Chapter 10: On the Mixed Classes; and on Times of Distress

1. 1 ^|ET the three twice-born classes, remaining firm in *** their several duties, carefully read the Vida ; but a Brdkmen must explain it to them, not « man of the other two classes : this is an established rule.

2. ‘ The Brdkmen must know the means of subsistence ordained by law for all the classes, and must declare thcTn 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 Brdkmen is the lord of all classes.

4. ‘ The three twice-born classes arc the sacerdotal, the military, and the commercial ; but the fourth, or servile, is once-born, that is, has no second birth from the gayatri, 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 arc named in order \ Mardhabhishicta, Mahishya, and Carana, or Cayast’ha ; and their several employments are teaching military exercises ; music \ 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 ofdaw be known.

8. * From a Brdkmen on a wife of the Vaisya class, is born a son called Ambasht'ha or Vaidya , on a Sudra wife a Niskdda, named also pdrasava : g. ‘ From a Cskatriya, , on a wife of the Sudra 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 Brdhmett by women of three lower classes, of a Cskatriya by women of two, and of a Vaisya by one lower class, are called apasaddh, or degraded below their fathers .

11. ‘ From a Cskatriya, by a Brdhmeni wife, springs a Suta by birth ; from a Vaisya , by a military or sacerdotal wife, spring a Mdgadha and a Vaiddha. 1 2. ^ ‘ From a on women of the commercial, military, and priestly classes, are born sons of a mixed breed, called A'ydgava, Cshattri , and Chanddla, the lowest of mortals. ■

13. ‘As the Ambasht'ha and Ugra, born in a direct order with one class between those of thtir parents , are considered in law, so are the Cshattri and the Vaidelia , 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 Brdhmen, by a girl of the Ugra tribe, is born an A'vrita; by one of the A'mbasht'ha tribe, an A'bhira; by one of the A yogava tribe, a Dhigvana.

16. * A'ydgava, the Cshattri \ and the Chanddla , the lowest of men, spring from a Sudra 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 Mdgadha and Vaidtha , from a Cskatriya the Silta only, are born in an inverse order; and th^y are three other sons excluded from funeral rites to their fathers. 1 8. ‘ The son of a Nishdda, by a woman of the Sudra class, is by tribe a Puccasa ; but the ^bn of a Sudra by a Nishddi woman, is named Cuccutaca ,

19. 4 One, born of a Vshattri by an Ugra, is called Swapdca ; and one, begotten by a Vaiddha on an Ambashthi wife, is called Vdna.

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 Vrdttas , or excluded from the gdyatri.

21. 4 From such an outcast Brdhmcn springs a son of a sinful nature, who in different countries is named a Bhdrjacantaca , an Avantya , a Vatadhana , a Pushpadha , and a Said ha : • 22. 4 From such an outcast Cshatriya comes a son called a F'halla, a Malta , a Nich'hivi , a Nat a, a Car ana, a Chasa , and a Dravira :

23. ‘ From such an outcast Vaisya is born a son called Sudhanwan , Chdrya , Cdrusha , Vijanman , Maitra , and Satwata .

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. 4 Those men of mingled births, who were born in the inverse order of classes, and who intermarry among themselves, 1 will now compendiously desccribe.

26. 4 The Siita, the Vaiddha , and the Chanddla , that lowest of mortals, the Mdgadha, the Cshattrl by tribe, and the Ayogava,

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. 4 As a twice-born son may spring from a Brdhnien 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. ' 20 ‘ Those six beget, on women of their own tribes, reciprocally, very many despicable and abject races even more foul than their begetters.

30. 4 Even as Stidra begets, on d Brdhmenl woman, a son more vile than himself, thus any other low man begets, on woman 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 DasyHy or outcast of any pure class, begets on an Ayogavl woman a Sirindhra , 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 Vautiha begets on her a sweet- voiced Maitrfyaca , who, ringing a bell at the appearance of dawn, continually praises great ' men : «

34. ‘ A Nishdda begets on her a Mdrgava , or Ddsa, who subsists by his labour in boats, and is named Caiverta by those, who dwell in A’rydverta , or the land of the venerable.

35. * Those three of a base tribe are severally begotten on Aydgavi women, who wear the clothes of the deceased and eat reprehensible food.

36. ‘From a Nishdda springs by a woman of the Vaideha tribe y a Cdrdvara, who cuts leather, and from a V aide ha spring by women of the Cara vara and Nishada casts , an Andhra and a Mida who must live without the town.

