CHAPTER X.

ON THE MIXED CLASSES ; AND ON TIMES OF DISTRESS.

1. LET the three twice-born classes, remaining firm in their several duties, carefully read the Véda; but a Bráhmen must explain it to them, not a man of the other two classes: this is an established rule.

2. The Bráhmen must know the means of subsistence ordained by law for all the classes, and must declare them to the rest let himself likewise act in conformity to law.

3. From priority of birth, from superiority of origin, from a more exact knowledge of scripture, and from a distinction in the sacrificial thread, the Bráhmen is the lord of all classes.

4. The three twice-born classes are the sacerdotal, the military, and the commercial; but the fourth, or servile, is once-born, that is, has no second birth from the gáyatrí, and wears no thread: nor is there a fifth pure class.

5. In all classes they, and they only, who are born, in a direct order, of wives equal in class and virgins at the time of marriage, are to be considered as the same in class with their fathers:

6. Sons, begotten by twice-born men, on women of the class next immediately below them, wise legislators call similar, not the same, in class with their parents, because they are degraded, to a middle rank between both, by the lowness of their mothers: they are named in order, Múrdhábhishicta, Máhishya, and Carana, or Cáyast'ha; and their several employments are teaching military exercises; musick, astronomy, and keeping herds; and attendance on princes.

7. Such is the primeval rule for the sons of women one

degree lower than their husbands: for the sons of women two or three degrees lower, let this rule of law be known.

8. From a Bráhmen, on a wife of the Vaisya-class, is born a son called Ambasht'ha, or Vaidya, on a Súdrà-wife a Nisháda, named also Párasava:

9. From a Cshatriya, on a wife of the Súdra-class, springs a creature, called Ugra, with a nature partly warlike and partly servile, ferocious in his manners, cruel in his acts.

10. The sons of a Bráhmen by women of three lower classes, of a Cshatriya by women of two, and of a Vaisya by one lower class, are called Apasadáh, or degraded below their fathers.

11. From a Cshatriya, by a Bráhmenì-wife, springs a Súta by birth; from a Vaisya, by a military or sacerdotal wife, spring a Mágadha and a Vaidéha.

12. From a Súdra, on women of the commercial, military, and priestly classes, are born sons of a mixed breed, called A'yógava, Cshattri, and Chandála, the lowest of mortals.

13. As the Ambasht'ha and Ugra, born in a direct order, with one class between those of their parents, are considered in law, so are the Cshattri, and the Vaidéha, born in an inverse order with one intermediate class; and all four may be touched without impurity.

14. Those sons of the twice-born, who are begotten on women without an interval (Antara) between the classes mentioned in order, the wise call Anantaras, giving them a distinct name from the lower degree of their mothers.

15. From a Bráhmen, by a girl of the Ugra-tribe, is born an A'vrita; by one of the Ambast'ha-tribe, an A'bhíra; by one of the A'yógava-tribe, a Dhigvana.

16. The Ayogava, the Cshattre, and the Chandála, the lowest of men, spring from a Súdra in an inverse order of the classes, and are therefore, all three excluded from the performance of obsequies to their ancestors:

17. From a Vaisya the Mágadha and Vaidéha, from a Cshatriya the Súta only, are born in an inverse order; and they are three other sons excluded from funeral rites to their fathers.

18. The son of a Nisháda by a woman of the Súdra

class, is by tribe a Puccasa; but the son of a Súdra by a Nishadi-woman, is named Cuccutaca.

19. One, born of a Cshattri by an Ugrá, is called Swapáca; and one, begotten by a Vaidéha on an Ambashthiwife, is called Véna.

20. Those, whom the twice-born beget on women of equal classes, but who perform not the proper ceremonies of assuming the thread, and the like, people denominate Vrátyas, or excluded from the gáyatrì.

21. From such an outcast Bráhmen springs a son of a sinful nature, who in different countries is named a Bhurjacantaca, an A'vantya, a Vátadhána, a Pushpadha and a Saic'ha:

22. From such an outcast Cshatriya comes a son called a J'halla, a Malla, a Nich'hivi, a Nata, a Carana, a C'hasa, and a Dravira:

23. From such an outcast Vaisya is born a son called Sudhanwan, Chárya, Cárusha, Vijanman, Maitra, and Sátwata.

24. By intermixtures of the classes, by their marriages with women who ought not to be married, and by their omission of prescribed duties, impure classes have been formed.

