Verse 10.64

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

शूद्रायां ब्राह्मणाज् जातः श्रेयसा चेत् प्रजायते ।
अश्रेयान् श्रेयसीं जातिं गच्छत्या सप्तमाद् युगात् ॥ ६४ ॥

śūdrāyāṃ brāhmaṇāj jātaḥ śreyasā cet prajāyate |
aśreyān śreyasīṃ jātiṃ gacchatyā saptamād yugāt || 64 ||

If the child born from a Śūdra woman to a Brāhmaṇa goes on being wedded to a superior person,—the inferior attains the superior caste, within the seventh generation.—(64)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

The offspring here referred to (though mentioned by a masculine noun) stands for the child in general, just as in the case of such assertions as ‘garbhe gṛhṇāṭi,’ ‘gorbhe jātaḥ’ and so forth. The sense of the verse thus comes to be this:—‘A maiden born from a Śūdra woman to a Brāhmaṇa father,—if she is ‘wedded to’—acquires the capacity for bearing children, by becoming conjoined in wedlock to—a person of a superior caste i.e., the Brāhmaṇa,—and the girl born of this maiden is again married to a Brāhmaṇa,—and this goes on for seven generations, then in the seventh generation, the child that is born becomes a regular Brāhmaṇa.’

Though the text speaks of the ‘superior caste’ in general, yet it should be taken as meaning that the Śūdra attains the position of the Brāhmaṇa; and this because the Brāhmaṇa is mentioned in the text, and also because the next verse speaks of the Śūdra attaining the position of the Brāhmaṇa.

On the principle enunciated here, the child born from the Vaiśya mother (and the Brāhmaṇa hither) attains the superior caste in the fifth generation; and that born from the Kṣatriya mother, in the third generation.

In all these cases the ‘superiority’ is in comparison to the caste of the mother. So that if the girl born to a Vaiśya father from a Śūdra mother is married to a Vaiśya, she attains the superior caste in the third generation; and the girl born of the Śūdra mother to the Kṣatriya hither, on marrying the Kṣatriya, acquires the higher caste in the fifth generation. The term ‘yuga’ here stands for birth, generation.

The ‘inferior’—one belonging to a lower caste—attains the ‘superior’—the higher caste.

The article ‘ā’ (in the expression ‘ā saptamāt’) indicates limit.—(64)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

If the daughter of a Brāhmaṇa from a Śudrā female and all their descendants marry Brāhmaṇas, the offspring of the sixth female descendant of the original couple will become a Brāhmaṇa (Medhātithi, Govindarāja, Kullūka and Rāghavānanda).—If the son of a Brāhmaṇa from a Śūdra female marries a similar girl possessed of excellent virtues and if his descendants go on doing the same, the child born of the sixth generation will become a Brāhmaṇa (Nārāyaṇa and Nandana)

 

Comparative notes by various authors

(verses 10.64-65)

[See texts under 42.]

Gautama (4.22).—‘In the seventh generation, men obtain a change of caste, either being raised to a higher, or degraded to a lower one.—The venerable teacher declares that this happens in the fifth generation.’

Yājñavalkya (1.96).—(See under 24 above.)