text stringlengths 0 182 |
|---|
outside the pale of the four principal or pure orders, children are begotten upon women belonging to the class called Sairindhri |
by men of the class called Magadha. The occupation of such offspring is the adornment of the bodies of kinds and others. They |
are well-acquainted with the preparation of unguents, the making of wreaths, and the manufacture of articles used for the |
decoration of the person. Though free by the status that attaches to them by birth, they should yet lead a life of service. From |
the union of Magadhas of a certain class with women of the caste called Sairindhri, there springs up another caste called |
Ayogava. Their occupation consists in the making of nets (for catching fish and fowl and animals of the chase). Vaidehas, by |
uniting themselves with women of the Sairindhri caste, beget children called Maireyakas whose occupation consists in the |
manufacture of wines and spirits. From the Nishadas spring a caste called Madgura and another known by the name of Dasas |
whose occupation consists in plying boats. From the Chandala springs a race called Swapaka whose occupation consists in |
keeping guard over the dead. The women of the Magadhi caste, by union with these four castes of wicked dispositions produce |
four others who live by practising deceit. These are Mansa, Swadukara, Kshaudra, and Saugandha. From the Vaideha springs |
up a cruel and sinful caste that lives by practising deception. From the Nishadas again springs up the Madranabha caste whose |
members are seen to ride on cars drawn by asses. From the Chandalas springs up the caste called Pukkasa whose members are |
seen to eat the flesh of asses, horses and elephants. These cover themselves with the garments obtained by stripping human |
corpses. They are again seen to eat from broken earthenware[300]. These three castes of very low status are born of women of |
the Ayogava caste (by fathers taken from different castes). The caste called Kshudra springs from the Vaidehaka. The caste |
called Andhra which takes up its residence in the outskirts of towns and cities, also springs up (from the Vaidehakas). Then |
again the Charmakara, uniting himself with a woman of Nishada caste, begets the class called Karavara. From the Chandala |
again springs up the caste known by the name of Pandusaupaka whose occupation consists in making baskets and other things |
with cleft bamboos. From the union of the Nishada with a woman of the Vaidehi caste springs one who is called by the name |
of Ahindaka. The Chandala begets upon a Saupaka woman, a son that does not differ from the Chandala in status or |
occupation. A Nishada woman, by union with a Chandala, brings forth a son who lives in the outskirts of villages and towns. |
Indeed, the members of such a caste live in crematoria and are regarded by the very lowest orders as incapable of being |
numbered among them. Thus to these mixed castes spring up from improper and sinful union of fathers and mothers belonging |
to different castes. Whether they live in concealment or openly, they should be known by their occupations. The duties have |
been laid down in the scriptures for only the four principal orders. As regards the others the scriptures are entirely silent. |
Among all the orders, the members of those castes that have no duties assigned to them by the scriptures, need have no fears as |
to what they do (to earn their livelihood). Persons unaccustomed to the performance or for whom sacrifices have not been laid |
down, and who are deprived of the company and the instructions of the righteous whether numbered among the four principal |
orders or out of their pale, by uniting themselves with women of other castes, led not by considerations of righteousness but by |
uncontrolled lust, cause numerous mixed castes to come into existence whose occupations and abodes depend on the |
circumstances connected with the irregular unions to which they owe their origin. Having recourse to spots where four roads |
meet, or crematoria, or hills and mountains, or forests and trees, they build their habitations there. The ornaments they wear are |
made of iron. Living in such places openly, they betake themselves to their own occupations to earn their livelihood. They may |
be seen to live in this way, adorning their persons with ornaments and employed in the task of manufacturing diverse kinds of |
domestic and other utensils. Without doubt, by assisting kine and Brahmanas, and practising the virtues of abstention from |
cruelty, compassion, truthfulness of speech, and forgiveness, and, if need be, by preserving others by laying down their very |
lives, persons of the mixed castes may achieve success. I have no doubt, O chief of men, that these virtues become the causes |
of their success. He that is possessed of intelligence, should, taking everything into consideration, beget offspring according to |
the ordinances of the scriptures, upon woman that have been declared proper or fit for him. A son begotten upon a women |
belonging to a degraded caste, instead of rescuing the sire, brings him to grief even as a heavy weight brings to grief a |
swimmer desirous of crossing water. Whether a man happens to be possessed of learning or not, lust and wrath are natural |
attributes of humanity in this world. Women, therefore, may always be seen to drag men into the wrong path. This natural |
disposition of women is such that man's contact with her is productive of misery to him. Hence, men possessed of wisdom do |
