Shloka 23
च्यवन-कुशिक-संवादः
Cyavana–Kuśika Dialogue on Hospitality, Service, and Lineage Questions
भीष्म उवाच आत्मवत् तस्य कुर्वीत संस्कारं स्वामिवत् तथा । त्यक्तो मातापितृभ्यां यः सवर्ण प्रतिपद्यते
bhīṣma uvāca | ātmavat tasya kurvīta saṃskāraṃ svāmivat tathā | tyakto mātāpitr̥bhyāṃ yaḥ savarṇaḥ pratipadyate |
قال بهيشما: «ينبغي أن تُقام لهذا الطفل طقوس السَّمْسْكارا (saṃskāra) كما تُقام لولد المرء—بل كما تُقام لمن هو في كفالته كفالةً مشروعة. فالطفل الذي تخلّى عنه أبواه يُعَدّ منتمياً إلى فَرْنَة (varṇa) الوصيّ الذي قبله وربّاه؛ لذلك على الأب الكافل أن يجري له الطقوس وفق فَرْنَته هو».
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
If parents abandon a child and a guardian accepts and maintains him, the guardian bears dharmic responsibility to perform the child’s saṃskāras properly, treating him as one’s own; the child is socially reckoned to the guardian’s varna for purposes of rites and formation.
In Bhishma’s dharma-instruction (Anushasana Parva), he lays down a rule concerning an abandoned child: once taken in by a protector, the child’s ritual upbringing and social classification for rites follow the protector who assumes care.