Vol. 11 · pages 111–115

92 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES I But the Shudras were denied the right to bear arms. 44. Under Brahmanism the Shudras were left as helpless victims of a conspiracy of selfish Brahmanism, powerful and deadly Kshatriyas and wealthy Vaishyas. 45. Could it be amended ? Knowing that it was a divinely ordained social order, he knew that it could not be. It could only be ended. 46. For these reasons the Buddha rejected Brahmanism as being opposed to the true way of life. § 4. The Upanishads and Their Teachings 1. The Upanishads constituted another piece of literature. It is not part of the Vedas. It is un- canonical. 2. All the same they did form a part of religious literature. 3. The number of the Upanishads is quite large. Some important, some quite unimportant. 4. Some of them were ranged against the Vedic theologians, the Brahmin priests. 5. All of them agreed in viewing Vedic study as a study of nescience or ignorance (avidya). 6. They were all agreed in their estimate of the four Vedas and the Vedic science as the lower knowledge. 7. They were all agreed in questioning the divine origin of the Vedas. 8. They were all agreed in denying the efficacy attributed to sacrifices, to the funeral oblations, and the gifts to the priests which are the fundamentals of the Brahmanic philosophy. 9. This, however, was not the main topic with which the Upanishads were concerned. Their discussions centred round Brahman and Atman. 10. Brahman was the all-pervading principle which binds the universe and that salvation lay in the Atman realizing that it is Brahman. 11. The main thesis of the Upanishads was that

93 THE BUDDHA AND HIS PREDECESSORS I Brahmana was a reality and that Atmana was the same as Brahmana. The Atmana did not realize that it was Brahman because of the Upadhis in which it was entangled. 12. The question was: Is Brahmana a reality? The acceptance of the Upanishadic thesis depended upon the answer to this question. 13. The Buddha could find no proof in support of the thesis that Brahmana was a reality. He, therefore, rejected the thesis of the Upanishads. 14. It is not that questions on this issue were not put to the authors of the Upanishads. They were. 15. Such questions were put to no less a person than Yajnavalkya, a great seer who plays so important a part in the Brahadarnyka Upanishad. 16. He was asked : “What is Brahmana ? What is Atmana ?” All that Yajnavalkya could say : “Neti ! Neti! I know not ! I know not!” 17. “How can anything be a reality about which no one knows anything,” asked the Buddha. He had, therefore, no difficulty in rejecting the Upanishadic thesis as being based on pure imagination.

PART VI The Buddha and His Contemporaries 1. His Contemporaries. 2. His attitude to His Contemporaries.