37. ‘ From a Chanddla, by a Vaidtht woman, comes a Pdndusopdea , who works with cane and reeds ; and from a Nishdda , an Ahindica , who acts as a jailor.

38. ‘ From a Chanddlay by a Puccasi woman, is born a S6pdca% who lives by punishing criminals condemned by the king, a sinful wretch ever despised by the virtuous.

39. ‘ A Nishddl woman, by a Chanddla , produces a son called Antyavasayiny employed in places for burning the dead, contemned even by the contemptible. ^ id

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, ON TIMES OE DISTRESS. and three on women of lower classes, must perform the duties of twice-born men ; but those, who arc born in an inverse order , and called low-born, are equal, in respect of duty, to mere Stidras.

42. 1 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 inferior world. 43- ‘ The following races of Cshatriyas , by their omission of holy rites and by seeing no Brdkmens , have gradually sunk among men to the lowest of the four classes : 44- ‘ Paund'racas , Odras, and Draviras ; Cdmbojas , Yavanas, and Sacas ; Paradas , Paklavas , Chinas , Cirdtas, Deradas , and Chasas .

45. 4 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 ditties, are called Dasyus , or plunderers , whether they speak the language of Mlechctihas , or that of A'ryas.

46. 4 Those sons of the twice-born, who arc said to be degraded, and who are considered as low-born, shall subsist only by such employments, as the twice-born despise.

47. 4 Sutas must live by managing horses and by driving cars ; A mbasht' has, by curing disorders ; vftidc'has, by waiting on women ; Mdgadhas , by travelling with merchandize ;

48. 4 Nishddas , by catching fish ; an A'yogava , by the work of a carpenter ; a Mtda an Andhra , and (the sons of a Bidhnien by wives of the VaidJha and Ugra classes, respectively called) a Chunchu and a Madgu , by slaying beasts of the forest ;

49. 4 Cshattrl , an Ugra , and a Puccasa , by killing or confining such animals as live in holes : Dhigvanas , by selling leather ; VJ/tas, by striking musical instruments :

50. 4 Near large public 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 Chanddla and a Swapdfa must be out of the town ; they must not have the use of entire vessels ; their sole wealth must be dogs and asses :

52. * Their clothes must be the mantles of the deceased ; their dishes for food, broken pots ; their ornaments, rusty iron ; continually must they roam from place to place :

53. ‘Let no man, who regards his duty religious and civil, hold any intercourse with them ; let their transactions be confined to themselves, and their marriages only between equals : 54* ‘ Let food be given to them in potsherds, but not by the hands of the giver ; and let them not walk by night in cities or towns :

55. ‘By day they may walk about for the purpose of work, distinguished by the king’s badges ; and they shall carry out the corpse of every one, who dies without kindred: such is the fixed rule. • *

56. ‘They shall always kill those, who are to be slain by the sentence of the law, and by the royal warrant ; and let them take the clothes of the slain, their beds, and their ornaments.

57. ‘ Him, who was born of a sinful mother, and consequently in a low class, but is not openly known, who, though worthless in truth, bears the semblance of a worthy man, let people discover by his acts :

58. ‘ Want of virtuous dignity, harshness of speech, cruelty, and habitual neglect of prescribed duties, betray in this world the son of a criminal mother.

59. ‘ Whether a man of debased birth assume the character of his father or of his mother, he can at no time conceal his origin :

60. ‘ He, whose family had been exalted, but whose parents were criminal in marrying, has a base nature, according as the ' offence of his mother was great or small.

61. ‘In whatever country such men are born, as destroy the purity of the four classes, that country soon perishes together with the natives of it. ^ 'j

62. ‘ Desertion of life, without reward, for the sake of preserving a priest or a cow, a woman* or a child, may cause the beatitude of those baseborn tribes. #

63. ‘ Avoiding all injury to animated beingsi veracity, abstiON TIMES OF DISTRESS. nence from theft, and from unjust seizure of property , cleanliness, and command over the bodily organs, form the compendious system of duty, which MENU has ordained for the four classes.

64. 1 SHOULD the tribe sprung from a Brdhmen , by a Sudra woman, produce a succession of children by the marriages of its women with other Brdhmens , the low tribe shall be raised to the highest In the seventh generation.

65. 4 As the son of a Sudra may thus attain the rank of a Brdhmen , and as the son of a Brdhmen may sink to a level with Siidra, even so must it be with him, who springs from a Cshatnya ; "even so with him, who was born of a Vaisya.