25. THOSE men of mingled births, who were born in the inverse order of classes, and who intermarry among themselves, I will now compendiously describe.

26. The Súta, the Vaideha, and the Chandála, that lowest of mortals, the Mágadha, the Cshattri by tribe, and the A'yógava.

27. These six beget similar sons on women of their own classes, or on women of the same class with their mothers; and they produce the like from women of the two highest classes, and of the lowest :

28. As a twice-born son may spring from a Bráhmen by women of two classes out of three, a similar son, when there is no interval, and an equal son from a woman of his own class, it is thus in the case of the low tribes in order.

29. Those six beget, on women of their own tribes,

reciprocally, very many despicable and abject races even more foul than their begetters.

30. Even as a Súdra begets, on a Bráhmenì-woman, a son more vile than himself, thus any other low man begets, on women of the four classes, a son yet lower.

31. The six low classes, marrying inversely, beget fifteen yet lower tribes, the base producing still baser; and in a direct order they produce fifteen more.

32. A Dasyu, or outcast of any pure class, begets on an A'yógavì-woman a Sairindhra, who should know how to attend and to dress his master; though not a slave, he must live by slavish work, and may also gain subsistence by catching wild beasts in toils:

33. A Vaidéha begets on her a sweet-voiced Maitréyaca, who, ringing a bell at the appearance of dawn, continually praises great men :

34. A Nisháda begets on her a Márgava, or Dása, who subsists by his labour in boats, and is named Caiverta by those who dwell in A'ryáverta, or the land of the venerable.

35. Those three of a base tribe are severally begotten on A'yógavi-women, who wear the clothes of the deceased and eat reprehensible food.

36. From a Nisháda springs by a woman of the Vaidéhatribe, a Cárávara, who cuts leather, and from a Vaidéha spring by women of the Cárávara and Nisháda-casts, an Andhra and a Méda, who must live without the town.

37. From a Chandála by a Vaidéhì-woman, comes a Pándusópáca, who works with cane and reeds; and from a Nisháda, an Ahindica, who acts as a jailor.

38. From a Chandála, by a Puccasi-woman, is born a Sópáca, who lives by punishing criminals condemned by the king, a sinful wretch ever despised by the virtuous.

39. A Nishadi-woman, by a Chandála, produces a son called Antyávasáyin, employed in places for burning the dead, contemned even by the contemptible.

40. These, among various mixed classes, have been described by their several fathers and mothers; and, whether concealed or open, they may be known by their occupations.

41. Six sons, three begotten on women of the same class, and three on women of lower classes, must perform the duties of twice-born men; but those, who are born in an inverse order, and called low-born, are equal, in respect of duty, to mere Súdras.

42. By the force of extreme devotion and of exalted fathers, all of them may rise in time to high birth, as by the reverse they may sink to a lower state, in every age among mortals in this inferiour world.

43. THE following races of Cshatriyas, by their omission of holy rites and by seeing no Bráhmens, have gradually sunk among men, to the lowest of the four classes:

44. Paund' racas, Odras, and Draviras; Cámbójas, Yavanas, and Sacas; Páradas, Pahlavas, Chínas, Cirátas, Deradas, and C' hasas;

45. All those tribes of men, who sprang from the mouth, the arm, the thigh, and the foot of BRAHMA', but who became outcasts by having neglected their duties, are called Dasyus, or plunderers, whether they speak the language of Mléchch' has, or that of Aʼryas.

46. THOSE Sons of the twice-born, who are said to be degraded, and who are considered as low-born, shall subsist only by such employments, as the twice-born despise.

47. Sútas must live by managing horses and by driving cars; Ambasht' has, by curing disorders; Vaidehas, by waiting on women; Mágadhas, by travelling with merchandize;

48. Nishádas, by catching fish; an A'yógava, by the work of a carpenter; a Méda, an Andhra, and (the sons of a Bráhmen by wives of the Vaidéha and Ugra-classes, respectively called) a Chunchu and a Madgu, by slaying beasts of the forest;

49. A Cshattri, an Ugra, and a Puccasa, by killing or confining such animals as live in holes: Dhiguanas, by selling leather; Vénas, by striking musical instruments :

50. Near large publick trees, in places for burning the dead, on mountains, and in groves, let those tribes dwell, generally known, and engaged in their several works.

51. THE abode of a Chandála and a Swapáca must be