History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c95.283

v7.c95.283

Deussen then refers to the story of Gārgya Bālāki (in Br. Up II. 1) who offered to expound *brahma* to Ajātaśatru, king of Kāsī, who offered to give a thousand cows if he did so and remarked that people run exclaiming 'Janaka, Janaka' (meaning Janaka is donor and also listener to brahma exposition).²⁵⁵⁶ Bālāki offered twelve objects of meditation on brahma such as the person in the sun, the person in the moon &c. Ajātaśatru replied as to the twelve objects that he knew them already and brahma is different from them and cannot be understood by what he said Then Bālāki remained silent Bālāki offered to be his pupil. Then Ajātaśatru said²⁵⁵⁷ '"this is topsy-turvy that a brāhmaṇa should approach a kṣatriya as a pupil with the idea 'the kṣatriya would expound *brahman* to him' I shall make known to you (brahma)." So saying he took hold of Bālāki's hand and got up (from his seat). Certain matters in this story must be carefully noted here This does not at all say that the class of brāhmaṇas did not know brahmavidyā and that kṣatriyas alone were then the only possessors of it. On the contrary, Janaka is specially mentioned as a donor of cows and is eager to listen to brahmavidyā and people ran to him desiring to accept large gifts of cows for imparting brahmavidyā. We know about Janaka from Bṛ. Up. III. 1 ff. wherein Janaka king of Videha, offered a thousand cows and, when Yājñavalkya took away those cows, numerous persons present in Janaka's court such as his hotṛ priest Aśvala, Ārtabhāga, Gārgī, Uddālaka Āruṇi, Vidagdha Śākalya ply him with questions. In Bṛ. Up. IV. 4, 7 (Janaka offers a thousand cows to Yājñavalkya, in IV. 4.23 (Janaka offers to give his Videha kingdom to Yājñavalkya along with himself as a slave). The story of Bālāki only comes to this at the most that when Janaka had learnt brahmavidyā, a brāhmaṇa Bālāki did not know it though he professed to know it, and had to be instructed in it by king Ajātaśatru of Kāśī, who knew it and who only stated that a brāhmaṇa did not become a pupil of a kṣatriya. All brāhmaṇas could never have been proficient in brahmavidyā much less kṣatriyas. One regrets to say that Deussen is guilty of making a sweeping generalisation without adequate data. It may be noted that in this story Ajātaśatru of Kāśī does not say that the Vidyā was not known to any brāhmaṇas before (as Pravāhaṇa Jaivali claimed), but, on the contrary, expressed surprise that a brāhmaṇa should come to him for learning the Vidyā.