156 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
CHAPTER X
THE DEGRADATION OF THE SHUDRAS
WHAT is the technique which the Brahmins employed to bring about the degradation of the Shudras from the rank of the second to the rank of the fourth Varna?
The discussion has so far centred round two questions as to whether or not the Shudras were originally a part of the second or Kshatriya Varna and whether or not the Brahmins had not received sufficient provocation to degrade the Shudras. It is now necessary to deal with the question, which is logically, next in order of sequence. What is the technique of degradation employed by the Brahmins?
My answer to the question is that the technique employed by the Brahmins for this purpose was to refuse to perform the Upanayana of the Shudras. I have no doubt that it is by this technique that the Brahmins accomplished their end and thereby wreaked their vengeance upon the Shudras.
It is perhaps necessary to explain what Upanayana means and what importance it had in the Indo-Aryan Society. The best way to give an idea of Upanayana is to give a description of the ceremony.
As a rite Upanayana was originally a very simple ceremony, The boy came to the teacher with a samidh (a grass blade) in his hand and told the teacher that he desired to become a Brahmachari (i.e a student) and begged the teacher to allow him to stay with him for purposes of study. At a later date it became a very elaborate ceremony. How elaborate it had become may be realised from the following description of Upanayana in the Ashvalayana Grihya Sutra : [l]
Let him initiate the boy who is decked, whose hair (on the head) is shaved (and arranged), who wears a new garment or an antelope skin if a Brahmana, rum skin if a Kshatriya, a goat’s skin if a Vaishya; if they put on garments they
1 Kane, History of Dharmashastra, Vol. II (i), pp. 281-283.