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11,
THE FOUR CASTES.
Chapter II. 1. There are four castes (varna), Brâhmanas, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, and Sudras.
2. Three castes, Brâhmanas, Kshatriyas, and Vaisyas, (are called) twice-born.
3. Their first birth is from their mother; the second from the investiture with the sacred girdle. In that (second birth) the Savitri is the mother, but the teacher is said to be the father.
4. They call the teacher father, because he gives instruction in the Veda.
5. They quote also (the following passage from the Veda) to the same (effect): Of two kinds, forsooth, is the virile energy of a man learned in the Vedas, that which (resides) above the navel and the other which below (the navel) descends downwards. Through that which (resides) above the navel, his offspring is produced, when he initiates Brâhmanas, when he teaches them, when he causes them to offer oblations, when he makes them holy. By that which resides below the navel the children of his body are produced. Therefore they never say to a Srotriya, who teaches the Veda, “Thou art destitute of offspring.”'
II. 1-2. Vishnu II, 1–2; Manu X, 4.
3. Identical with Manu II, 169, 1708, and Vishnu XXVIII, 3738. The Savitri or the verse addressed to Savitri is found Rig-veda III, 62, 10.
4. Gautama I, 10; Manu II, 171.
5. The reading tathâpy udâ haranti, which several of my MSS. give, seems to me preferable to Krishnapandita's udâharati. Krishnapandita explains sâdhu karoti, 'makes them holy,' by adhyâtmam upadisati, teaches them transcendental knowledge.'
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