Page:An Essay On Hinduism.pdf/76

 thieves ?" Thus says Ekanātha in his introduction to · the commentary on the eleventh book (Skandha) of Bhāgavata. Shrîdhara, a later writer, is much milder in his tone. He says, “Women do not understand the Sanskrit speech. To a person it (a work in it) is like sweet water in a deep well. How could this (water) be obtained by a weak person without rope and pail ? If he comes to a lake he will be able to quench his thirst at once; so in order to save the weaker sex, God has created the works in the popular (Prakrit) language."

Thus it will be apparent that the significance of the Vedas are to the Hindus is very different from the significance of the Bible to a Christian. Vedas are not, and are not expected to be popular. They are books which need be consulted only by scholars and philosophers, and so they are. It has been the policy of the Brāhmaṇas not to encourage the study of the Vedas by the masses, but to discourage it. The reason for this did not lie in a desire to cheat them, but only to prevent them from being misguided. Not only did they deny the Shūdra the right of studying the Vedas, but even to Brāhmaṇa pupils they taught the works only after the pupil had mastered dharma and other sciences. They think that, if a person without proper fitness reads the Vedas, he will be bewildered by the antiquated customs and moral ideas which abound in the Vedas.

Another reason why the study of the Vedas was discouraged by the Brāhmaṇas is that there had been a great revolution in the ideas of the Brāhmaṇas themselves. When I say that they discouraged the study of the Vedas, I mean that they discouraged the study of Mantras, and Brāhmana portion of the Vedas only. They freely encouraged the study of the Upanishads. Even to-day it is customary