The Dhaarmik Traditions - Indic Studies Foundation

practice the profession of Brahmana for a living and have migrated to other
professions such as Engineering, Law, teaching, research, academics, and
Medicine. They are doing reasonably well despite draconian laws of reverse
discrimination directed specially against Brahmanas. Many have migrated to other
countries
Definition of Smartha
In Sanskrit smarta has several meanings including one who remembers, a teacher,
and smārta means "relating to memory, recorded in or based on the smrti, based
on tradition, prescribed or sanctioned by traditional law or usage, (etc)", from the
root smr ("remember").
Distinction from others
The Smartas consider themselves followers and propagators of Smriti or religious
texts derived from Vedic scriptures. It is from this that the name is derived. This term
is used with respect to a certain specialized category of Brahmanas. Not all
Brahmanas specialized in this Smriti tradition. Some were influenced by Buddhism,
Jainism or Charvaka tradition and philosophy. This did not mean that all these people
rejected the authority of Vedas, but only that their tradition of worship and
philosophy was based not on smriti texts. In time, Shankaracharya brought all the
Vedic communities together. He tried to remove the non-smriti aspects that had crept
into the Hindu communities. He also endeavored to unite them by arguing that any of
the different Hindu gods could be worshipped, according to the prescriptions given
in the smriti texts. He established that worship of various deities are compatible with
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