पञ्चवर्णाःThe five classes
Verse 4
श्रीसदाशिव उवाच । चत्वारः कथिता वर्णा आश्रमा अपि सुव्रते । आचाराश्चापि वर्णानामाश्रमाणां पृथक् पृथक् ॥ ४ ॥
śrīsadāśiva uvāca | catvāraḥ kathitā varṇā āśramā api suvratē | ācārāścāpi varṇānāmāśramāṇāṁ pṛthak pṛthak || 4 ||
Translation
Sadāśiva said: Four classes were told, O you of good vows, and the stages of life too, and the conduct of the classes and of the stages, each apart.
Word by word
- catvāraḥ
- four
- kathitā
- (kathitāḥ) were told
- varṇā
- (varṇāḥ) classes
- āśramā
- (āśramāḥ) stages of life
- api
- also
- suvratē
- O you of good vows
- ācārāḥ
- the kinds of conduct
- ca
- and
- varṇānām
- (varṇānām) of the classes
- āśramāṇāṁ
- of the stages of life
- pṛthak
- each apart
Meaning
Śiva begins with the older order. In the earlier ages, the commentary says, Kṛta (Satya) and Tretā, the varṇas were four and the āśramas four, and each had its own rules of conduct. "Were told" points to the Veda and the law-books (smṛti), where that fourfold scheme is set out. The verse is the first half of a contrast that the next verse completes: what held in the earlier ages does not hold unchanged now.
Commentary
Hariharānanda Bhāratī’s Sanskrit commentary, translated
Thus urged, Śrī Sadāśiva spoke, beginning "catvāraḥ…". O Suvratā (you of good vows), in the Kṛta age and the rest (Kṛta and Tretā), the varṇas are told as four and the āśramas also as four; and the conduct of the varṇas and of the āśramas is told each apart. But in the Kali age the varṇas are declared to be five: he shows them in the half-verse beginning "brāhmaṇa…". Sāmānya: the mixed caste (varṇa-saṅkara). (This explanation covers verses 4 and 5.)