Statements in our shastras

Vidyasankar vsundaresan at HOTMAIL.COM
Wed Mar 5 12:16:19 CST 2003


>Another qustion I have is about non dvijas not being
>being taught Vedas.  Does it apply also to sanyasis of
>non-dvija background ? (that is their purva ashrama)
>For example, Swami Chinmayananda was of the Nayar
>caste in Kerala (which belongs to the Sudra varna) and

Just to be a little legalistic about it - there are strong arguments for
classifying Nayars as Kshatriyas. Similarly with the Marathas in Maharashtra
and various other ruling/martial groups of people. These have been made many
times in the past, especially over the last two centuries. There has been a
particularly south Indian trend to designate all non-Brahmana-s as being
Shudras. This is highly debatable, and well-respected authorities on the
dharmashAstras have argued against it.

Vidyasankar



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