History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c19.32.4

v2.c19.32.4

It is, however, somewhat gratifying to find that at least one ācārya, Bādari, espoused the cause of the śūdra and propounded the view that all (including śūdras) were entitled to perform Vedic sacrifices (VI. 1.27). In the Vedānta-sūtras also (I. 3.34–38) it is established that the śūdra has no *adhikāra* for brahmavidyā based on Veda study, though some śūdras like Vidura might have been endowed with the knowledge of *brahma* owing to saṁskāras of former births. In the smṛti literature, however, a few passages are found allowing marriages of āryas with śūdra women (which will be discussed later on). Similarly sexual relations (illicit) between a śūdra woman and a man of higher varṇa are alluded to even in the Saṁhitās e. g. Tai. S.⁸³ VII. 4.19.3 ‘when a śūdra woman has an *ārya* as her paramour she does not seek wealth for the prosperity (of her relations)’. In Ait. Br. (8. 1) there is the story of Kavaṣa Ailūṣa, who was driven out from the sacrifice on the Sarasvatī with the words ‘Oh, son of a female slave, you are a rogue and not a brāhmaṇa; how did you take the dīkṣā (initiation) as one of us’ and they carried him off to a sandy desert with the idea that he might die of thirst there. He when tormented by thirst ‘saw’ the hymn Ṛg. X. 30 and Sarasvatī came rushing to him.⁸⁴ Further discussion about the śūdra and his disabilities will follow in another section later.