Shloka 23
च्यवन-कुशिक-संवादः
Cyavana–Kuśika Dialogue on Hospitality, Service, and Lineage Questions
भीष्म उवाच आत्मवत् तस्य कुर्वीत संस्कारं स्वामिवत् तथा । त्यक्तो मातापितृभ्यां यः सवर्ण प्रतिपद्यते
bhīṣma uvāca | ātmavat tasya kurvīta saṃskāraṃ svāmivat tathā | tyakto mātāpitr̥bhyāṃ yaḥ savarṇaḥ pratipadyate |
ビーシュマは言った。「その子には、わが子に施すのと同じくサンスカーラ（saṃskāra）を行うべきである。すなわち、正当に庇護すべき被扶養者として扱うのだ。父母に捨てられた子は、受け入れて養う保護者のヴァルナ（varṇa）に属すると見なされる。ゆえに養父は、自らのヴァルナに従ってその子の儀礼を執り行うべきである。」
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
If parents abandon a child and a guardian accepts and maintains him, the guardian bears dharmic responsibility to perform the child’s saṃskāras properly, treating him as one’s own; the child is socially reckoned to the guardian’s varna for purposes of rites and formation.
In Bhishma’s dharma-instruction (Anushasana Parva), he lays down a rule concerning an abandoned child: once taken in by a protector, the child’s ritual upbringing and social classification for rites follow the protector who assumes care.