Chapter 49

“Bhishma said, ‘A person that is born of an irregular union presentsdiverse features of disposition. One’s purity of birth, again, is to beascertained from one’s acts which must resemble the acts of those who areadmittedly good and righteous. A disrespectable behaviour, acts opposedto those laid down in the scriptures, crookedness and cruelty, andabstention from sacrifices and other spiritual acts that lead to merit,proclaim one’s impurity of origin. A son receives the disposition ofeither the sire or the mother. Sometimes he catches the dispositions ofboth. A person of impure birth can never succeed in concealing his truedisposition. As the cub of a tiger or a leopard resembles its sire anddam in form and in (the matter of) its stripes of spots, even so a personcannot but betray the circumstance of his origin. However covered may thecourse of one’s descent be, if that descent happens to be impure, itscharacter or disposition is sure to manifest itself slightly or largely.A person may, for purposes of his own, choose to tread on an insincerepath, displaying such conduct as seems to be righteous. His owndisposition, however, in the matter of those acts that he does, alwaysproclaims whether he belongs to a good order or to a different one.Creatures in the world are endued with diverse kinds of disposition. Theyare, again, seen to be employed in diverse kinds of acts. Amongstcreatures thus employed, there is nothing that is so good or precious aspure birth and righteous conduct. If a person be born in a low order,that good understanding which arises from a study of the scriptures failsto rescue his body from low acts. Absolute goodness of understanding maybe of different degrees. It may be high, middling, or low. Even if itappears in a person of low extraction, it disappears like autumnal cloudswithout producing any consequences. On the other hand, that othergoodness of understanding which, according to its measure, has ordainedthe status in which the person has been born, shows itself in hisacts[301]. If a person happens to belong to a superior order but still ifhe happens to be divested of good behaviour, he should receive no respector worship. One may worship even a Sudra if he happens to be conversantwith duties and be of good conduct. A person proclaims himself by his owngood and acts and by his good or bad disposition and birth. If one’s raceof birth happens to be degraded for any reason, one soon raises it andmakes it resplendent and famous by one’s acts. For these reasons theythat are endued with wisdom should avoid those women, among these diversecastes mixed or pure, upon whom they should not beget offspring.’

“Yudhishthira said, ‘Do thou discourse to us, O sire, upon the orders andclasses separately, upon different kinds of sons begotten upon differenttypes of women, upon the person entitled to have them as sons, and upontheir status in life. It is known that disputes frequently arise withrespect to sons. It behoveth thee, O king, to solve the doubts that havetaken possession of our minds. Indeed, we are stupefied with respect tothis subject.’

“Bhishma said, ‘The son of one’s loins is regarded as one’s own self. Theson that is begotten upon one’s wife by a person whom one has invited forthe task, is called Niruktaja. The son that is begotten upon one’s wifeby somebody without one’s permission, is Prasritaja. The son begottenupon his own wife by a person fallen away from his status is calledPatitaja. There are two other sons, viz., the son given, and the sonmade. There is another called Adhyudha.[302] The son born of a maiden inher father’s house is called Kanina. Besides these, there are six kindsof sons called Apadhwansaja and six others that are Apasadas. These arethe several kinds of sons mentioned in the scriptures, learn, O Bharata!

“Yudhishthira said, ‘Who are the six that are called Apadhwansajas? Whoalso are the Apasadas? It behoveth thee to explain all these to me indetail.’

“Bhishma said, ‘The sons that a Brahmana begets upon spouses taken fromthe three inferior orders, those begotten by a Kshatriya upon spousestaken from the two orders inferior to his own, O Bharata, and the sonsthat a Vaisya begets upon a spouse taken from the one order that isinferior to his,–are all called Apadhwansajas. They are, as thusexplained, of six kinds. Listen now to me as I tell thee who theApasadas, are. The son that a Sudra begets upon a Brahmana woman iscalled a Chandala. Begotten upon a Kshatriya woman by a person of theSudra order, the son is called a Vratya. He who is born of a Vaisya womanby a Sudra father is called a Vaidya. These three kinds of sons arecalled Apasadas. The Vaisya, by uniting himself with a woman of theBrahmana order, begets a son that is called a Magadha, while the son thathe gets upon a Kshatriya woman is called a Vamaka. The Kshatriya canbeget but one kind of son upon a woman of a superior order. Indeed, theson begotten by a Kshatriya upon a Brahmana woman, is called a Suta.These three also are called Apasadas. It cannot be said, O king, thatthese six kinds of sons are no sons.’

