Anushasanika Parva — The position of sons

Yudhishthira said Describe to us, O sire, the orders and classes separately, what kind of son is begotten on what women, who is entitled to have whom for sons, and what kinds of sons are there.

It is known that disputes frequently take place about sons. You should, O king, remove the doubts of our mind. Indeed, we are stupefied about this subject.

Bhishma said One's own begotten son considered as his own self. The son that is begotten upon one's wife by a person whom he has invited for it, if called Niruktaja. The son that is begotten upon one's wife by somebody without his permission, is Prasritaja.

The son begotten upon his own wife by a person degraded from his positions is called Patitaja. There are two other, sons, viz., the son given, and the son made. There is another called Adhyuda.

The son born of a maiden in her father's house is called Kanina. Besides these, there are six kinds of sons called Apadhwansaja and six others that are called Apasadas. These are the several kind of sons mentioned in the scriptures, know, O Bharata. are

Yudhishthira said Who the six that are called Apadhvansaja? Who also are the Apasadas? You should fully explain all this to me.

Bhishma said The sons that a Brahmana begets upon wives taken from the three inferior castes, those begotten by a Kshatriya upon wives taken from the two castes inferior to his own, O Bharata, and the sons that a Vaishya begets upon a wife taken from the one caste that is inferior to his,-are all called Apadhvansas. ! They are, as thus explained, of six kinds. Listen now to me as I tell you who the Apasadas are.

The son that a Shudra begets upon a Brahmani woman is called a Chandala. Begotten upon a Kshatriya woman by a person of the Shudra order, the son is called a Vratye.। He who is born of a Vaishya woman by a Shudra father is called a Vaidya. These three kinds of sons are called Apasada.

The Vaishya, by knowing a woman of the Brahmana order, begets a son that is called a Magadha, while the son that he begets upon a Kshatriya woman is called a Vamaka, The। Kshatriya can beget but one kind of son of upon a woman of a superior caste.

Indeed, the son begotten by a Kshatriya upon a Brahmana woman, is called a Suta. These three also are called Apasadas. It cannot be said, O king, that these six kinds of sons are no sons.

Yudhishthira said Some say that one's son is he, who is born in his soil. Some, on the other hand, say that one's son is he who has been begotten from his seed. Are both these kinds of sons equal? Whose, again, is the son to be? Do you tell me, this, O grandfather.

Bhishma said His is the son from whose seed he has sprung. If, however, the owner of the seed discards the son born of it, such son then becomes his upon whose wife he has been begotten. The same rule applies to the son called Adhyuda. He belongs to the person from whose seed he has sprung. If, however, the owner of the seed forsakes him, he becomes the son of the husband of his mother. Know this is what the law declares.

Yudhishthira said We know that the son becomes his from whose seed he has taken birth. Whence does the husband of the woman who gives birth to the son derive his right to the latter? Likewise the son called Adhyuda should be known to be the son of him from whose seed he has sprung. How can they be the sons of others on account of the engagement about owning and rearing them having been broken?

Bhishma said Fie who, having begotten a son of his own loins: forsakes him for some reason or other, cannot be considered as the father of such son, for vital seed only cannot create sonship. Such son must be held to belong to the person who is the master of the soil.

When a man, desiring to have a son, marries a girl quick with child, the son born of his wife must belong to him, for it is the fruit of his own soil. The person from whose vital seed the son has sprung, can have no right to such son.

The son who is born in one's soil but not begotten by the owner, O chief of Bharata's race, bears all the marks of the father that has actually begotten him. The son thus born is incapable of concealing the evidences of physiognomy. He is at He is at once known by eyesight.

As regards the son made, he is sometimes considered as the child of the person who has made him a son and who brings him up. In his case, neither the vital seed of which he has been born nor the soil in which he has been born, becomes the cause of sonship.

Yudhishthira said What kind of son is that who is said to be a made son and whose sonship originates from the fact of his being taken and reared, and in whose case neither the vital seed nor the soil of birth, O Bharata, is caused as the cause of sonship.

Bhishnia said When one takes up and rears a son who has been cast off on the road by his father and mother, and when the person thus taking and rearing him cannot find out his parents after search, he becomes the father of such son and the latter becomes what is called his made son.

Not having anybody to own him, he becomes his who rcars hiin. Such son, again, comes to be considered as belonging to that castes to which his owner or rearer belongs.

Yudhishthira said How should the purifactory rites of such a person be performed? In whose case that sort of rites are to be performed? With what girl should he be married? Tell me all this, O grandfather.

Bhishma said The rites of purification for such a son should be performed according to the usage of the person himself who rears him, for, renounced by his parents, such son gets the caste of the person who takes him and rears him.

Indeed, O you of unfading glory, the rearer should perform all the purificatory rites for such son according to the practices of his own family and kinsmen. As regards the girl also, O Yudhishthira, that should be bestowed in marriage upon such a son, she should belong to the caste of the rearer himself.

All this is to be done only when the caste of the son's true mother cannot be learnt. Among sons, he who is born of a maiden and he who is born of a mother who had conceived before her marriage but brought nim forth subsequent to that act, are considered as very disgraceful and degraded.

Even these two, however, should receive the same rites of purification that sanctioned for the sons begotten by the father in lawful marriage. In respect of the son who becomes his fathers on account of his birth in the father's soil, and of those sons who are called Apsadas, and those conceived by the wife in her maidenhood but brought forth after marriage, Brahmanas and others should apply the same rites of purification that are in vogue in their own castes. These are the conclusions that are seen in the scriptures about the different castes. I have thus told you everything of your questions. What else do you wish to hear?