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Updated: May 19, 2025
Those also, we reply, who do not study Veda and Vedanta may acquire the requisite knowledge by hearing Itihasas and Puranas; and there are texts which allow Sudras to become acquainted with texts of that kind; cp. e.g.
Thou art endued with very great might, being as thou art a hero of heroes. Thou art the Veda. Thou art the Smritis, the Itihasas, the Puranas, and other scriptures. Thou art the illustrious deity of every sacred shrine. Thou art he who has the Earth for his car. Thou art the inert elements that enter into the composition of every creature.
Thou shouldst acquire, O king, the science of reasoning, as also the science of words, the science of the Gandharvas, and the four and sixty branches of knowledge known by the name of Kala. One should every day hear the Puranas and the Itihasas and all the other narratives that exist, as also the life-stories of all high-souled personages.
'one is to make the four castes to hear texts, the Brahmana coming first. Moreover, those Puranas and Itihasas make mention of Sudras, such as Vidura, who had a knowledge of Brahman. Up. All this proves that Sudras also have a claim to the knowledge of Brahman. This conclusion we deny, on the ground of the absence of capability.
Itihasas and Puranas hold the position of being helpful means towards meditation in so far only as they confirm or support the Veda, not independently of the Veda. And that Sudras are allowed to hear Itihasas and Puranas is meant only for the end of destroying their sins, not to prepare them for meditation on Brahman.
Samh. Br. Hence the dharmasastras, itihasas, and puranas also, which are founded on the different brahmanas, mantras and arthavadas, clearly teach that Brahma and the other gods, as well as the Asuras and other superhuman beings, have bodies and sense-organs, constitutions of different kinds, different abodes, enjoyments, and functions.
Itihasas and Puranas also declare the Supreme Person only to be the universal cause, 'Narayana, of whom the world is the body, of infinite nature, eternal, when desirous to create sent forth from a thousandth part of himself the souls in two divisions. 'From Vishnu the world originated and in him it abides.
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