z:\ ambedkar\vol 011\vol11 07.indd MK SJ+YS 5 10 2013/YS 18 11 2013 496
496 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
recipients of meritorious giving, I do not lay the foundation for my salvation by a mere giving of water, when hereafter shall I be released from woe ?”
VI
“ So be it, my masters ! Let every one who lives in the village beat or bind me, still I will give a gift of water to a field of merit such as this.”
When she had made this resolve, though the other women carrying water tried to stop her, without regard for her life, she lifted down the water jar from her head, placed it on one side, approached the Blessed One, and gave him water; he washed his hands and feet and drank the water.
Her master, the Brahmin, heard of her giving water to the Blessed One. “ She has broken the rule of the village and I am blamed,” he said, and burning with rage and grinding his teeth he hurled her to the ground and beat her with hands and feet. Because of that she died.
(ii)
Now Brahmin Dona visited the Exalted One and greeted him; and after exchanging the customary words of greetings, sat down at one side. So seated, Brahmin Dona said to the Exalted One :
“I have heard it said, Master Gotama, that Master Gotama does not salute aged, venerable Brahmins, well stricken in years, long on life’s road, grown old—nor rise up for them, nor offer them a seat.
“ Master Gotama, it is just so; Master Gotama does none of these things ... to aged, venerable Brahmins . . . This is not right, Master Gotama.”
“ Do you not profess to be a brahmin, Dona ?”
“ If of anyone, Master Gotama, in speaking rightly it should be said: ‘ The brahmin is well born on both sides, pure in descent as far back as seven generations, both of mother and father, unchallenged and without reproach in point of birth; studious, carrying the mantras in mind, a past master in the three Vedas with the indices and ritual, in phonology too, and in the legends; an expert in verse and grammar, skilled in reading the marks of a great man, in