The son
thus born is incapable of concealing the evidences that physiognomy
offers. He is at once known by eyesight (to belong to another).[304] As
regards the son made, he is sometimes regarded as the child of the person
who has made him a son and so brings him up. In his case, neither the
vital seed of which he is born nor the soil in which he is born, becomes
the cause of sonship.'
"Yudhishthira said, 'What kind of a son is that who is said to be a made
son and whose sonship arises from the fact of his being taken and brought
up and in whose case neither the vital seed nor the soil of birth, O
Bharata, is regarded as the cause of sonship?'
"Bhishma said, 'When a person takes up and rears a son that has been cast
off on the road by his father and mother, and when the person thus taking
and rearing him fails to find out his parents after search, he becomes
the father of such a son and the latter becomes what is called his made
son. Not having anybody to own him, he becomes owned by him who brings
him up. Such a son, again, comes to be regarded as belonging to that
order to which his owner or rearer belongs.'
"Yudhishthira said, How should the purificatory rites of such a person be
performed? In whose case what sort of rites are to be performed? With
what girl should he be wedded? Do thou tell me all this, O grandsire!"
"Bhishma said, 'The rites of purification touching such a son should be
performed conformably to the usage of the person himself that raises him,
for, cast off by his parents, such a son obtains the order of the person
that takes him and brings him up.
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