Anushasanika Parva — The duties of persons born in mixed castes

Yudhishthira said The intermixture of castes is brought about through inducements offered by richies, or through mere lust, or through ignorance of the true order of birth.

What, O grandfather, are the duties of persons who are born in the mixed classes and what are the acts laid down for them? Do you describe them to me.

Bhishma said In the beginning, the Lord of all creatures created the four castes and laid down their respective duties, for the sake of sacrifice.

The Brahmana may take four wives, one from each of the four castes. In two of them, he takes birth himself. Those sons, however, who are begotten by him on the two other inferior, (viz., Vaishya and Shudra), are inferior, their position being settled not by that of their father but by that of their mothers.

The son begotten by a Brahmana upon a Shudra wife is called Parashva, meaning one bom of a dead body for the Shudra woman's body is as inauspicious as a dead body. He should serve the persons of his (father's) race. Indeed, it is not proper for him to renounce the duty of service that has been laid down for him.

With all means in his power, he should maintain his family. Even if he happens to be elder in age, he should still dutifully serve the other children of his father, who in age may be younger to him, and give them whatever he may succeed in acquiring.

A Kshatriya may take three wives. In two of them, he takes birth himself. His third wife being of the Shudra caste, is considered as very inferior. The son that he begets upon her is called an Ugra.

The Vaishya may take two wives. In both of them, he takes birth himself. The Shudra can take only one wife, from his own caste. The son begotten by him upon her becomes a Shudra.

A son who takes birth under circumstances other than those mentioned above, is considered as a very inferior one. If a person of a lower caste begets a son upon a woman of a superior caste, such son is regarded as outside the pale of the four pure castes. Indeed, such son becomes an object of derision with the four principal castes.

If a Kshatriya begets a son upon Brahmani woman, such son, without being included in any of the four pure castes, comes to be considered as a Suta, The duties of a Suta consist in reciting eulogies and encomiums of kings and other great men. The son begotten by a Vaishya upon a woman of the Brahmana, order, is known as a Vaidehaka. Their duties consist in taking charge of bars and bolts for protecting the privacy of women of respectable families. Such sons have no purifying rites laid down for them.

If a Shudra knows a woman belonging to the foremost of the four castes, the son that is begotten is called a Chandala. Endued with a dreadful disposition, he must live in the outskirts of cities and towns and his duty is that are a or। of the public executioner. Such sons are always considered as wretches of their race. These, O foremost of intelligent persons, the offspring of intermixed castes.

The son begotten by a Vaishya upon a Kshatriya woman becomes Bandi Magadha. His duties are eloquent recitations of praise. The son begotten through transgression, by a Shudra upon a Kshatriya woman, becomes a Nishada and his duties consist in the catching of fish.

If a Shudra happens to know a Vaishya woman, the son begotten upon her comes to be called Ayogava. The duties of such a person are those of a carpenter. The Brahmana should never accept gifts from such a person. They are not entitled to possess any kind of riches.

Persons belonging to the mixed castes beget upon wives taken from their own castes children invested with their position. When they procreate children in women taken from other inferior castes, such children become inferior to their fathers, for they become invested with the position of their mothers.

Thus as regards the four pure castes, persons beget children invested with their own position upon wives taken from their own castes as also upon them that are taken from the castes immediately below their own. When, however, offspring is begotten upon other wives, they are regarded as invested with a position that is, principally, outside the pale of the four pure castes.

When such children beget sons in women, taken from their own classes, those sons take the position of their fathers. It is only when they take wives from castes other than their own, that the children they beget, become invested with inferior position.

As an example of this it may be said that a Shudra begets upon a woman belonging to the inost superior cast a son that is outside the pale of the four castes, by uniting with women belonging to the four principal castes, begets offspring that is further degraded in point of position.

From those outside the pale of the four castes and those again that are further outside that limit, children multiply on account of the union of persons with women of classes superior to their own. Thus, from persons of inferior position classes spring up, altogether fifteen in number, that are equally low or still lower in dignity.

It is only from sexual union with women of persons who should not have such union with them that mixed castes originate. Among the classes that are thus outside the limit of the four principal or pure castes, children are begotten upon woman belonging to the class called Sairindhri by men of the class called Magadha.

The occupation of such children is the adorement of the bodies of kings and others. They are well acquainted with the preparation of unguents, the making of garlands, and the manufacture of articles used for the decoration of the body. Though free by the position that belongs to them by birth, they should live like servants. From the union of Magadhas of a certain class with women of the caste called Sairindhri, another caste originates, called Ayogava. Their business consists in the making of nets. Vaidehas, by knowing Sairindhri women, beget children called Maireyakas whose business is the manufacture of wines and spirits.

From the Nishadas originate a caste called Madgura and another known by the name of Dasas whose business is plying boats. From the Chandalas originates a race called Shvapaka whose business lies in keeping guard over the dead.

The women of the Magadhi caste, by union with these four castes of wicked nature, produce four others who live by deceitful means. These are Mangsa, Svadukara, Kshaudra, and Saugandha.

From the Vaideha originates cruel and sinful caste that lives by practising deception. From the Nishadas again originates the Madranabha caste whose members are seen to ride on cars drawn by asses.

