History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c93.476

v7.c93.476

Another rule about words is evolved by what is called 'niṣādasthapatinyāya' (PMS VI. I. 51-52). ²¹²¹ It is stated that the *Iṣṭi* in which an offering of boiled rice is made to Rudra is one that should be performed for niṣāda-sthapati. A niṣāda is a person born of a brāhmaṇa father and śūdra mother (vide Manu X. 8). He does not belong to one of the three higher varṇas. Sthapati means 'chief or leader'. The question whether the compound word means 'a niṣāda who is a chief (that is a karmadhāraya compound) or whether it means 'the ruler of niṣādas' who may not necessarily be a niṣāda himself but may be a kṣatriya (i. e. whether one should take the word as 'ṣaṣṭhī-tatpuruṣa' as 'niṣādānām sthapatiḥ') The conclusion is that a karmadhāraya is more powerful than a tatpuruṣa, since in the former both the words may be directly connected with the verb (niṣādaścāsau sthapatiśca, tam yājayet). The V. M. makes use of this 'maxim'. The Śaunaka-smṛti authorizes śūdras to adopt a son, yet some writers like Rudradhara, author of Śuddhiviveka, held that adoption required a homa with mantras and as a śūdra could not repeat vedic mantras he could not adopt. To this V. M. replies that his power to adopt a son being established by Śaunaka's smṛti all that is required is that he may get the homa performed through a brāhmaṇa. The Bhāmatī on Śaṅkara's bhāṣya on V. S. I. 3. 15, where the meaning of the word 'brahmaloka' in Chāndogya-Up. VIII 3. 2 is in question, says that the niṣādasthapatinẏāya applies and so 'brahmaloka' means 'brahma as the goal' and not 'the world of brahma.' Manu XI. 54 enumerates five Mahāpātakas (deadly sins), one of which is 'gurvaṅganāgama' (sexual intercourse with gurvaṅganā). Commentators have differed about the meaning of this word, some like Bhavadeva in Prāyaścittaprakaraṇa stating that, following niṣādasthapatinẏāya, the word must be dissolved as a Karmadhāraya compound (guruḥ or gurvī cāsau aṅganā ca), the meaning being one's own mother, while many others dissolve it as a tatpuruṣa compound meaning 'guror or gurūṇām aṅganā' (which would then .include a step-mother, an elder brother's wife and teacher's wife &c.). Vide H. of Dh. vol. III. pp. 23-25 for a discussion of this.