Verse 9.171

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:

मातापितृभ्यामुत्सृष्टं तयोरन्यतरेण वा ।
यं पुत्रं परिगृह्णीयादपविद्धः स उच्यते ॥ १७१ ॥

mātāpitṛbhyāmutsṛṣṭaṃ tayoranyatareṇa vā |
yaṃ putraṃ parigṛhṇīyādapaviddhaḥ sa ucyate || 171 ||

If a man takes up a son deserted by his parents, or by either of them, he is called the ‘cast off son.’—(171)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

A child may be deserted by the parents, either because they have many children whom they are unable to support by reason of poverty, or because the particular child has some such defect as disaffection towards his parents and the like.

But the child should not have been openly deserted; as in that case it would not be entitled to being received as a son,—as has been shown elsewhere.

This desertion may be by either one of the parents.

‘Takes up’—with a view to making him his son,—and not to only supporting him.—(171)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Aparārka (p. 739), which explains the meaning to be that the ‘Apaviddha’ son is one who is taken up on being abandoned by the parents for some cause, other than his having become an ‘outcast—and in the Vivādaratnākara (p. 571), which adds the following notes:—‘Utsṛṣṭam’, abandoned,—for some such reason as extreme poverty and consequent incapability to maintain him, or the presence of some defect in him; the acceptance also by the receiver should be for the definite purpose of making him his son;—also in Parāśaramādhava (Prāyaścitta, p. 38);—in Vyavahāra-Bālambhaṭṭī (pp. 547 and 557);—and in Nṛsiṃhaprasāda (Vyavahāra, p. 38a).

 

Comparative notes by various authors

Baudhāyana (2.3.23).—‘He is called the Apaviddha, cast-off, son, who, being cast off by his father and mother, or by either of them, is received by one in the place of a child.’

Vaśiṣṭha (17.36-37).—‘The son cast off is the fifth;—that son is so-called who, being cast off by his father and his mother, is received by one as a son.’

Viṣṇu (15.24-26).—‘The son cast off is the eleventh;—that son is so called who has been forsaken by his father or mother;—and he belongs to him by whom he is received.’

Yājñavalkya (2.132).—‘The son who is received by one after having been abandoned (by his parents) is called the cast-off son.’

Arthaśāstra (p. 41).—‘He who has been cast off by his kinsmen is the cast off son; and he belongs the man who performs his sacraments for him.’