378 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
quote the old sloke —I do not remember exactly where it occurs— but the Panchatantra quotes it:
“ Nasasabha Yatra na Santi Vriddhah,
vriddhnateye na vadanti dharmam.”
‘That is not a Sabha or Assembly where there are no vridhahs.’
An Honourable Member : But we have so many of them here !
Shri H. V. Kamath : That man is not a vriddhah who does not talk of Dharma. I, Sir, am sorry that our friends of this Anti-Hindu Code Committee have not exactly understood the meaning of “vriddhah”—who is a vridhah and who is not. In the Mahabharata there is a story : Saraswata Muni, a young boy of twelve, when there was famine in the country and all the old rishis who were fasting and doing penance on the shores of the Saraswati river tied for fear of their lives—they wanted to save their lives— this young boy at that time stuck to his post and his mother Saraswati, that is why Saraswati fed him on fish in the morning, fish at noon and fish at night—that is why Saraswat Brahmins even today eat fish. This Brahmin boy, inspite of the famine, stuck to his post. The story goes on to say that the famine raged for many years in the land—twelve years— but our young boy, Saraswat Muni—the progenitor of all Saraswats in the world—continued to stay. After the famine was over, the rishis who had fled for their lives started coming back in driblets, one after another, to the shores of the Saraswati river to resume their tapasya interrupted by the famine and they tried to boss over this young boy of 24. He was 12 when the famine started, and he was 24 when the famine ended. They started bossing over him. They said, “You sit at out feet; take instruction from us; learn from us; become our disciple.” He said, “Fie on you. Shame on you pretend to be munis, rishis, tapasvis, and you fly for your lives ; fly for fear of death. You have got to sit at my feet and learn from me.” Thus said the young man of 24 to those old men of 70 and 80. The Mahabharata goes on to say:
“Na tena vridho bhavati yenasya palitam shirah
yo vai yuvapyadhyanastam devah sthaviram viduh.”
(A man is not a vridha merely by virtue of his grey hair. Even a youth who has studied well is called a wise man by the gods.) That man is vriddhah who has attained vriddhi Actually the word “ vriddhah ” is wrongly translated as old. It means that man who has