Shloka 4
गोमूल्यनिर्णयः — The Determination of Value through the Cow
Nahuṣa–Cyavana Episode
भायश्षितस्रो विप्रस्य द्वयोरात्मा प्रजायते | आनुपूर्व्याद् द्वयोहीनौ मातृजात्यौ प्रसूयत:
bhāryāś catasro viprasya dvayor ātmā prajāyate | ānupūrvyād dvayohīnau mātṛjātyau prasūyataḥ ||
Bhishma dijo: «Se dice que un brahmán tiene cuatro esposas. De dos de ellas—una mujer brahmán y una mujer kshatriya—nace un hijo que es tenido por brahmán. Pero de las otras dos—cuando las esposas son vaishya y shudra—los hijos que nazcan se consideran deficientes en condición brahmánica y, en el debido orden, se entiende que siguen la casta de la madre.»
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse states a normative rule attributed to Bhishma: in the context of a Brahmin’s four possible wives, offspring from a Brahmin or Kshatriya wife are treated as Brahmin, while offspring from Vaishya or Shudra wives are regarded as lacking full Brahmin status and are classified according to the mother’s caste.
During Bhishma’s extended instruction on dharma in the Anushasana Parva, he lays out traditional social-legal classifications concerning marriage and the status of children born from unions across varṇas, presenting an ordered scheme for how such offspring are to be regarded.