56 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
as compared with that of the Brahmana, Kshatriya and Vaishya.
(5) That the Shudra must not acquire knowledge and it is a sin and a crime to give him education.
(6) That a Shudra must not acquire property. A Brahmin can take his property at his pleasure.
(7) That a Shudra cannot hold office under the State.
(8) That the duty and salvation of the Shudra lies in his serving the higher classes.
(9) That the higher Classes must not inter-marry with the Shudra. They can however keep a Shudra woman as a concubine. But if the Shudra touches a woman of the higher classes he will be liable to dire punishment.
(10) That the Shudra is born in servility and must be kept in servility for ever.
Anyone who reads this summary will be struck by two considerations. He will be struck by the consideration that Shudra alone has been selected by the Brahmanic law-givers as a victim for their lawmaking authority. The wonder must be all the greater when it is recalled that in the ancient Brahmanic literature the oppressed class in the ancient Indo-Aryan society was the Vaishya and not the Shudra. In this connection a reference may be made to the Aitareya Brahmana . The Aitareya Brahmana in telling the story of King Vishvantara and the Shyaparna Brahmanas refers to the sacrificial drink to which the different classes are entitled. In the course of the story, it speaks of the Vaishya in the following terms :
“Next, if (the priest brings) curds, that is the Vaishya’s draught with it thou shalt satisfy the Vaishyas. One like a Vaishya shall be born in thy line, one who is tributary to another, who is to be used (lit. eaten) by another, and who maybe oppressed at will. [1]
The question is: why was the Vaishya let off and why the fury directed towards the Shudras ?
He will also be struck by the close connection of the disabilities of the Shudra with the privileges of the Brahmin. The Shudra is below the Traivarnikas and is contrasted with the Traivarnikas. That being so, one would expect all the Traivarnikas to have the same rights against the Shudras. But what are the facts? The facts are that the Kshatriyas and Vaishyas have no rights worth speaking of against the Shudras. The only Traivarnika who has special rights and privileges
1 Muir, Vol. 1, p. 436-40.
42 Chapter XII, Sutras 2-3.