The Sudras are not qualified for that reason also that Gautama, having ascertained Jabala not to be a Sudra from his speaking the truth, proceeded to initiate and instruct him.  ’None who is not a Brahma/n/a would thus speak out.  Go and fetch fuel, friend, I shall initiate you.  You have not swerved from the truth’ (Ch.  Up.  IV, 4, 5); which scriptural passage furnishes an inferential sign (of the Sudras not being capable of initiation).

38.  And on account of the prohibition, in Sm/ri/ti, of (the Sudras’) hearing and studying (the Veda) and (knowing and performing) (Vedic) matters.

The Sudras are not qualified for that reason also that Sm/ri/ti prohibits their hearing the Veda, their studying the Veda, and their understanding and performing Vedic matters.  The prohibition of hearing the Veda is conveyed by the following passages:  ’The ears of him who hears the Veda are to be filled with (molten) lead and lac,’ and ’For a Sudra is (like) a cemetery, therefore (the Veda) is not to be read in the vicinity of a Sudra.’  From this latter passage the prohibition of studying the Veda results at once; for how should he study Scripture in whose vicinity it is not even to be read?  There is, moreover, an express prohibition (of the Sudras studying the Veda).  ’His tongue is to be slit if he pronounces it; his body is to be cut through if he preserves it.’  The prohibitions of hearing and studying the Veda already imply the prohibition of the knowledge and performance of Vedic matters; there are, however, express prohibitions also, such as ’he is not to impart knowledge to the Sudra,’ and ’to the twice-born belong study, sacrifice, and the bestowal of gifts.’—­From those Sudras, however, who, like Vidura and ‘the religious hunter,’ acquire knowledge in consequence of the after effects of former deeds, the fruit of their knowledge cannot be withheld, since knowledge in all cases brings about its fruit.  Sm/ri/ti, moreover, declares that all the four castes are qualified for acquiring the knowledge of the itihasas and pura/n/as; compare the passage, ‘He is to teach the four castes’ (Mahabh.).—­It remains, however, a settled point that they do not possess any such qualification with regard to the Veda.

39. (The pra/n/a is Brahman), on account of the trembling (predicated of the whole world).

The discussion of qualification for Brahma-knowledge—­on which we entered as an opportunity offered—­being finished we return to our chief topic, i.e. the enquiry into the purport of the Vedanta-texts.—­We read (Ka.  Up.  II, 6, 2), ’Whatever there is, the whole world when gone forth trembles in the pra/n/a.  It (the pra/n/a) is a great terror, a raised thunderbolt.  Those who know it become immortal[226].’—­This passage declares that this whole world trembles, abiding in pra/n/a, and that there is raised something very terrible, called a thunderbolt, and that through its knowledge immortality is obtained.  But as it is not immediately clear what the pra/n/a is, and what that terrible thunderbolt, a discussion arises.