Shloka 14
पादौ शूद्रा भवन्तीमे विक्रमेण क्रमेण च । ऋग्वेद: सामवेदश्च यजुर्वेदो5प्यथर्वण:
pādau śūdrā bhavantīme vikrameṇa krameṇa ca | ṛgvedaḥ sāmavedaś ca yajurvedo 'py atharvaṇaḥ ||
The feet become Śūdras—so it is said—through the acts of stepping forth and moving in ordered steps. And likewise there are the Vedas: the Ṛgveda, the Sāmaveda, the Yajurveda, and also the Atharvaveda.
देव उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse links bodily function (feet as instruments of movement and ordered stepping) with symbolic social classification (Śūdra), and then affirms the canonical set of four Vedas—suggesting an ordered, traditional framework for understanding society and sacred knowledge.
A deity is speaking and, in the course of explaining traditional categories, states a symbolic association of the feet with the Śūdra varṇa and then enumerates the four Vedas as authoritative divisions of sacred learning.