Shloka 52
वैश्यस्य वर्तमानस्य वैश्यायां भरतर्षभ । शूद्रायां चापि कौन्तेय तयोविनियम: स्मृत:,भरतश्रेष्ठ! कुन्तीकुमार! वैश्यके वैश्या और शाद्रा दोनोंके गर्भसे पुत्र हों तो उनके लिये भी धनके बँटवारेका वैसा ही नियम है
vaiśyasya vartamānasya vaiśyāyāṃ bharatarṣabha | śūdrāyāṃ cāpi kaunteya tayor viniyamaḥ smṛtaḥ ||
Bhīṣma said: “O bull among the Bharatas, O son of Kuntī: when a Vaiśya, while living in the householder state, has sons born from a Vaiśya woman and also from a Śūdra woman, the rule for their allotment is remembered to be the same as the established regulation for such mixed offspring.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse states that Smṛti tradition recognizes a specific, established rule (viniyama) for allocating wealth/entitlements when a Vaiśya has sons from both a Vaiśyā and a Śūdrā; Bhīṣma emphasizes that the distribution should follow the remembered legal-ethical regulation rather than personal preference.
In the Anuśāsana Parva, Bhīṣma instructs Yudhiṣṭhira on dharma and social-legal norms. Here he addresses a case of mixed parentage within a Vaiśya household and indicates that traditional law provides a defined rule for how the two sets of sons are to be treated in matters like division of property.