Dharmaśāstra — The Learned Canon of Righteous Conduct and Law
Dharmaśāstra is the collective name for the body of Sanskrit Smṛti literature that codifies dharma in its practical, social, and legal dimensions. While the Vedas (Śruti) provide the transcendent, revealed basis for dharma, the Dharmaśāstras are the Smṛti (remembered, human-authored) texts that apply Vedic principles to the practical organization of human life. Their scope is vast: ācāra (personal and ritual conduct, including bodily purity, dietary rules, life-cycle rites), prāyaścitta (expiation and penance for transgressions), vyavahāra (legal procedure, dispute resolution, inheritance, contracts), and the specific duties of the four varṇas (brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra) and four āśramas (brahmacarya, gṛhastha, vānaprastha, sannyāsa). The major Dharmaśāstra texts include the Manu Smṛti (Mānavadharmaśāstra), Yājñavalkya Smṛti, Parāśara Smṛti (particularly authoritative for the Kali Yuga), and the earlier Dharmasūtras of Āpastamba and Baudhāyana.
In the broader Vedic literature hierarchy, Dharmaśāstra occupies a specific and subordinate position: above Laukika (secular custom) but below Vedānta (upaniṣadic philosophy) and Āgama (temple and ritual worship manuals). In Śrī Vaiṣṇava theology, the Āchāryas acknowledge the authority of Dharmaśāstra for governing bāhya ācāra (external social conduct) but are careful to subordinate it to the supreme authority of the Upaniṣads as interpreted through Rāmānuja's Viśiṣṭādvaita. Social distinctions codified in Dharmaśāstra are understood as provisional arrangements (vyāvahārika) for the conduct of life in this world, not as ultimate metaphysical truths: at the level of ultimate reality (pāramārthika), all jīvas are equally Bhagavān's śeṣas (servants/dependents) and the varṇa-based hierarchy has no significance in the inner life of prapatti.
Rāmānuja himself did not write a Dharmaśāstra commentary, though he accepted Smṛti as one of the valid sources (pramāṇas) for dharma within the framework of the Vedic quadruple canon (śruti, smṛti, itihāsa, purāṇa). The Śrī Vaiṣṇava community has historically followed the Āpastamba and Baudhāyana Dharmasūtra schools, with the Parāśara Smṛti given special prominence as the Dharmaśāstra specifically prescribed for the Kali Yuga — an age when many of the stricter injunctions of Manu cannot be practically observed. The practical ācāra of initiated Śrī Vaiṣṇavas thus represents a synthesis of Dharmaśāstra foundations with the specifically Vaiṣṇava Āgamic and sampradāya requirements laid down by the Āchāryas.