Indian Antiquary Vol 40

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 16

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(JANUARY, 1911.
What is the upshot of these quotations ! Not only the two bigher castes, vis., the Kshatriyas and Vaisyas but also the lowest castes, such as fishermen and chand Alas, in short, all castes and classes, have contributed to the formation of the Brahmana caste, i.e., the caste now recognised to be the highest and purest in India ! Most of these quotations are taken from the Mahabharata, which is regarded by the Hindas as so important and sacred that it has been called the fifth Vedu. And it is this fifth Veda that we have mostly relied upon for tracing some of the sources of the Brahmana caste just referred to. Perfectly true is the Marathi adage नदीचे पाहू नये मूळ आणि कषीचे पुसू नये कुळ (aeither should the source of a river be sought for, nor the origin of the Nishio be investigated).
It may be said that after all the Mahabharata, from which the above quotations are made, is a conglomeration of legends, which are not of much historical importance, though they cannot be objected to by an orthodox Brahmaņa and consequently may be adduced to silence his preposterous pretensiona to purity of origin and the consequent highest place in Hindu society. Let us, therefore, see what the Hindu lew-books tell us, and here also I shall touch on one point only. In Cap. IV of the Yajñavalkya-8mariti oocars this verse :
जास्युस्कर्षों युगे ज्ञेयः परसमे सक्षमेऽपि वा।
व्यत्यये कर्मणां साम्यं पूर्ववचारोत्तरम्। The translation of the first line, with which we are chiefly concerned, is this: “The exaltation of a caste in the Kaliyuga should be understood to take place in the fifth or seventh generation." The sense of it has been made lacid by Vijčanesvarabharfa in his celebrated commentary on this smriti entitled the Mitákshard. A part of his gloss on the first line rang As follows:
व्यवस्था च प्रामणेन शूद्रायामुत्पादिता निषादी सा ब्राह्मणेनोदा दुहितर कांचिज्जनयति ॥ सापि ब्राह्मणेनोडा अन्यामित्यनेन प्रकारेण षष्ठी समम प्राक्षणं जनयति ।
Translation. “The settled rule is (this): a Nishadt is produced by a Brahmana from a Súdra female; she (i. e., the Nishadi), if married by a Brâhmaņa, produces a certain girl ; even she (i. e., the girl), if married by a Brahmana, produces another (girl)-in this manner the sixth (girl) produces the seventh Brahmana (male)."
Now, what does this mean? A Brahmaņa marries a Sadra woman, and a certain female offspring is produced. This last marries a Brahmaņa, and a second female offspring is produced. This last marries a Brahmaņa, and a third female offspring is prodaoed, and so on. In this manner, if the sixth female offspring marries a Brahmana and has a male issue, this issue is looked upon as a Brahmana in no way differing in point of statas from other Brâhmaņas. verse of exactly the same import occurs in the Manu-emrits also. It is :शुद्रायां प्राणाज्जातःश्रेयसा चेत्यजायते । अप्रेयानड्रेयसी जातिगच्छत्या सप्समायुगात् ॥
Cap. x, v. 64. Translation. If (a female of the caste) sprung from a Brahman and a Sodra female, bear (children) to one of the highest caste, the interior (tribe) attains the highest caste within the seventh generation.
Most of the commentators on Mana interpret this verse in precisely the same manner, in which the verse, from Ydjñavalkya-emriti quoted above has been construed by Vijñknesvara. But there are at least two commentators, who put a somewhat different, bat even more favourable, interpretation on the verse. According to them, what Mana has ordained is that "if a Pârasava, the son of a Brâhmaņa and of a Sudra female, marries a nost excellent Párabava female, who possess a good moral character and other virtues, and if his descendants do the same, the child born in the sixth generation will be a Brahmana,"