Makaranda Madhukar Anand Mahendale Festshrift

Author(s): M A Dhaky, Jitendra B Shah
Publisher: Shardaben Chimanbhai Educational Research Centre

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Ludo Rocher
Makaranda
as an aurasa, because the saudra is listed among the “substitutes" for the aurasa (putrapratinidhitvena tasya gananam) at Manu 9. 16027. Nandapandita retorts that the saudra who is made a substitute (pratinidhikriyate) by Manu is not a son born to a duly wedded südrā woman, but to a sūdrā who is not his father's wife. And he concludes that nothing prevents the son born to a male dvija by his duly wedded śūdrā wife from being aurasa :
tasmäd ūdhāyāṁ sūdrāyām utpannasyaurasatve na kimcid bädhakam |
This brief survey of the various definitions of the term aurasa in the smrtis and of some of the ways in which the commentators have tried to reconcile the differences clearly shows that the concept of an aurasa son in Hindu legal literature is far more varied and complex than the English "legitimate son," the term which is most often used to translate it.
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Annotations :
1. P. V. Kane : History of Dharmaśāstra, vol. 3, p. 657. Kane refers to Nagindas v.
Bachoo (1916) 43 I. A. 56, 57, and adds : “But two more kinds of sons have been recognized in modern times in certain provinces only, namely the kstrima in Mithilā (modern Tirhut) and the putrikāputra among the Nambudri
brāhmaṇas of Malabar." For details, see Ibid., pp. 659 and 660. 2. In only very few smrtis is the number of sons different from 12 : Baudhāyana
(2. 2. 3. 31-33) and BỊhaspati (26. 70-74) list 13, Devala (Dharmakośa, vol. I, p. 1373; all references to the Dharmakośa are to vol. i : Vyavahārakānda) 15. The view that these were merely apparent deviations from the number 12 is clearly expressed by Nandapandita (on Visnu 15.2) :yat tu Brhaspatina “putrās trayodaśa proktā Manunā ye 'nupūrvaša" (26. 77ab) iti trayodaśatvam, Devalena ca “putrākhyā daśa pañca ca" iti pañcadaśatvam-uktam, tad avāntarīyabhedam
ādāya nātyantabhedeneti na virodhah, teşās apy atrāntarbhāvāt | 3. For comparative lists, see Kane : op. cit., p. 645; Mayne : Treatise on Hindu Law
and Usage, 11th ed., 1950, p. 107. 4. The first verse number refers to Jolly's Nāradasmrti edition (1885), the second
to Lariviere's (1989). 5. The term aurasa does occur elsewhere in the text, in connection with the share ..of an adopted son in case an aurasa is born after the adoption : tasmimś (=