“Yudhishthira said, ‘Some say that one’s son is he that is born in one’ssoil. Some, on the other hand, say that one’s son is he who has beenbegotten from one’s seed. Are both these kinds of sons equal? Whore,again, is the son to be? Do thou tell me this, O grandsire!

“Bhishma said, ‘His is the son from whose seed he has sprung. If,however, the owner of the seed abandons the son born of it, such a sonthen becomes his upon whose spouse he has been begotten. The same ruleapplies to the son called Adhyudha. He belongs to the person from whoseseed he has taken his birth. If, however, the owner of the seed abandonshim, he becomes the son of the husband of his mother.[303] Know that eventhis is what the law declares.’

“Yudhishthira said, ‘We know that the son becomes his from whose seed hehas taken birth. Whence does the husband of the woman that brings forththe son derive his right to the latter? Similarly, the son calledAdhyudha should be known to be the son of him from whose seed he hassprung. How can they be sons of others by reasons of the engagement aboutowning and rearing them having been broken?’

“Bhishma said, ‘He who having begotten a son of his own loins, abandonshim for some reason or other, cannot be regarded as the sire of such ason, for vital seed only cannot create sonship. Such a son must be heldto belong to the person who owns the soil. When a man, desiring to have ason, weds a girl quick with child, the son born of his spouse must belongto him, for it is the fruit of his own soil. The person from whose vitalseed the son has sprung can have no right to such a son. The son that isborn in one’s soil but not begotten by the owner, O chief of Bharata’srace, bears all the marks of the sire that has actually begotten him (andnot the marks of one that is only the husband of his mother). The sonthus born is incapable of concealing the evidences that physiognomyoffers. He is at once known by eyesight (to belong to another).[304] Asregards the son made, he is sometimes regarded as the child of the personwho has made him a son and so brings him up. In his case, neither thevital seed of which he is born nor the soil in which he is born, becomesthe cause of sonship.’

“Yudhishthira said, ‘What kind of a son is that who is said to be a madeson and whose sonship arises from the fact of his being taken and broughtup and in whose case neither the vital seed nor the soil of birth, OBharata, is regarded as the cause of sonship?’

“Bhishma said, ‘When a person takes up and rears a son that has been castoff on the road by his father and mother, and when the person thus takingand rearing him fails to find out his parents after search, he becomesthe father of such a son and the latter becomes what is called his madeson. Not having anybody to own him, he becomes owned by him who bringshim up. Such a son, again, comes to be regarded as belonging to thatorder to which his owner or rearer belongs.’

“Yudhishthira said, How should the purificatory rites of such a person beperformed? In whose case what sort of rites are to be performed? Withwhat girl should he be wedded? Do thou tell me all this, O grandsire!”

“Bhishma said, ‘The rites of purification touching such a son should beperformed conformably to the usage of the person himself that raises him,for, cast off by his parents, such a son obtains the order of the personthat takes him and brings him up. Indeed, O thou of unfading glory, therearer should perform all the purificatory rites with respect to such ason according to the practices of the rearer’s own race and kinsmen. Asregards the girl also, O Yudhishthira, that should be bestowed inmarriage upon such a son, who belongs to the order of the rearer himself,All this is to be done only when the order of son’s true mother cannot beascertained. Among sons, he that is born of a maiden and he that is bornof a mother that had conceived before her marriage but had brought himfourth subsequent to that are regarded as very disgraceful and degraded.Even those two, however, should receive the same rites of purificationthat are laid down for the sons begotten by the father in lawful wedlock.With respect to the son that becomes his sire’s in consequence of hisbirth in the sire’s soil and of those sons that are called Apasadas and,those conceived by the spouse in her maidenhood but brought forth aftermarriage, Brahmanas and others should apply the same rites ofpurification that hold good for their own orders. These are theconclusions that are to be found in the scriptures with respect to thedifferent orders. I have thus told thee everything appertaining to thyquestions. What else dost thou wish to hear?”