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This expectation of literacy is coupled with a set of less obvious restrictions about who is permitted to acquire this literacy; these accentuate the tension between the simplicity of Advaita in general and the elaborate prescription/description of those who are, or can become, competent in the Text, between its universal though rare availability and its arduous but practicable textual approachability. In UMS I.3.26-33 and UMS I.3.34-38 this competence (adhikara) is explored. In the preceding adhikaranas of UMS I the relationship between desire and reading has been established, as has been the content of that reading. With these adhikaranas the question arises: what are the boundaries of the group of those competent to read? UMS I.3.26-33 deals with the contested competence of the gods, who will be allowed membership in that group, and UMS I.3.34-38 with the contested competence of the sudras, low-caste males, who will be excluded from it. |
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As usual, the question is argued in terms of the right reading of specific texts, with a precise estimation of the implications of various readings for the coherence of the orthodox viewpoint. As usual, too, the problem is differentiated into a number of arguments in each adhikarana. |
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On the general issue of competence the Advaitins follow the Mimamsakas who, in the parallel discussion which occurs in PMS VI.1,
36 proposed first an almost unrestricted profile of those competent to perform sacrifices, but then severely restricted that profile by a series of further specifications. In the Mimamsa discussion, the preliminary proposal is that any person who is intelligent enough to learn the requisite texts and who has a desire for the results of sacrifices is competent to perform them; for desire is the motivating force behind intelligent human actions, of which ritual action is but an example. Subsequent adhikaranas restrict this broad definition by denying competence to women apart from certain activities they share with their husbands,37 and by limiting competence to twice-born males who are sufficiently wealthy and healthy.38 The Mimamsa exclusion of sudras is based simply on the claim that the Veda excludes them in its self-regulation of its readership;39 the Mimamsakas do not argue that sudras are inferior intellectually |
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