z:\ ambedkar\vol 04\vol4 04.indd MK SJ YS 23 9 2013/YS 8 11 2013 156
156 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
in the agnihotra and other sacrifices, which can only be performed with great expenditure of money and bodily fatigue. Your objection cannot be accepted as any proof to the contrary, since the agnihotra, &c, are only useful as means of livelihood, for the Veda is tainted by three faults of un-truth, self-contradiction, and tautology; then again the impostors who call themselves Vedic pundits are mutually destructive as the authority of the Jnan-kanda is overthrown by those who maintain authority of the Jnan-kanda reject that of the Karmakanda; and lastly, the three Vedas themselves are only the incoherent rhapsodes of knaves, and to this effect runs the popular saying:
‘The Agnihotra, the three Vedas, the ascetic’s three staves, and smearing oneself with ashes, Brihaspati says, these are but means of livelihood for those who have no manliness nor sense’.
rahaspati was far more bold and militant in his opposition to Vaidism. As reported by Madhava Acharya Brihaspati argued [1] :
“There is no heaven, no final liberation, nor any soul in another world,
Nor do the actions of the four castes, orders &c, produce any real effect.
The Agnihotra, the three Vedas, the ascetic’s three staves and smearing oneself with ashes,
Were made by Nature as the livelihood of those destitute of knowledge and manliness.
If a beast slain in the Jyotishtoma rite will itself go to heaven, Why then does not the sacrificer forthwith offer his own father?
If the Sraddha produces gratification to beings who are dead, Then here, too, in the case of travellers when they start, it is needless to give provisions for the journey.
While life remains let a man live happily, let him feed on ghee even though he runs in debt.
When once the body becomes ashes, how can it ever return again?
If he who departs from the body goes to another world,
How is that he comes not back again, restless for love of his kindred ?
Hence it is only as a means of livelihood that Brahmans have established here.
All these ceremonies for the dead,—there is no other fruit anywhere.
The three authors of the Vedas were buffoons, knaves and demons.
1 Sarva Darshan Sangraha p. 10.