shastran.

1630 H. Lord Display Two Forraigne Sects 40 This Booke by them called the Shaster.

1698 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 20 275 The Shastram being to them what the Bible is to Christians.

1763 L. Scrafton Refl. Govt. Indostan (1770) 4 A comment thereon [i.e. on the Vedas], called the Shahstah.

a1832 Encycl. Metrop. (1845) XXI. 673/1 Those who study the Védas..are styled Waïdik,..when learned in the six Sástras they are called Sástrí.

1838 J. C. Maitland Lett. from Madras (1843) 198 They know that the Bible is our Shaster, and suppose it to be as good for us, as their own Shasters are for them.

1872 M. A. Sherring Hindu Tribes I. 3 The Brahman..possesses..the holy canon—Vedas, Shástras, and Puránas.

1887 W. J. Wilkins Mod. Hinduism 127 The position of the Brāhman as taught by the Sāstras.

1932 S. Dasgupta Hist. Indian Philos. II. xiv. 445 At the first stage a man performs his duties in accordance with the injunctions of the śāstras.

1956 V. Raghavan Indian Heritage p. lvii These systems later came to be called Sastras, meaning thereby merely that they are authoritative and systematic schools of thought.

1960 A. Koestler Lotus & Robot i. 59 It is significant that every science in India is called a Sastra—a system of thought with a spiritual purpose.

1974 Encycl. Brit. Macropædia III. 433/1 From the 2nd century ad onward, Mahāyāna authors wrote ‘treatises’ (śāstras) in their own names.

1968 Indian Music Jrnl. 5 46 Its gigantic volume, comprehensive subject-matter, śāstraic treatment of the subject-matter.

1961 Webster's 3rd New Internat. Dict. Eng. Lang. Shastraic.

1967 R. Singha & R. Massey Indian Dances i. 33 The shastraic literature which kept it alive.