[1] The word is generally used as a suffix in the Indian literature context, for technical or specialized knowledge in a defined area of practice.
Examples in terms of modern neologisms include In Western literature, Shastra is sometimes spelled as Sastra,[4] reflecting a misunderstanding of the IAST symbol 'ś', which corresponds to the English 'sh'.
In early Vedic literature, the word referred to any precept, rule, teaching, ritual instruction or direction.
[1] In late and post Vedic literature of Hinduism, Shastra referred to any treatise, book or instrument of teaching, any manual or compendium on any subject in any field of knowledge, including religious.
[1] It is often a suffix, added to the subject of the treatise, such as In Buddhism, a "shastra" is often a commentary written at a later date to explain an earlier scripture or sutra.
In Buddhism, Buddhists are allowed to offer their theses as long as they are consistent with the Sutras, and those are called "Sastras.
The Maitri Upanishad (mid to late 1st millennium BCE), similarly, mentions the materialist Charvakas and Brihaspati who disagreed that the Vedas are a treatise of knowledge, proposing relativism instead, in the following passage:[12] बृहस्पतिर्वै शुक्रो भूत्वेन्द्रस्याभयायासुरेभ्यः क्षयायेमामविद्यामसृजत् तया शिवमशिवमित्युद्दिशन्त्यशिवं शिवमिति वेदादिशास्त्रहिंसकधर्माभिध्यानमस्त्विति The term is found in other Upanishads as well as in Bhagavad Gita such as in verses 15.20, 16.23–16.24, and 17.1.
Patrick Olivelle, credited with a 2005 translation of Manu Dharma-sastra, published by the Oxford University Press, states the concerns in postmodern scholarship about the presumed authenticity and reliability of manuscripts as follows (abridged):[16] The MDh (Manusmriti) was the first Indian legal text introduced to the western world through the translation of Sir William Jones in 1794.
Indeed, one of the great surprises of my editorial work has been to discover how few of the over fifty manuscripts that I collated actually follow the vulgate in key readings.
[24] Sutra (literally "binding thread") denotes a type of literary composition distinct from Shastra.