Shruti

This article covers Indian religious scriptures. For other meanings of Shruti, see Shruti (disambiguation)

Shruti ( Sanskrit , f., श्रुति, śruti , literally: "what has been heard") refers to the scriptures in Hinduism that report the timeless revelation and are therefore absolutely binding. They are considered wisdom that does not come from any human author, but "heard" the Rishis (mythical sages) or received them from the divine sphere ( Brahman ). This is to be seen in contrast to the Smritis (“what is remembered”), which contain the tradition handed down by humans and are therefore only binding insofar as they go back to Shrutis. The Shrutis include the four Vedas , although originally only the mantras and the Brahmanas were included and the Upanishads and other components of the Veda were added later.

The fact that the texts with the highest priority are described as "heard" documents the importance of hearing compared to writing, which in India took place relatively late. The roots of the Indian tradition lie in an oral tradition which invented sophisticated mnemonic methods for this purpose .