Shloka 28
गोमूल्यनिर्णयः — The Determination of Value through the Cow
Nahuṣa–Cyavana Episode
निषादी चापि चाण्डालातू पुत्रमन्तेवसायिनम् । श्मशानगोचरं सूते बाहौरपि बहिष्कृतम्
niṣādī cāpi cāṇḍālātū putram antevāsayinīm | śmaśānagocaraṃ sūte bāhvor api bahiṣkṛtam ||
Bhīṣma dijo: «Una mujer Niṣāda, al unirse con un Caṇḍāla, da a luz a un hijo llamado Antevāsayin: uno que frecuenta los campos de cremación y es tratado como proscrito incluso por las comunidades Bāhya (externas).»
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse is part of a dharmaśāstric-style cataloging of social categories arising from specific unions, emphasizing how traditional norms assigned status and occupation (here, cremation-ground association) and how exclusion was socially enforced. It illustrates how the text describes inherited social marginality within its normative framework.
Bhīṣma, instructing on dharma in the Anuśāsana Parva, enumerates outcomes of particular inter-community unions. In this verse he states that a Niṣāda woman and a Cāṇḍāla man produce an offspring termed Antevāsayin, characterized as frequenting cremation-grounds and being regarded as excluded even by other outside groups.