History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c24.s1.215

v2.c24.s1.215

A great deal is said about the qualifications of the ācārya who is to perform the upanayana of a person and to teach him the Veda. Āp. Dh. S.⁷⁷⁸ I. 1. 1. 11 refers to a Brāhmaṇa text to the effect 'he whom a teacher devoid of learning initiates enters from darkness into darkness and he also (i. e. an ācārya) who is himself unlearned (enters into darkness).' Āp. Dh. S. (I. 1. 1. 12-13) further provides that one should desire a performer of one's upanayana who is endowed with learning and whose family is hereditarily learned and who is serene in mind and that one should study Vedic lore under him up to the end (of brahmacarya) as long as the teacher does not fall off from the path of dharma. Vyāsa (quoted in Saṁ. P. p. 408) says⁷⁷⁹ that the ācārya should be a brāhmaṇa who is solely devoted to the Veda, who knows dharma, is born of a good family, who is pure, is a *śrotriya* that has studied his Vedic śākhā and who is not lazy. Śrotriya has been defined above (*f. n.* 290). Āp. Dh. S. II. 3. 6. 4 and Baud. gr. I. 7. 3 define a śrotriya as one who has studied one *śākhā* of a Veda. Vide Vāyupurāṇa vol. I. 59. 29 also.⁷⁸⁰ The ācārya in upanayana must be a brāhmaṇa; as to the study of veda one should ordinarily learn the Veda from a brāhmaṇa teacher; in times of difficulty (i. e. when a brāhmaṇa is not available) one may learn the Veda from a kṣatriya or vaiśya teacher; but in such circumstances the only service that a brāhmaṇa student rendered to the *guru* would be following after the non-brāhmaṇa teacher; he had not to render bodily service (such as shampooing or washing the feet &c.). Vide Āp. Dh. S. II. 2. 4. 25-28 (quoted above in note 229), Gaut. 7. 1-3, Baud. Dh. S. I. 2. 40-42, Manu II. 241. Manu II. 238 allows even a brāhmaṇa to learn śubhā vidyā (visibly beneficial knowledge) even from a śūdra. Śāntiparva 165. 31 does the same.⁷⁸¹ The Mit. on Yāj. I. 118 remarks that a kṣatriya or vaiśya should teach a brāhmaṇa only when urged by him and not at his sweet will. Aparārka (p. 160) says that Manu II. 241 allows only teaching to a kṣatriya, but does not allow him to make it a means of his livelihood.⁷⁸²