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130
Ludo Rocher
Makaranda
eka evaurasaḥ pitrye dhane svāmī prakīrtitaḥ || tattulyah putrikāputro bhartavyās tv apare smrtāḥ || (26.70)
Nārada lays down the order in which different kinds of sons inherit as follows:
kramād dhy-ete prapadyeran mrte pitari taddhanam | iyāyaso jyāyaso’bhāve jaghanyas-tad avāpnuyāt || (13. 49/46)
Yājñavalkya more generally concludes his discussion of the different kinds of sons as follows:
pindado'msaharas-caiņām pūrvābhāve paraḥ paraḥ | (2. 132cd)
In view of these and other privileges accorded to the aurasa son, it is important to define exactly which kind of son qualifies as an aurasa. I will now examine the various definitions of the term aurasa in the smrtis 16, and the several ways in which the commentators have tried to reconcile the differences.
A number of smrtis provide remarkably similar definitions for the term
aurasa :
(1) Vasistha :
svayam-utpăditaḥ svakşetre saṁskrtāyām (17. 13); (2) Visnu :
svaksetre samskrtāyām utpaditah svayam (15. 2);
(3) Manu :
svaksetre samskrtāyām tu svayam-utpadayed dhi yam (9. 166ab);
(4) Devala :
samskrtāyāṁ tu bhāryāyāṁ svayam-utpădito hi yaḥ (Dharmakośa, p. 1350); (5) Hārīta :17
sādhvyāṁ svayam-utpāditaḥ (Dharmakośa, p. 1265); (6) Kautilya :
svayamjātah krtakriyāyām (3. 7. 4).
