Education in Ancient India c4.71

c4.71

Vedic Education and the Shudras: Sacred texts have laid down in very emphatic terms that the Shudra should be rigorously excluded from the Vedic education and rituals. This injunction has been always carried out in practice.² The carpenter no doubt is declared to be eligible for Upanayana and Vedic studies in some early texts. He however was at that early period a member of the Aryan and not the Shudra community. The exclusion of the Shudras from the Vedic studies undoubtedly appears as unjustifiable to us at present, but there were peculiar circumstances that necessitated this step in early times. The art of writing was not utilised for the purpose of preserving the Vedic texts for a long time. The Aryan theologians believed that if there was the slightest mistake in the accent or the pronunciation of the Vedic Mantras, a disaster would inevitably issue.³ As the Vedic Sanskrit was not the mother tongue of the Shudras, it was feared that Vedic hymns would be transformed out of recognition, if they were transmitted orally in Shudras families from generation to generation. In the eyes of the theologian, this would be a great disaster. Later on when female education began to lag behind, and women as a class ceased to be educated in Sanskrit, it is interesting to note that the Brahmana theologians did not flinch from placing their own mothers, wives and daughters in the category of the Shudras and declaring unhesitatingly that they also were unfit for Vedic studies. Theological animus or pride was thus not at the root of the exclusion of the Shudras and women from the Vedic education. Nor did it amount to a total denial of religious education; for women and Shudras were permitted to get religious enlightenment from the study of Smritis, Epics and Purāṇas.