Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c16.43

c16.43

(4) As to the education of the Śūdra, the Vedānta Sūtras imply a distinction between the Vedic texts and the wisdom or knowledge which they are meant to convey. The Śūdra is excluded from the former but not from the latter. The "saving" knowledge is not denied to him. It is, on the contrary, made accessible to him in easier works specially composed for him in a popular style and manner, such as the *Mahābhārata* and the *Purāṇas* sometimes called the fifth Veda. There are also on record examples of Śūdras attaining to the highest knowledge such as Vidura and Dharma-Vyādha [*Mbh.*, iii, 206 f.] [Śaṅkara on i, 3, 38]. The eligibility of the woman for the highest knowledge [and therefore of the Śūdra too (?), for the Śūdra and the woman are given practically equal status by the Smṛitis] is again emphasized in a later *Sūtra* [iii, 4, 36], where Śaṅkara cites the example of Vāchaknavī. But the example would seem to prove more than is perhaps intended in this particular *Sūtra*. For it might be recalled that Vāchaknavī was as competent a Vedic scholar as anybody else. She put herself forward as an opponent of the sage Yājñavalkya, and by virtue of her erudition and wisdom, dared challenge his assertion of pre-eminence in the great philosophical Congress which assembled at the court of King Janaka. Vāchaknavī was thus as much a student of the Veda as anybody else, and if the woman and the Śūdra are equal in status, privileges, and disabilities, it may be legitimately inferred that the study of the Veda itself (and not merely the acquisition through other works of the knowledge conveyed by the Veda) was open to the Śūdra too. The position is made still clearer by Śaṅkara in his comment on iii, 4, 38, where he quotes Manu [ii, 87], to show that the highest knowledge is even attainable through such special acts as praying, fasting, worshipping, and the like, which have nothing to do with *Varṇa* or *Āśrama* duties. Śaṅkara concludes with the statements: