Vajrasuci (Siddhacarya Ghoshapada) 19

19

(na) tasmānna jātirna jīvo na śarīraṃ na jñānaṃ nācāro na karma na vedo
brāhmaṇa iti
(pa) anyacca bhavatoktam-‘iha śūdrāṇāṃ pravrajyā na vidhīyate
brāhmaṇaśuśrūṣaiva teṣāṃ dharmo vidhīyate | caturṣu varṇeṣvante vacanātte nīcā’
iti
(pha) yadyevamindro'pi nīcaḥ syāt | ‘śvayuvamaghonāmataddhite61’ iti
sūtravacanāt | śvā iti kukkuraḥ | yuvā iti puruṣaḥ | maghavā iti surendraḥ
tayoḥ śvapuruṣayorindra eva nīcaḥ syāt | na caitad dṛṣṭaṃ62 kiṃ hi vacanamātreṇa
doṣo bhavati | tathā ca | umāmaheśvarau | dantauṣṭhamityapi loke prayujyate | na ca
dantāḥ prāgutpannā umā63 vā| kevalaṃ varṇasamāsamātraṃ kriyate
brahmakṣatraviṭśūdrā64 iti | tasmādyā bhavadīya65–pratijñā ‘brāhmaṇaśuśrūṣaiva teṣāṃ
dharmaḥ’ [sā] na bhavati
(ba) kiṃ cāniścito'yaṃ brāhmaṇaprasaṅgaḥ
uktaṃ hi mānave66 dharme67–
vṛṣalīphenapītasya niḥśvāsopahatasya ca
tatraiva ca prasūtasya niṣkṛtirnopalabhyate

(na) Therefore, neither birth, nor the soul, nor the body, nor knowledge, nor conduct, nor action, nor the Veda constitutes a brāhmaṇa.
(pa) Moreover, you have said: “Here, renunciation is not prescribed for śūdras;
service to brāhmaṇas alone is prescribed as their duty. Because they are mentioned at the end among the four classes, they are low.”
(pha) If that were so, then Indra also would be low, by virtue of the grammatical rule, “śvayuvamaghonāmataddhite” [Pāṇini 6.4.133]. ‘Śvā’ means dog; ‘yuvā’ means young man; ‘maghavā’ means Indra, king of the gods.
Compared to those two—the dog and the man—Indra alone would be low! But this is not observed. Does a defect arise merely from the order of words? And likewise, “Umā and Maheśvara,” or “teeth and lip,” are expressions used in common parlance; neither were the teeth born first, nor Umā.
It is simply a compound of the classes that is formed: “brāhmaṇas, kṣatriyas, vaiśyas, and śūdras.” Therefore, your proposition that “service to brāhmaṇas alone is their duty” is invalid.
(ba) Furthermore, this matter of being a brāhmaṇa is indeterminate.
For it is stated in the Law of Manu:
For one who has drunk the saliva of a śūdra woman, who has been tainted by her breath,
and who has fathered a child upon her, no expiation is found.