350 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
II. 116. He who shall acquire knowledge of the Veda without the assent of his preceptor, incurs the guilt of stealing the scripture and shall sink to the region of torment.
But others cannot study at all.
IX. 18. Women have no business with the texts of the Veda; thus is the law fully settled; having, therefore, no evidence of law, and no knowledge of expiatory texts, sinful women must be as foul as falsehood itself; and this is a fixed rule.
IV. 99. He must never read the Veda without accents and letters well pronounced; nor even in the presence of Sudras; nor, having begun to read it in the last watch of the night, must he, though fatigued, sleep again.
This prohibition applies to Vratyas or outcasts from the three higher classes. For Manu says:
II. 40. With such impure men, let no Brahmen, even in distress for subsistence, ever form a connexion in law, either by the study of the Veda, or by affinity.
Teaching Veda or performing of sacrifices for disqualified persons was prohibited by Manu.
IV. 205. Never let a priest eat part of a sacrifice not begun with texts of the Veda, nor of one performed by a common sacrificer, by a woman, or by an eunuch:
IV. 206. When those persons offer the clarified butter, it brings misfortune to good men, and raises aversion in the deities, such oblations, therefore, he must carefully shun.
XI. 198. He, who has officiated at a sacrifice for outcasts, or burned the corpse of a stranger, or performed rites to destroy the innocent, or made the impure sacrifice, called Ahimsa, may expiate his guilt by three prajapatya penances.
Take equality before Law.
When they come as witnesses—according to Manu they are to be sworn as follows:
VIII. 87. In the forenoon let the judge, being purified, severally call on the twice-born, being purified also, to declare the truth, in the presence of some image, a symbol of the divinity, and of Brahmens, while the witnesses turn their faces either to the north or to the east.
VIII. 88. To a Brahmen he must begin with saying, “Declare;” to a Kshatriya, with saying, “ Declare the truth ”; to a Vaisya, with comparing perjury to the crime of stealing kine, grain, or gold; to a Sudra, with comparing it in some or all of the following sentences, to every crime that men can commit.