66. 1 If there bfe a doubt, as to the preference between him, who was begotten by a Brdhmen for his pleasure, but not in wedlock, on a Sudra woman, and him, who was begotten by a Sudra on a Brdhmenl ,

67. ‘ Thus is it removed : he, who was begotten by an exalted man on a base woman, may by his good acts become respectable ; but he, who was begotten on an exalted woman by a base man, must himself continue base :

68. ‘ Neither of the two (as the law is fixed) shall be girt with a sacred string ; not the former, because his mother was low ; nor the second, because the order of the classes was inverted.

69. * As good grain, springing from good soil, is in all respects excellent, thus a man, springing from a respectable father by a respectable mother, has a claim to the whole institution of the twice-born.

70. * Some sages give a preference to the grain ; other to the field ; and others consider both field and grain ; on this point the decision follows :

71. ‘ Grain, cast into b&d ground, wholly perishes, and a good fielcl with no grain sown in it, is a mere heap of clods ,

72. ‘ But since, by the virtue of eminent fathers, even the sons of wild animal#rtf Rishyasringa, and others , have been transformed into holy men revered and extolled, the paternal side, therefore, prevails.

73. ‘ Brahma' himself, having compared a StZdra , who performs the duties of the twice-born, with a twice-born man, who does the acts of a Sudra, said : “ Those two are neither equal nor unequal,” that is, they are neither equal in rank , nor unequal in bad conduct .

74. 1 Let such Brdhmens as are intent on the means of attaining the supreme godhead, and firm in their own duties, completely perform in order, the six following acts :

75. c Reading the VJdas, and teaching others to read them, sacrificing, and assisting others to sacrifice, giving to the poor , if themselves have enough , and accepting gifts from the virtuous , if themselves are poor , are the six prescribed .acts of the first born class ;

76. ‘But, among those six acts of a Brahmen, three are his means of subsistence; assisting to sacrifice, teaching the Vedas , and receiving gifts from a pure-handed giver.

77. ‘ Three acts of duty cease with the Brahmen , and belong not to the Cshatriya ; teaching the Vc'das, officiating at a sacrifice, and, thridly, receiving presents :

78. ‘ Those three are also (by the fixed rule of law) forbidden to the Vaisya ; since MENU, the lord of all men, prescribed not those acts to the two classes , military and commercial \

79. ‘ The means of subsistence, peculiar to the Cshatriya , are bearing arms, either held for striking or missile ; to the Vaisya , merchandize, attending on cattle, and agriculture : but with a view to the next life the duties of both are almsgiving, reading, sacrificing. •

80. ‘ Among the several occupations for gaining a livelihood the most commendable respectively for the sacerdotal, military, and mercantile classes, are teaching the Veda, defending the people, and commerce or keeping herds and flocks. 8 r. ‘ Yet a Brdhmen , unable to subsist by his duties just mentioned, may live by the duty of a soldier ; for that is the next in rank. £

82. ‘ If it be asked, hoi^ he must live, should he be unable to get a subsistence by either of those employments ; the answer is, ON TIMES OF DISTRESS. 229 he may subsist as a mercantile man, applying himself in person to tillage and attendance on cattle :

83. ‘ But a Brdhnun and a Cshatriya , obliged to subsist by the acts of a’ Vaisya , must avoid with care, if they can live by keeping herds , the business of tillage, which gives great pain to sentient creatures , and is dependant on the labour of others, as bulls and so forth.

84. ‘Some are of opinion, that agriculture is excellent ; but it is a mode of subsistence, which the benevolent greatly blame ; for the iron-mouthed pieces of wood not only wound the earth, but •the creatures dwelling in it.

85. 4 If, through want of a virtuous livelihood, the/ cannot follow laudable occupations, they may then gain a competence of wealth by selling commodities usually sold by merchants, avoiding what ought to be avoided :

86. ‘They must avoid selling liquids of all sorts, dressed grain, seeds of tila, stones, salt, cattle, and human creatures ;

87. ‘All woven cloth dyed red, cloth made of Sana of eshumd bark, and of wool, even though not red ; fruit, roots, and medicinal plants ;

88. ‘ Water, iron, poison, fleshmeat, the moonplant, and perfumes of any sort ; milk, honey, buttermilk, clarified butter, oil of tila, wax, sugar, and blades of cus'a-gvass ;

89. ‘ All beasts of the forest, as deer and the like ; ravenous beasts, birds, and fsh}' spirituous liquors, nUit or indigo, and Idcshd , or lac ; and all beasts with uncloven hoofs.

