Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c12.31

c12.31

Eligibility of Śūdras for Upanayana. But it may be noted that Baudhāyana [*Gṛ. S.*, ii, 5, 8–9], alone among the law-givers, admits the Śūdra, Rathakāra, to the ceremony of Upanayana. He says: “Let him initiate a Brāhmaṇa in spring, a Kshatriya in summer, a Vaiśya in autumn, a Rathakāra in the rainy season; or all of them in spring.” Baudhāyana here follows Vedic tradition. The ancient Vedic ritual in certain cases admitted Śūdras, and, particularly, the Rathakāra or carpenter who, according to all accounts, had Śūdra blood in his veins, to a participation in the Śrauta rites. The *Taittirīya-Brāhmaṇa* even mentions certain Mantras which are to be recited by the Ratha-kāra at the *Agnyādhāna* sacrifice. Baudhāyana [*Dh. S.*, i, 9, 17, 6] defines the Rathakāra as the offspring of a Vaiśya male and Śūdra female, and the hostility shown against the mixed castes, and the exclusion of the carpenter from the privilege of initiation or Upanayana (which is an expression of that hostility), as shown in the works of the Sūtra-kāras like Āpastamba, are to be regarded only as the outcome of the later doctrines of later ages.