not suffer 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. Though presenting the |
features of respectability, they are in reality disrespectable. In consequence of these external aspects we may not be able to |
know the truth about their birth. Are there any signs, O grandsire, by which the truth may be known about the origin of such |
men?" |
SECTION XLIX |
"Bhishma said, 'A person that is born of an irregular union presents diverse features of disposition. One's purity of birth, again, |
is to be ascertained from one's acts which must resemble the acts of those who are admittedly good and righteous. A |
disrespectable behaviour, acts opposed to those laid down in the scriptures, crookedness and cruelty, and abstention from |
sacrifices and other spiritual acts that lead to merit, proclaim one's impurity of origin. A son receives the disposition of either |
the sire or the mother. Sometimes he catches the dispositions of both. A person of impure birth can never succeed in concealing |
his true disposition. As the cub of a tiger or a leopard resembles its sire and dam in form and in (the matter of) its stripes of |
spots, even so a person cannot but betray the circumstance of his origin. However covered may the course of one's descent be, |
if that descent happens to be impure, its character or disposition is sure to manifest itself slightly or largely. A person may, for |
purposes of his own, choose to tread on an insincere path, displaying such conduct as seems to be righteous. His own |
disposition, however, in the matter of those acts that he does, always proclaims whether he belongs to a good order or to a |
different one. Creatures in the world are endued with diverse kinds of disposition. They are, again, seen to be employed in |
diverse kinds of acts. Amongst creatures thus employed, there is nothing that is so good or precious as pure birth and righteous |
conduct. If a person be born in a low order, that good understanding which arises from a study of the scriptures fails to rescue |
his body from low acts. Absolute goodness of understanding may be of different degrees. It may be high, middling, or low. |
Even if it appears in a person of low extraction, it disappears like autumnal clouds without producing any consequences. On the |
other hand, that other goodness of understanding which, according to its measure, has ordained the status in which the person |
has been born, shows itself in his acts[301]. If a person happens to belong to a superior order but still if he happens to be |
divested of good behaviour, he should receive no respect or worship. One may worship even a Sudra if he happens to be |
conversant with duties and be of good conduct. A person proclaims himself by his own good and acts and by his good or bad |
disposition and birth. If one's race of birth happens to be degraded for any reason, one soon raises it and makes it resplendent |
and famous by one's acts. For these reasons they that are endued with wisdom should avoid those women, among these diverse |
castes mixed or pure, upon whom they should not beget offspring.' |
"Yudhishthira said, 'Do thou discourse to us, O sire, upon the orders and classes separately, upon different kinds of sons |
begotten upon different types of women, upon the person entitled to have them as sons, and upon their status in life. It is known |
that disputes frequently arise with respect to sons. It behoveth thee, O king, to solve the doubts that have taken possession of |
our minds. Indeed, we are stupefied with respect to this subject.' |
"Bhishma said, 'The son of one's loins is regarded as one's own self. The son that is begotten upon one's wife by a person |
whom one has invited for the task, is called Niruktaja. The son that is begotten upon one's wife by somebody without one's |
permission, is Prasritaja. The son begotten upon his own wife by a person fallen away from his status is called Patitaja. There |
are two other sons, viz., the son given, and the son made. There is another called Adhyudha.[302] 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 |
Apasadas. These are the several kinds of sons mentioned in the scriptures, learn, O Bharata! |
"Yudhishthira said, 'Who are the six that are called Apadhwansajas? Who also are the Apasadas? It behoveth thee to explain all |
these to me in detail.' |
"Bhishma said, 'The sons that a Brahmana begets upon spouses taken from the three inferior orders, those begotten by a |
Kshatriya upon spouses taken from the two orders inferior to his own, O Bharata, and the sons that a Vaisya begets upon a |
spouse taken from the one order that is inferior to his,--are all called Apadhwansajas. They are, as thus explained, of six kinds. |
Listen now to me as I tell thee who the Apasadas, are. The son that a Sudra begets upon a Brahmana woman is called a |
Chandala. Begotten upon a Kshatriya woman by a person of the Sudra order, the son is called a Vratya. He who is born of a |
Vaisya woman by a Sudra father is called a Vaidya. These three kinds of sons are called Apasadas. The Vaisya, by uniting |
himself with a woman of the Brahmana order, begets a son that is called a Magadha, while the son that he gets upon a |
Kshatriya woman is called a Vamaka. The Kshatriya can beget but one kind of son upon a woman of a superior order. Indeed, |
the son begotten by a Kshatriya upon a Brahmana woman, is called a Suta. These three also are called Apasadas. It cannot be |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.