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 disse: “Os virtuosos não louvam o gerar de descendência por meio de uma mulher shudra. Se um brâmane gera um filho numa mulher shudra, prescreve-se para ele um ato de expiação (prāyaścitta).”
भीष्म उवाच
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.