The Fourteen Abodes of Knowledge from Hindu Dharma
The fourteen "abodes" of knowledge are: the four vedas; the
six Angas or limbs of the Vedas; Mimamsa, Nyaya, the Puranas and Dharmasastra.
You must have seen at least references to the Vedas and the six Angas. The Tamil
work Tevaram says: "Vedamodarangamayinanai". According to this devotional work Isvara is
the form of the four Vedas and the six Angas.
The fourteen dharma-pramanas (authorities of dharma) are
called "caturdasa-vidya". The well-known poetic work 'Naisadham' mentions that
Nala was conversant with these fourteen branches of learning. The poet (Sriharsa
) plays on the word "caturdasa": he says that "Nala accorded caturdasa to the
caturdas-vidya", meaning he gave the fourteen branches of learning four
dasas: reading,
understanding what is read, living according to the teachings contained in what
is read, and making others also live in accordance with them.
Caturdasatvam Krtavan kutah
svayam
Na vedmi vidyasu
caturdasasvapi
--Naisadham, 1. 4
All religious knowledge is encompassed by these fourteen
branches of learning.
There are yet four more vidyas. If you add to the fourteen
already mentioned, you will have eighteen vidyas - astadasa-vidya which are
all-inclusive. Of them, the fourteen already mentioned are directly concerned
with dharma. The remaining four - Ayurveda, Arthasastra, Dhanurveda and
Gandharvaveda -
do not directly deal with dharma. They are not dharmasthanas (abodes of dharma)
but they qualify to be vidyasthanas(abodes of knowledge). The first fourteen, as
already mentioned, are both dharmasthanas and vidyasthanas (abodes of dharma as
well as abodes of knowledge).
The dharmasthanas and vidyasthanas are together commonly
known as the sastras. The word "sastra" means an order or commandment. We speak
of a royal "sasana", meaning a royal "edict". There is a chapter in the
Mahabaharaaata in which Bhisma expounds the ordinances of dharma to Yudhisthira
and it is called "Anusasana-parva". Aiyanar is called "Sasta" because he keeps
the hosts of Siva under his control (through his orders ). Works on sastras
incorporate the ordinances that are calculated to keep us disciplined and ensure
that we tread the right path.
While all the fourteen sastras are basic and authoritative
texts, the Vedas are their crown. Just as Buddhism, Zoroastrianism
(Zarathustrianism), Christianity and Islam have the Tripitaka, the Zend-Avesta,
the Bible and the Qur'an respectively as their scriptures, we have the Vedas as
our prime scripture.
Of the fourteen branches of learning the first four (the
four Vedas) form the basis for the subsequent ten. Together they constitute the
complete corpus of sastras on which our religion is founded.