90. * But the Btdhmen husbandman may at pleasure sell pure tila seeds for the ptirpose of holy rites, if he keep them not long with a hope of more gain, anct shall have produced them by his own culture :

91. ‘ If he apply seeds of tila to any purpose but food, anointing, and sacred oblations, he shall be plunged, in the shape of a worm, together with his parents, into the ordure of dogs.

92. * By sc J ling fleshmeat, Idcshd , or salt, a Brahmen im230 ON THE MIXED CLASSES ; AND mediately sinks low ; by selling milk three days, he falls to a level with a Sudra ;

93. * And by selling the other forbidden commodities with his own free will, he assumes in this world, after seven nights, the nature of a mere Vaisya .

94. ‘ Fluid things may, however, be bartered for other fluids, but not salt for any thing liquid ; so may dressed grain for grain undressed, and tila seeds for grain in the husk, equal weights or measures being given and taken.

95. * A MILITARY man, in distress, may subsist by all these means, but at no time must he have recourse to the highest, or sacerdotal \ function.

96. * A man of lowest class, who, through covetousness, lives by the acts of the highest, let the king strip of all his wealth and instantly banish :

97. 1 His own office, though defectively performed, is preferable to that of another, though performed completely ; for he, who without necessity discharges the duties of another class, immediately forfeits his own.

98. ‘ A MERCANTILE man, unable to subsist by his own duties, may descend even to the servile acts of a Sitdra , taking care never to do what ought never to be done; but, when he has gained a competence, let him depart from service.

99. ‘ A MAN of the fourth class, not finding employment by waiting on the twice-born, while his wife and son are tormented with hunger, may subsist by handicrafts :

100. ‘Let him principally follow those mechanical occupations, as joinery and masonry , or those various practical arts, as painting and writings by following which, he may serve the twiceborn. s

101. ‘ Should a Brdhmen , afflicted and pining through want of food, choose rather to remain fixed in the path of his own duty, than to adopt the practice of Vaisyas , let him act in this manner :

102. ‘ The Brdhmen , having fallen into distress, may receive gifts from any person whatever ; for by no sacred rule can it be shown, that absolute purity can be sullied. ON TIMES OF DISTRESS. 2Jl

103. ‘ From interpreting the Vida, from officiating at sacrifices, or from taking presents, though in modes generally disapproved, no sin is committed by priests in distress ; for they are as pure as fire or water.

104. * He, who receives food, when his life could not otherwise be sustained, from any man whatever, is no more tainted by sin, than the subtil ether by mud :

105. ‘Aji'GARTA, dying with hunger, was going to destroy his own son (named S' UNAH-S'e P’Ha) by selling hint 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 zvith hunger , of eating the flesh of dogs for the preservation of his life :

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

108. ‘ VlSWAlvtlTRA too, than whom none better knew the distinctions between virtue and vice, resolved, when he was perishing with hunger, to eat the haunch of a dog, which he had received from a Chanddla .

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 Brdhmen after his present life ; HO. ‘Because assisting to sacrifice and explaining the scripture 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 guilt, incurred by assisting low men to sacrifice and by teaching them the scripture, is removed by repetitions of the* gdyatrl and oblations to fire ; but that, incurred by accepting gifts from them> expiated only by abandoning the gifts and by rigorous devotion,

112. 4 It was better for a Brdhmen, who could not maintain 23 2 himself, to glean ears and grains after harvest from the field of any person whatever : cleaning whole ears would be better than accepting a present, and picking up single grains would be still more laudable.

113. ‘ Brdhmens, who keep house, and are in want of any metals except gold and stiver , or of other articles 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.

114. ‘ The foremost, in order , of these things may be received more innocently than that, which follows it : a field untillcd, 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, whcik 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 men.

116. ‘Learning, except that contained in the scriptures , art, as mixing perfumes and the like> work for wages, menial service, attendance on cattle, traffic, 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 latv , on borrowing for some pious use, to the sinful man, who demands it.

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 sin : «

119. ‘ His peculiar duty is conquest, and he must not recede from battle ; of 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 y part of their crops , and a fiftieth of their *33 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 public adversity ; but a twentieth of their gains on money, and other moveables, ist the highest tax: serving men, artisans, and mechanics must assist by their labour, but at no time pay taxes .

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

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

123. ‘Attendance on Brdhmens is pronounced the best work of a Sudra: 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 household 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.

127. ‘Even Siidras, who are anxious to perform 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 cmd salutation, are so far from sinning, that*they acquire just applause :

128. ‘ As a Sudra, 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 234 ON THE MIXED CLASSES ; AND SMra , 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 Brdhmens .

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 : I next will declare the pure law of expiation for sin/