ORIENTAL SERIES.

SMARTASOMA. 301
Tatpurusha Kalpa, enlarged with many tales, and subservient to
the duties taught by Maheiwara. It is said to contain 81,800
stanzas : so it is asserted amongst mankind."
" It is uniformly
agreed," says Wilson, " that the Skanda Purafta, in a collective
form, has no existence; and the fragments, in the shape of
Sanhitas, KhaftJas, and Mahatmyas, which are affirmed in
various parts of India to be portions of the Purawa, present a
much more formidable mass of stanzas than even the immense
number of which it is said to consist. The most celebrated of
these portions in Hindusthan is the Kasi Kliawrfa, a very minute
description of the temples of iva in or adjacent to Benares,
mixed with directions for worshipping Maheswara, and a great
variety of legends explanatory of its merits and of the holiness
of KasL Many of them are puerile and uninteresting, but
some of them are of a higher character. There is every reason
to believe the greater part of the contents of the Kail KhamZa
anterior to the first attack upon Benares by Mahmud of Ghazni.
The TCasI Khanda alone contains 15,000 stanzas. Another con-
siderable work is the Utkala Kliawda, giving
an account of the
holiness of Orissa." A part of this Puram has been printed at
Bombay.
SMARTA. Appertaining to the Smn'ti The Smiirta-siitras.
See Sutras.
SMJi/TL ''What was remembered/ Inspiration, as distinguished
from Stuti, or direct revelation. What has been
remembered and handed down by tradition. In its widest
application, the term includes the Vedangas, the Sutras, the
Bamayafia, the Maha-'bharata, the Puranas, the Dharma-sastras,
especially the works of Manu, Yajnawalkya, and other inspired
lawgivers, and the 3STiti-sastras or ethics, but its ordinary application
is to the Dharma-sastras; as Manu says, " By Sruti is meant
the Veda, and by Smnti the institutes of law," ii. 10.
SMjK/TI-CHANDRrKA. A treatise on law, according to
the Dravidian or Southern school, by Dovana Bha^a.
SOMA. The juice of a milky climbing plant (Asdepias acida),
extracted and fermented, forming a beverage offered in libations
to the deities, and drunk by the Brahmans. Its exhilarating
qualities were grateful to the priests, and the gods were represented
as being equally fond of it. This soma juice occupies
a large space in the jJig-veda ; one Mandala is almost wholly