Shloka 13
Dāyavibhāga (Inheritance Apportionment) and Household Precedence — Dialogue of Yudhiṣṭhira and Bhīṣma
अपत्यजन्म शूद्रायां न प्रशंसन्ति साधव: । शूद्रायां जनयन् वि्र: प्रायश्चित्ती विधीयते
apatyajanma śūdrāyāṁ na praśaṁsanti sādhavaḥ | śūdrāyāṁ janayan vipraḥ prāyaścittī vidhīyate ||
Bhīṣma dit : «Les vertueux ne louent pas le fait d’engendrer une descendance par une femme shudra. Si un brahmane engendre un enfant en une femme shudra, une expiation lui est prescrite.»
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames a normative rule of conduct: procreation by a brāhmaṇa with a Śūdra woman is treated as blameworthy in the dharma discourse, and therefore requires prāyaścitta (ritual-moral expiation).
In the Anuśāsana Parva, Bhīṣma instructs Yudhiṣṭhira on dharma and proper conduct. Here he states a social-ethical injunction concerning varṇa boundaries and the consequent need for expiation when they are transgressed.