Baudhayana Dharmasutra
by Georg Bühler | 1882 | 56,962 words
The prashnas of the Dharmasutra of Baudhayana consist of the Srautasutra and other ritual treatises, the Sulvasutra which deals with vedic geometry, and the Grihyasutra which deals with domestic rituals. The Dharmasutra of Baudhayana like that of Apastamba also forms a part of the larger Kalpasutra. Likewise, it is composed of prashnas which liter...
Praśna I, Adhyāya 8, Kaṇḍikā 16
1. There are four castes (varṇa, viz.) Brāhmaṇas, Kṣatriyas, Vaiśyas, and Śūdras.[1]
2. (Males) belonging to them (may take) wives according to the order of the castes, (viz.) a Brāhmaṇa four,[2]
3. A Kṣatriya three,
4. A Vaiśya two,
5. A Śūdra one.
6. Sons begotten on (wives) of equal or of the next lower castes (are called) Savarṇas (of equal caste).[3]
7. (Those born) of (wives) of the second or third lower castes (become) Ambaṣṭhas, Ugras, and Niṣādas.[4]
8. Of females wedded in the inverse order of the castes (are born) Āyogavas, Māgadhas, Vaiṇas, Kṣattṛs, Pulkasas, Kukkuṭakas, Vaidehakas, and Caṇḍālas.[5]
9. An Ambaṣṭha (begets) on a female of the first (caste) a Śvapāka,
10. An Ugra on a female of the second (caste) a Vaiṇa,
11. A Niṣāda on a female of the third (caste) a Pulkasa.
12. In the contrary case a Kukkuṭaka (is produced).
13. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .[6]
14. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
16. Now they quote also (the following verse).: But those sons whom an uninitiated man begets, the wise call Vrātyas, who are excluded from the Sāvitrī; (that is a rule which refers) in an equal manner to the three (highest) castes.'[7]
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
16. Vasiṣṭha II, 1.
[2]:
-5. Vasiṣṭha I, 24--25.
[3]:
Gautama IV, 16.
[4]:
Vasiṣṭha XVIII, 8.
[5]:
-12. Vasiṣṭha XVIII, 1-6; Gautama IV, 17-21. In the I. O. copy of the commentary there is a break, which extends from Sūtra 8 to the beginning of Adhyāya 10.
[6]:
-15. The text of the three Sūtras is exceedingly corrupt, and the Telugu copy of the commentary affords no help. It is, however, clear that the passage left out contained something which corresponded to Gautama IV, 22-23, and treated of the possibility of raising persons of a lower caste to a higher one by intermarriages continued for five or seven generations. The reading of K., which perhaps is the best, will show this: 'niṣādena niṣādyād ā pañcamājjātā bhavanti tam upanayet shaṣṭham yājayet saptamo ’vikṛtājīsamaṃjito saptamauñjīsama ity ekeṣāṃ saṃjñā krameṇa nipatanti.'
[7]:
Manu X, 20.