z:\ ambedkar\vol 04\vol4 05.indd MK SJ DK YS 23 9 2013/YS 8 11 2013 230
230 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
What does Manu do? The changes made by Manu in the law of the child’s Varna are of a most revolutionary character. Manu [1] lays down the following rules:
“In all castes (varna) those (children) only which are begotten in the direct order on wedded wives, equal (in caste) and married as (virgins) are to be considered as belonging to the same caste (as their fathers).”
“ Sons, begotten by twice-born men on wives of the next lower castes, they declare to be similar (to their fathers, but) blamed on account of the fault (inherent) in their mothers.”
“Those sons of the twice-born, begotten on wives of the next lower castes, who have been enumerated in due order, they call by the name Anantaras (belonging to the next lower caste) on account of the blemish (inherent) in their mothers”
“Six sons, begotten (by Aryans) on women of equal and the next lower castes (Anantara), have the duties of twice-born men; but all those born in consequence of a violation of the law are, as regards their duties, equal to Sudras.”
Manu distinguishes the following cases:
(1) Where the father and mother belong to the same Varna.
(2) Where the mother belongs to a Varna next lower to that of the father e.g., Brahman father and Kshatriya mother, Kshatriya father and Vaishya mother, Vaishya father and Shudra mother.
(3) Where the mother belongs to a Varna more than one degree lower to that of the father, e.g., Brahmin father and Vaishya or Shudra mother, Kshatriya father and Shudra mother.
In the first case the Varna of the child is to be the Varna of the father. In the second case also the Varna of the child is to be the Varna of the father. But in the third case the child is not to have the father’s Varna. Manu does not expressly say what is to be the Varna of the child if it is not to be that of the father. But all the commentators of Manu Medhatithi, Kalluka Bhatt, Narada and Nandapandit—agree
saying what of the course is obvious that in such cases the Varna of the child shall be the Varna of the mother. In short Manu altered the law of the child’s Varna from that of Pitrasavarna—according to father’s Varna to Matrasavarna—according to mother’s Varna.
This is most revolutionary change. It is a pity few have realized that given the forms of marriage, kinds of sons, the permissibility of Anuloma marriages and the theory of Pitrasavarnya, the Varna system notwithstanding the desire of the Brahmins to make it a closed system remained an open system. There were so many holes so to say in the
1 Manu Chap. X verses 5, 6, 14 and 41, pp. 402, 403, 404 and 412.