History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c19.153

v2.c19.153

According to Manu¹⁵² X. 64 when a brāhmaṇa marries a śūdra woman, the daughter born is pāraśava, and if this pāraśava daughter marries a brāhmaṇa and the daughter of this latter union marries a brāhmaṇa and this continues for seven generations, then the seventh generation will be a brāhmaṇa (i. e. there will be jātyutkarṣa). Conversely, if a brāhmaṇa marries a śūdra woman and a son is born, he is a pāraśava and that son marries a śūdra woman and their son again marries a śūdra woman and this goes on for 7 generations, the 7th generation becomes a mere śūdra (there is jātyapakarṣa). It will be seen that this differs from Gautama in several respects. In the first place for both jātyutkarṣa and jātyapakarṣa seven generations are prescribed, while in Gautama they are 7 and 5 respectively (according to Haradatta). In the second place according to Gautama the 8th in descent from the first anuloma marriage secures jātyutkarṣa, while according to Manu, the 7th secures it. Further Manu is silent about jātyutkarṣa when the original parents are anulomas. Besides, the commentators of Manu shorten the period for rise or fall in *jāti* as stated below. Manu X. 65 extends the same rules to the offspring of the marriage of a kṣatriya with a vaiśya woman and of a vaiśya with a śūdra woman. Medhātithi and Kullūka extend these express words of Manu further by explaining that if a brāhmaṇa marries a vaiśya female and a daughter is born and she again marries a brāhmaṇa then in the fifth generation there will be jātyutkarṣa; conversely if a son is born from a brāhmaṇa and a vaiśya wife, and he marries a vaiśya female and this goes on, then in the fifth generation the son will be a vaiśya (i. e. there will be jātyapakarṣa). Similarly if a brāhmaṇa marries a kṣatriya woman then there is jātyutkarṣa or jātyapakarṣa in three generations.