Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c16.33

c16.33

The Pūrvapakshin (critic), however, would maintain the eligibility of the Śūdras for the study of the Vedānta on the grounds that (*a*) they desire that knowledge, (*b*) they are capable of it, (*c*) there is no scriptural prohibition analogous to the text, "Therefore the Śūdra is unfit for performing sacrifices" [*Taitti. Saṁ.*, vii, 1, 1, 6, 7]. Bādarāyaṇa's reply to these arguments as interpreted by Śaṅkara is that mere desire for knowledge does not mean capacity for it; mere temporal capacity is nothing; spiritual capability is required in spiritual matters; and spiritual capability is absent in the Śūdras for their exclusion from study of Veda; while the Vedic prohibition of the performance of sacrifices by the Śūdras is due to their exclusion from the legitimate study of the Veda under a *guru*, through which alone a knowledge of the Veda can be acquired.