THE USEFULNESS OF MANUSMṚTI IN RESOLVING THE CURRENT ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS

The main aim of this article is to reveal the view of the ancient Indian tradition- bearer Manusmṛti towards the environment. By investigating one of the main causes of the current environmental crisis, it is shown how the Vedic tradition- following Manusmṛti which is one of the religious scriptures, has advised to adopt a conservative and respectful attitude towards various elements of nature. This Indian philosophical tradition has always given due value to all natural things and has always strived to make people respectful towards nature by attributing divinity to many things in the natural world in order to convey their importance to the common man. But being obsessed with western ideology and scientific progress, the people of India have also forgotten the rules and restrictions prescribed by their ancient tradition and have considered nature only as one of the subjects of their aggressive policy. As a result, in the present era the natural environment, is so excessively polluted, damaged and devastated that it is gradually carrying the message of existential crisis for all living beings. In this extremely adverse situation worldwide, this article is based on Indian traditional thoughts. One of the nineteenth saṃhitā is the Vedas-based Manusmṛti which is ancient India provided advice on the restrictions of behavior of people living in society and set the criteria for judging them. With the aim of finding a way to solve the current stage of the environmental crisis, the world has begun to search for a way out, and the teachings advice on behavior towards the environment in the ancient Indian memoir Manusmṛti will be discussed.