CHAP.

105. AJI'GARTA, dying with hunger, was going to 'destroy his own son (named SU'NAH-S'E'P'HA) by selling him for some cattle; yet he was guilty of no crime, since he only sought a remedy against famishing:

106. VA'MADE'VA, who well knew right and wrong, was by no means rendered impure, though desirous, 'when oppressed with hunger, of eating the flesh of dogs for the preservation of his life:

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107. BHARADWA'JA, eminent in devotion, when he and his son were almost starved in a dreary forest, accepted several cows from the carpenter VRIDHU :

108. VISWA'MITRA too, than whom none better knew the distinctions between virtue and vice, re'solved, when he was perishing with hunger, to eat 'the haunch of a dog, which he had received from a Chandála.

109.

Among the acts generally disapproved, namely, accepting presents from low men, assisting them to sacrifice, and explaining the scripture to them, the receipt of presents is the meanest in this world, and 'the most blamed in a Bráhmen after his present

• life;

110.

Because assisting to sacrifice and explaining the scripture are are two acts always performed for those, whose minds have been improved by the 'sacred initiation; but gifts are also received from a servile man of the lowest class.

111. The

111. The guilt, incurred by assisting low men to CHAP. sacrifice and by teaching them the scripture, is re- X. 'moved by repetitions of the gáyatrì and oblations to

fire; but that, incurred by accepting gifts from them, ' is expiated only by abandoning the gifts and by rigorous devotion.

112. It were better for a Bráhmen, who could not 'maintain himself, to glean ears and grains after harvest from the field of any person whatever: gleaning 'whole ears would be better than accepting a present, and picking up single grains would be still more ' laudable.

113. Bráhmens, who keep house, and are in want of any metals except gold and silver, or of other arti'cles for good uses, may ask the king for them, if he 'be of the military class; but a king, known to be avaricious and unwilling to give, must not be solicited.

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114. The foremost, in order, of these things may 'be received more innocently than that, which follows it a field untilled, a tilled field, cows, goats, sheep, precious metals or gems, new grain, dressed grain. 115. THERE are seven virtuous means of acquiring property; succession, occupancy or donation, and purchase or exchange, which are allowed to all classes; conquest, which is peculiar to the military class; lending at interest, husbandry or commerce, which belong to the mercantile class; and acceptance ' of presents, by the sacerdotal class, from respectable

CHAP.

X.

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116. Learning, except that contained in the scriptures, art, as mixing perfumes and the like, work for wages, menial service, attendance on cattle, traffick, agriculture, content with little, alms, and receiving high interest on money, are ten modes of subsistence in times of distress.

117. Neither a priest nor a military man, though 'distressed, must receive interest on loans, but each ' of them, if he please, may pay the small interest permitted by law, on borrowing for some pious use, 'to the sinful man, who demands it.

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118. A MILITARY king, who takes even a fourth part of the crops of his realm at a time of urgent necessity, as of war or invasion, and protects his 'people to the utmost of his power, commits no

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'sin :

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119. His peculiar duty is conquest, and he must not recede from battle; so that, while he defends

by his arms the merchant and husbandman, he may levy the legal tax as the price of protection.

120. The tax on the mercantile class, which in times of prosperity must be only a twelfth part of their crops, and a fiftieth of their personal profits, may be an eighth of their crops in a time of distress, or a sixth, which is the medium, or even a fourth in great publick adversity; but a twentieth ' of their gains on money, and other moveables, is the highest tax serving men, artisans, and mechanicks must assist by their labour, but at no time pay taxes. 121. IF

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X.

121. IF a Súdra want a subsistence and cannot CHAP. attend a priest, he may serve a Cshatriya; or, if he 'cannot wait on a soldier by birth, he may gain his livelihood by serving an opulent Vaisya.

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122. To him, who serves Bráhmens with a view to a heavenly reward, or even with a view to both this life and the next, the union of the word Bráhmen with his name of servant will assuredly bring

success.

123. Attendance on Bráhmens is pronounced the best work of a Súdra: whatever else he may perform will comparatively avail him nothing.

124.

They must allot him a fit maintenance according to their own circumstances, after considering his ability, his exertions, and the number of those, 'whom he must provide with nourishment :

125. What remains of their dressed rice must be given to him; and apparel which they have worn, ' and the refuse of their grain, and their old house' hold furniture.

126. THERE is no guilt in a man of the servile class who eats leeks and other forbidden vegetables: he must not have the sacred investiture: he has no 'business with the duty of making oblations to fire and the like; but there is no prohibition against his offering dressed grain as a sacrifice, by way of discharging his own duty.

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CHAP.

X.

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'their entire duty, and, knowing what they should perform, imitate the practice of good men in the 'household sacraments, but without any holy text, except those containing praise and salutation, are SO far from sinning, that they acquire just applause :

128. As a Súdra, without injuring another man, performs the lawful acts of the twice-born, even thus, without being censured, he gains exaltation in this world and in the next.

129. No superfluous collection of wealth must be made by a Súdra, even though he has power to make it, since a servile man, who has amassed ' riches, becomes proud, and, by his insolence or neglect, gives pain even to Bráhmens.

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130. SUCH, as have been fully declared, are the ⚫ several duties of the four classes in distress for subsistence; and, if they perform them exactly, they 'shall attain the highest beatitude.

131. Thus has been propounded the system of duties, religious and civil, ordained for all classes: 1 next will declare the pure law of expiation for 'sin.'

CHAP.