Shloka 7
गोमूल्यनिर्णयः — The Determination of Value through the Cow
Nahuṣa–Cyavana Episode
तिस्त्र: क्षत्रियसम्बन्धाद् द्वयोरात्मास्य जायते । हीनव्णसस्तृतीयायां शूद्रा उग्रा इति स्मृति:
tisraḥ kṣatriya-sambandhād dvayor ātmāsya jāyate | hīna-varṇas tṛtīyāyāṁ śūdrā ugrā iti smṛtiḥ ||
Bhīṣma said: “From a Kṣatriya’s union with three kinds of wives, offspring are described in the tradition. From the first two—(a Kṣatriya wife and a Vaiśya wife)—the son born through the Kṣatriya’s begetting is regarded as of the Kṣatriya order. But from the third, a Śūdra wife, the offspring are said to be of a lower status; the Smṛti designates them as ‘Ugra.’”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse presents a Smṛti-based rule about how offspring are classified when a Kṣatriya has wives from different varṇas: sons from Kṣatriya and Vaiśya wives are treated as Kṣatriya, while sons from a Śūdra wife are designated as lower-status and termed ‘Ugra’ in the tradition.
In Anuśāsana Parva, Bhīṣma is instructing Yudhiṣṭhira on dharma and social norms. Here he cites traditional dharma-text categories concerning marriage/union and the resulting social designation of children.