A twelfth-century Brahmin philosopher declared Shudras equally fit to study the Vedas

Evidence

Ramanuja, or Ramanujacharya, was a twelfth-century Brahmin philosopher, a proponent of the Vishishtadvaita, or qualified monism, school of thought. Coming as he did after the monotheistic Tamil Bhakti movements of the Saivite Nayanmars and Vaishnavite Alwars (sixth to eighth centuries), Ramanuja gave primacy to Bhakti or worship of a personal god. In his commentary of the Brahma Sutra he declares the Shudra to be equally fit for studying the Vedas as the Brahmin and is said to have adopted a non-Brahmin as a guru. — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 1170

Categorization

• QUESTION: Does Ramanuja’s position represent a genuine vein within orthodoxy itself that later Dalit reformers could draw on, or an isolated exception?