From the Chandalas originates the caste called Pukkasa whose members are seen to eat the flesh of asses, horses and elephants. These are clad in clothes, procured by stripping human corpses. They are again seen to eat off broken earthenware.

These three castes of very low origin, are born of women of the Ayogava caste (by fathers taken from different castes). The caste called Kshudra originates from the Vaidehaka. The caste called Andhra which lives in the outskirts of towns and cities, also originates (from the Vaidehakas).

Then, again, the Charmakara, knowing woman of the Nishada caste, begets the class called Karavara. From the Chandala, again, originates the caste known by the name of Pandusaupaka whose business is to make baskets and other things with cleft bamboos.

From the union of the Nishada with a woman of the Vaidehi caste, originates one who is called by the name of Ahindaka. The Chandala begets upon a Saupaka women a son who does not differ from the Chandala in position or occupation.

A Nishadi woman, by union with a Chandala, produces a son who lives in the outskirts of villages and towns. Indeed, the members of such a caste live in crematoria and are considered by the very lowest orders as incapable of being classed among them.

Thus do these mixed castes originate from improper and sinful union of fathers and mothers belonging to different castes. Whether they live hidden or openly, they should be known by their occupations.

The duties have been laid down in the scriptures of only the four principal castes. About others, the scriptures are entirely silent. Among all the castes, the members of those castes that have no duties assigned to them by the scriptures, need entertain no fears as to what they do.

Persons unaccustomed to the performance of sacrifices or for whom sacrifices have not been laid down, and who are deprived of the company and the instructions of the pious, whether classed among the four principal castes or out of their limit, by uniting themselves with women of other castes, led not by considerations of virtue but by uncontrolled lust, cause numerous mixed castes to originate whose occupations and houses depend on the circumstances connected with the irregular unions from which they spring.

Having recourse to such places where four roads meet, or crematoria, or hills and mountains, or forests and trees, they build their houses. The ornaments they wear are made of iron.

Living in such places, openly, following their own occupations for acquiring livelihood. They may be seen to live thus, adorning their persons with ornaments and engaged in the work of manufacturing various domestic and other utensils.

Forsooth, by assisting kine and Brahmanas, and practising the virtues of abstention from cruelty, compassion, truthfulness of speech, and forgiveness, and, if it is necessary, protecting others by sacrificing their own lives, persons of the mixed castes, may acquire success. I have no doubt, o king that these virtucs become the causes of their success.

He who is gifted with intelligence, should, taking everything into consideration, beget children according to the scriptural injunctions, upon women that have been declared as proper or fit for him. A son begotten upon a woman belonging to a degraded caste, instead of rescuing the father, brings him to grief even as a heavy burden brings to grief a swimmer desirous of crossing a pool of water.

Whether a man is learned or otherwise, lust and anger are natural tendencies of humanity in this world. Women, therefore, may always be seen to drag men into the wrong path.

The disposition of women is such that man's contact with her produces misery. Hence, wise men do not allow themselves to be excessively attached to women.

Yudhishthira said There are men who belong to the mixed castes, and who are of very impure birth. Putting respectable appearance, they are, in sooth, disrespectable. On account of those external signs we may not be able to know the truth about their birth. Are there any signs, O grandfather, by which the truth may be known about the origin of such men?

Bhishma said A person who is born of an irregular union shows various features of disposition. One's purity of birth, again, is to be determined from one's acts which must resemble the acts of those who are admittedly good and pious.

A disrespectable conduct, acts opposed to those laid down in the scriptures, crookedness and cruelty, and abstention from sacrifices and other scriptural acts that lead to merit, show one's impurity of birth.

A son inherits the disposition of either the father or the mother. Sometimes he inherits the dispositions of both. A person of impure birth can never succeed in concealing his true nature.

As the cub of a tiger resembles its father and dam in form and in stripes or spots, so a person cannot but show the circumstance of his origin.

However secret may one's birth be, if that birth happens to be impure, its character or nature is sure to show itself slightly or largely.

A person may for purposes of his own, choose to follow an insincere path, practising such conduct as seems to be pious. His own nature, however, in the matter of those acts that he does, always announces whether he belongs to a good caste or to a different one.

Creatures in the world are gifted with various kinds of disposition. They are, again, seen to be employed in various kinds of acts. Amongst creatures thus engaged, there is nothing that is so good or valuable as pure birth and righteous conduct.

If a person be born in a low caste, good understanding originating from a study of the scriptures fails to rescue his body from low acts. Absolute goodness of understanding is of different degrees. It may be high, middling, and low. Even if it appears in a person of low birth, it disappears like autumnal clouds without producing any result. On the other hand, goodness of understanding which, according to its measure, has ordained the position in which the person is born, shows itself in his deeds.

If a person happens to belong to a superior caste but still if he happens to be divested of good conduct, he should receive no respect or worship. One may adore even a Shudra if he knows his duties and is of good conduct.

A person proclaims himself by his own good and bad deeds and by his good or bad nature and race of birth. If ones' race of birth happens to be degraded for any reason, one soon raises it and makes it resplendent and famous by his deeds.

For these reasons the wise should avoid those women among these various castes mixed, upon whom they should not beget children.