Source of Brahminhood

[Deshpande, Madhav]

While the Vajrasuci is a Buddhist text and wants to convey a message that birth is not a determining factor, the texts it cites have their own originally different approaches.  Notes and parralel passages provided in the edition of Vajrasuci by Sujitkumar Mukhopadhyaya (Santiniketan 1960, 2nd edn, p. 38) finds many such passages in BhaviSyapurANa and other Brahmanical texts.  There is a seeming a divergence of opinion between purely Dharmasastric opinions on progeny of mixed marriages and these Puranic passages claiming "tapasA brahmaNo jAtaH".  As I have pointed out in my article in the JIES, however, this difference disappears when one realizes that in all these cases of RSis born from mixed unions, not only with non-Brahmin women but also with female animals, the fathers are always Brahmin males, and this fits with the ancient notions of the identity of the child going by the "seed" (bIja) rather than by the "field" (kSetra), and this is fully in accord with the Dharmasastric opinion of Manu:

     jAto nAryAm anAryAyAm AryAd Aryo bhaved guNaiH / anAryAj jAta AryAyAm anArya iti nizcayaH //
     "A person born from an Arya man in an an-Arya woman may become Arya by his virtues, but a person born in an Arya woman from an an-Arya man is clearly an an-Aryan, this is the determination."
     I don't have a copy of Manu at hand, but I have cited this verse with its textual reference in my article.

Madhav



-----Original Message-----
From: Indology on behalf of Patrick Olivelle
Sent: Thu 10/5/2006 9:24 PM
To: INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk
Subject: Re: Source of Brahminhood
 
Palaniappan and all: the Vajrasuuci is actually a Buddhist polemical 
text ascribed to Asvaghosa, but probably much later, perhaps in the 
6th century. So, this is not a Brahmanical position, but a Buddhist 
satirical comment on the so-called purity of Brahmins by showing that 
even Vyaasa had a problematic parentage.



>
>I have found an almost identical verse in vajrasuuci (23)
>
>kaivartiigarbhasambhuuto  vyaaso naama mahaamuni.h| 
>tapasaa braahma.no  jaatastasmaajjaatirakaara.nam||23||
>(See _http://www.uwest.edu/sanskritcanon/Sastra/Roman/sastra20.html_
>(http://www.uwest.edu/sanskritcanon/Sastra/Roman/sastra20.html)  )
>
>Is the presence of such verses in the Hindu texts to be attributed to 
>interpolation due to the influence of Buddhism/Jainism?
>
>Thanks in advance.
>
>Regards,
>S. Palaniappan
>
>In a message dated 10/4/2006 6:56:03 A.M. Central Standard Time, 
>sanjay.kumar at MAIL.MCGILL.CA writes:
>
>The  verse you mentioned is perhaps from the Uttara-gita, published by the 
>Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune. The Critical Edition of the 
>Mahabharata notes a conversation between Kr.s.n.a and Duryodhana in the star 
>passage after 5.92.37, where Kr.s.n.a gives reasons for having meals 
>at  Vidura's
>house:
>
>kaivarti-garbha-sambhuto vyaso nama mahamunih. tapasa  brahman.o jatas tasmaj
>jatir na karan.am.
>
>
>
>Sanjay  Kumar
>
>McGill  University
>
>
>
>________________________________
>
>From:  Indology on behalf of Sudalaimuthu Palaniappan
>Sent: Tue 03/10/2006 11:21  PM
>To: INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk
>Subject: Source of  Brahminhood
>
>
>
>Dear Indologists,
>
>Can anybody tell me the  source and date of the verse "mastsyagandhastu
>tanayo veda vyasa....tasmad  jaatirna kaaranam" ?  This verse is used by 
>some to
>argue that  according to Hindu tradition a Brahmin is indeed born   through
>austerities and Brahminhood is not the result of physical  birth.
>
>Thanks in advance.
>
>Regards,
>S.  Palaniappan
>
>
>