Why is sadharana dharma the most important aspect for a modern answer? Because it is not differentiated by birth and is therefore the part of the tradition consistent with Articles 14 and 15. Truthfulness, non-injury, restraint and forbearance bind every person identically, and the tradition states them first, so an account that presents dharma as wholly a system of caste duties omits what the sources themselves place at the head.

3. Distinguish the ashrama scheme from the varna scheme in constitutional terms. The ashrama scheme differentiates by stage of life, which every legal system does through minority, majority and retirement, and nothing in the Constitution objects to it. The varna scheme differentiates duty by birth, which Articles 14, 15, 16 and 17 repudiate, and A.S. Narayana Deekshitulu applied that repudiation by upholding the abolition of hereditary succession to temple office while retaining the concept of dharma.

4. What is apad dharma, and what does its existence show? The dharma of distress, which recognises that in extremity the ordinary obligation may be modified, as with taking food in a famine. Its existence shows that the tradition was rule-governed rather than rigid, since it contains an internal doctrine for exceptional circumstances, and it corresponds to the modern doctrines of necessity, frustration and force majeure.