Verse 10.66

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

अनार्यायां समुत्पन्नो ब्राह्मणात् तु यदृच्छया ।
ब्राह्मण्यामप्यनार्यात् तु श्रेयस्त्वं क्वेति चेद् भवेत् ॥ ६६ ॥

anāryāyāṃ samutpanno brāhmaṇāt tu yadṛcchayā |
brāhmaṇyāmapyanāryāt tu śreyastvaṃ kveti ced bhavet || 66 ||

(question).—If a child is somehow born to a Brāhmaṇa from a non-Aryan woman, and another is born to a non-Aryan from a Brāhmaṇa woman,—with which of these would the ‘superiority’ lie?—(66)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

‘Which’—denotes question.

If the ‘seed’ forms the more important factor, the children born from mothers of lower castes gradually attain the higher caste of the father; and the same principle might be applied to the case of the ‘soil’ being regarded as the more important factor. So that, just as the child born to the Brāhmaṇa father from a ‘Non-Aryan,’—i.e., Śūdra—mother—‘some-how’—i.e., even when the woman is not his married wife,—would attain the higher caste—so also ‘the child born to a non-Aryan from the Brāhmaṇa woman’ would attain the higher caste, on the ground of the ‘soil’ being the more important factor;—it having been declared (under 9.34) that ‘predominance attaches sometimes to the seed and sometimes to the soil’— (66)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

‘Anāryāyām’—‘A Śūdra female’ (Medhātithi, Govindarāja, Kullūka, Rāghavānanda and Nandana);—‘the daughter of a Vrātya and the like’ (Nārāyaṇa).

‘Yadṛcchayā’—‘By chance, i.e. even on an unmarried one’ (Medhātithi and Govindarāja);—‘unknowingly’ (Nārāyaṇa).

 

Comparative notes by various authors

(verses 10.66-73)

[See texts under 9.33 et seq.]