How can agama be treated as shruti?

Question

Agamas as shruti :

Hindpedia says Sruti, the eternal word, is said to be of two forms – Nigama (Veda) and Agama

Also, Sri Vaishnava Acharya Yamunacharya (who was Ramanujacharya's guru's guru) composed a work called the Agama Pramanya, defending the scriptural authority of the Pancharatra Agamas

This scripture says agamas as shruti

ref1: Hindupedia
ref2: What are the Agama scriptures? Are they related to Shruti/Vedas?

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Agamas are not shruti:

"By Sruti is meant the Veda, and by Smriti is meant the Dharma ShAstra"

                                      - Manu Smriti 2.10.

Hence, agamas are not shruti, as per manusmriti.

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Question: As shruti is base root of hinduism pramana, hence how can we reconcile this very important difference in opinion on agamas being shruti or not? Will "Agama Pramanya" work be considered more or less pramana than manusmriti opinion in this regard?

Are Agamas shruti or not?

Answer 1

First of all it should be understand that Agama is a very wide subject. It involves various aspects such as mantra, yantra, upasana, diksha, anushthana, temple construction, idol construction and so on.

There are many references which say that shruti are of two kinds. One is Vedas and other is agama. There is another post on agamas which you can go through here.

Firstly, since you have quoted manu smriti, I would like to start from the same point. The smriti does not say "AGAMAS ARE NOT SHRUTI". Hence it is not correct to assume such thing. In fact, Kulluka Bhatta, one of the oldest and celebrated commentator on Manu, says that Shruti is of two kinds, Vaidik and Tantrik.

Vaidiki tantrums caviar dvividha shrutih kirtita

Hence nigama and agama are two streams of the same eternal source of knowledge. There are many types of agamas like Shaiva, shakta, Vaishnava, Saura and so on. Many of them are related to shruti and considered as good as shruti (vedas).

Talking about the glory of agamas (tantras) Apastamba says "अन्गसमुदायस्तन्त्रम्" (1/15/1) which means that the one which links all the shastras is tantra/agama.

As per the Sharada Tilakam,

आगतम् शिववक्त्रेभ्यो गतम् च गिरीजाश्रुतौ

तदागम इति प्रोक्तं शास्त्र परमपावनम्

The agamas are related to Lord Shiva himself and it originated from his mouth hence in this way they are considered apaurusheya.

I will update the answer after some days with more references. But certainly there are enough references which equate agamas as shruti. So it is not smriti as believed by many.