Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 9.6.2

rathītarasyāprajasya

bhāryāyāḿ tantave 'rthitaḥ

ańgirā janayām āsa

brahma-varcasvinaḥ sutān

SYNONYMS

rathītarasya — of Rathītara; aprajasya — who had no sons; bhāryāyām — unto his wife; tantave — for increasing offspring; arthitaḥ — being requested; ańgirāḥ — the great sage Ańgirā; janayām āsa — caused to take birth; brahma-varcasvinaḥ — who had brahminical qualities; sutān — sons.

TRANSLATION

Rathītara had no sons, and therefore he requested the great sage Ańgirā to beget sons for him. Because of this request, Ańgirā begot sons in the womb of Rathītara's wife. All these sons were born with brahminical prowess.

PURPORT

In the Vedic age a man was sometimes called upon to beget sons in the womb of a lesser man's wife for the sake of better progeny. In such an instance, the woman is compared to an agricultural field. A person possessing an agricultural field may employ another person to produce food grains from it, but because the grains are produced from the land, they are considered the property of the owner of the land. Similarly, a woman was sometimes allowed to be impregnated by someone other than her husband, but the sons born of her would then become her husband's sons. Such sons were called kṣetra jāta. Because Rathītara had no sons, he took advantage of this method.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness