Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c9.98

c9.98

And yet all these vital differences were rapidly yielding to the process of social assimilation for which the Aryan system stood. At the beginning, the non-Aryan yielded to the Aryan, and was called a Dāsa, Dasyu, Asura, or Piśācha, to signify his political subjugation, but his mark of inferiority was being wiped out under processes of fusion through marriage and alliance. The Śūdra caste was evolved in Aryan Society to receive him. The non-Aryan began to count as an Aryan. A solemn religious recognition is given to this fact in the famous Purusha-Sūkta of the Rigveda where the Brāhmaṇa and Kshatriya, the Vaiśya and the Śūdra are described as limbs of the Creator. In the political field, in the Rigvedic Battle of Ten Kings (Dāśa-rājña), with their following of more than twenty peoples, the non-Aryan figures as the equal and ally of the Aryan, fighting for a common cause. The same equality is seen in the sphere of culture. The author of *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa*, Mahidāsa, had a Śūdra mother, while the Ṛishi, Kavasha Ailusha, was born of a Dāsī, according to that work [viii, 1]. The Rigveda also tells of five peoples who offered sacrifice to Agni [x, 45, 6] (*Janā yadagnim ayajanta pañcha*), and these “five peoples”, according to Yāska [*Nirukta*, vi, 7], included the four castes and the Nishādas. Another Rigvedic passage [ix, 66, 20] describes Agni as “the chief priest of all the races five” (Agnirṛishiḥ pavamānaḥ pāñchajanyaḥ purohitaḥ). On this *Mantra*, the significant comment of Uvaṭa and Mahīdhara is that it recognizes the right of the Nishādas, equally and along with the four higher castes, to offer sacrifices [Pāñchajanyaḥ pañchajanebhyo hitaḥ chatvāro varṇā Nishādapañchamāḥ pañchajanāsteshāṃ hi yajñe adhikāraḥ asti (Uvaṭa). Again: Viprādayaśchatvāro Varṇā Nishādaścheti pañchajanāsteshāṁ yajñe adhikārāt]. Again, *Ṛv.* viii, 65, 23 refers to the participation in Soma-sacrifice by all these five peoples (*janeshu pañchashu*). In *Ṛv.* vi, 61, 12 the river Sarasvatī is mentioned as “making the five peoples flourish”. The Nishādas in all these passages indicated the non-Aryans and depressed classes of those days who must have had considerable access to Vedic learning to be able to take part in these sacrifices. We may finally cite again the following decisive Mantra of the Vājasaneyi Saṁhitā [xxvi, 2] stating that "all classes have an equal right to study the Veda": "Yathemāṁ Vāchaṁ kalyāṇīmāvadāni janebhyaḥ | Brāhmaṇa-Rājanyābhyāṁ Śūdrāya chāryāya cha svāya chāraṇāya ||