So sacred was it
held to be at the time of the making of the Code of Manu, greatest of the law books, that it was therein decreed that a lowly Sudra, i.e., low caste man, who so much as listened to the sacred text would have molten metal poured into his ears, and his
tongue cut out if he pronounced the sacred words of the holy Vedas.1 «Whether such laws were ever
actually enforced may be doubted.