Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c12.s6.33

c12.s6.33

ascendancy over an ignorant people. It requires but the slightest acquaintance with Sanskrit Literature to see the utter groundlessness of such a charge. One caste only, the Śūdras, were prohibited from knowing the Veda. With the other castes, the military and civil classes, a knowledge of the Veda, so far from being prohibited, was a sacred duty. All had to learn the Veda; the only privilege of the Brahmins was that they alone were allowed to teach it. It was not even the intention of the Brahmins that only the traditional forms of faith and the purely ritual observances should be communicated to the lower castes, and a kind of esoteric religion, that of the Upanishads, be reserved for the Brahmins. On the contrary, there are many indications to show that these esoteric doctrines emanated from the second rather than from the first caste."