[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Polity, law and society](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity) › [History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India)](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.kane-1930) › v2.c20.196 # History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c20.196 History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c20.196 - **Language:** English ### [v2.c20.196](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.kane-1930.v2.c20.196) There are however faint traces that in ancient times this prohibition of Veda study was not so absolute and universal as the smṛtis make it. In the Chāndogya Upaniṣad IV. 1-2, we have the story of Jānaśruti Pautrāyaṇa and Raikva where the latter addresses Jānaśruti as śūdra and imparts to him the Saṁvarga (absorption) \*vidyā\*.³⁵⁹ It appears that Jānaśruti was a śūdra to whom the vidyā embodied in the Chāndogya (which is also Veda) was imparted. It is no doubt true that in the Vedāntasūtra³⁶⁰ (I. 3. 34) the word śūdra is explained not as referring to the class, but as meaning that sorrow (\*śuc\*) arose in Jānaśruti on hearing the contemptuous talk of the flamingoes about himself and he was overcome (from \*dru\*) by that (i. e. śūdra is derived from \*śuc\* and \*dru\*). But this far-fetched explanation had to be given because of the practice current in the times of the Vedāntasūtras that the śūdra is not entitled to study the Veda. Gaut. XII. 4 went so far as to prescribe 'if the śūdra intentionally listens for committing to memory the Veda, then his ears should be filled with (molten) lead and lac; if he utters the Veda, then his tongue may be cut off; if he has mastered the Veda his body should be hacked'.³⁶¹ - [Previous: v2.c20.195](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.kane-1930.v2.c20.195) - [Next: v2.c20.197](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.kane-1930.v2.c20.197) - [Up: v2.c20](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.kane-1930.v2.c20) ## Cites (3) - [Gautamadharmasūtra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.vedanga.kalpa.dharma.gautama.12.4) — Gautama (dharmasūtrakāra), Sanskrit - [Chāndogyopaniṣad](https://indike.org/pramana/in.veda.upanisad.mukhya.chandogya.4.1) — Sanskrit - [Brahmasūtra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darsana.vedanta.brahmasutra-works.brahmasutra.1.3.34) — Bādarāyaṇa, Sanskrit --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.kane-1930.v2.c20.196](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.kane-1930.v2.c20.196) · Pramāṇa