Chapter 12: On Transmigration and Final Beatitude

1. THOU, who art free from sin, said the devout sages, thou hast declared the whole system of duties ordained for the four classes of men : explain to us now, from the first principles, the ultimate retribution for their deeds.

2. ‘ Bhrigu, whose heart was the pure essence of virtfuc, who proceeded from M£NU himself, thus addressed the great sages : ‘ Hear the infallible rules for the fruit of deeds in this universe.

3. ‘ACTION, either mental, verbal, or corporeal, bears good or evil fruit, as itself is good or evil ; and from the actions of men proceed their various transmigrations in the highest, the mean, and the lowest degree :

4. ‘ Of that threefold action, connected with bodily functions, disposed in three classes,' and consisting of ten orders, be it known in this world, that the heart is the instigator. X

5. ‘ Devising means to appropriate the wealth of other men, resolving on any forbidden deed, and conceiving notions of atheism or materialism, are the three bad acts of the mind :

6. ‘ Scurrilous language, falsehood, indiscriminate backbiting and useless tattle, are the four bad acts of the tongue.

7. ‘Taking effects not given, hurting sentient creatures without the sanction of law, and criminal intercourse with the wife of another, are the three bad acts of the body ; and all the ten have their opposites > which are good m an equal degree .

8. ‘ A rational creature has a reward or a punishment for mental acts, in his mind ; for verbal acts, in his organs of speech ; for corporeal acts, in his bodily frame.

9. ‘For sinful acts mostly corporeal, ^ a man shall assume after death a vegetable <y mineral form ; for such acts mostly verbal, ON TRANSMIGRATION the form of a bird or a beast ; for acts mostly mental, the lowest of human conditions :

10. 4 He, whose firm understanding obtains a command over his words, a command over his thoughts, and a command over his whole body, may justly be called a tridandl ‘ or triple commander ; not a mere anchoret , who bears three visible staves.

11. 4 The man, who exerts this triple selfcommand with respect to all animated creatures, wholly subduing both lust and wrath, shall by those means attain beatitude.

12. ‘That substance, which gives a power of motion to the body, the wife call cshHrajnya^ or jivdtman , the vital spirit; and' the body, which thence derives active functions, they name bhiitdtman, or composed of elements :

13. 4 Another internal spirit, called mahat or the great soul, attends the birth of all creatures imbodied, and thence in all mortal forms is conveyed a perception either pleasing or painful.

14. 4 Those two, the vital spirit and reasonable soul, are closely united with five elements, but connected with supreme spirit, or divine essence, which pervades all being high and low. 1 5. 4 From the substance of that supreme are diffused, like sparks from fire , innumerable vital spirits, which perpetually give motion to creatures exalted and base. 1 6. 4 By the vital souls of those men, who have committed sins in the body reduced to ashes , another body, composed of nerves with five sensations, in order to be susceptible of torment, shall certainly be assumed after death ; 1 7. 4 And being intimately united with those minute nervous particles, according to their distribution, they shall feel, in that new body, the pangs inflicted in each case by the sentence of Yama.

18. 4 When the vital soul has gathered the fruit of sins \yhich arise from a love of sensual pleasure, but must produce misery, and, when its taint has thus been removed, it approaches again those two most effulgent essence the intellectual soul and the divine spirit :

19. 4 They two, closely conjoined examine without remission AND FINAL BEATITUDE. 26S the virtues and vices of that sensitive soul, according to its union with which it acquires pleasure or pain in the present and future worlds.

20. ‘ If the vital spirit had practised virtue for the most part ami vice in a small degree, it enjoys delight in celestial abodes, clothed with a body formed of pure elementary particles ;

21. ‘But, if it had generally been addicted to vice, and seldom attended to virtue, then shall it be deserted by those pure elements, and, having a coarser body of sensible nerves, it feels the pains to which Yam A shall doom it :

22. ‘ Having endured those torments according to the sentence of YAMA, and its taint being almost removed, it again rcacAcs those five pure ’elements in the order of their natural distribution.

23. * Let each man, considering with his intellectual powers these migrations of the soul according to its virtue or ^cc, into a region of bliss or pain, continually fix his heart on virtue.

24. ‘ Be it known, that the three qualities of the rational soul arc a tendency to goodness, to passion, and to darkness ; and endued with one or more of them, it remains incessantly attached to all these created substances :

25. ‘When any one of the three qualities predominates in a mortal frame, it renders the imbodied spirits eminently distinguished for that quality.

26. ‘ Goodness is declared to be true knowledge ; darkness, gross ignorance ; passion, an emotion of desire or aversion : such is the compendious description of those qualities, which attend all souls.

27. ‘ When a,man perceives in the reasonable soul a dispositiontending to virtuous love, unclouded with any malignant passion, clear as the purest light, let4* him recognise it as the quality of goodness :

28. ‘ A temper of mind, which gives uneasiness and produces disaffection, let him consider at the adverse quality of passion, ever agitating imbodied spirits :

29. ‘That ipdistinct, inconceivable, unaccountable disposition ON TRANSMIGRATION of a mind naturally sensual, and clouded with infatuation, let him know to be the quality of darkness.

30. 4 Now will I declare at large the various acts, in the highest, middle, and lowest degrees, which proceed from those three dispositions of mind.

31. 4 Study of scripture, austere devotion, sacred knowledge, corporeal purity, command over the organs, performance of duties, anti meditation on the divine spirit, accompany the good quality of the soul :

32. 4 Interested motives for acts of religion or morality , perturbation of inind on slight occasions, commission of acts forbidden by ’law, and habitual indulgence in selfish gratifications, are attendant on the quality of passion : ,

33. 4 Covetousness, indolence, avarice, detraction, atheism, omission of prescribed acts, a habit of soliciting favours, and inattention ?o necessary business, belong to the dark quality.

34. ‘Of those three qualities, as they appear in the three times, past, present, and future , the following in order from the lowest may be considered as a short but certain criterion.

35. ‘ Let the wise consider, as belonging to the quality of darkness, every act, which a man is ashamed of having done, of doing, or of going to do :

36. 4 Let them consider, as proceeding from the quality of passion, every act, by which a man seeks exaltation and celebrity in this world, though he may not be much afflicted, if he fail of attaining his object :

37. 4 To the quality of goodness belongs every act, by which he hopes to acquire divine knowledge, which he is never ashamed of doing and which brings placid joy to his conscience.

38. 4 Of the dark quality, as described, the principal object is pleasure ; of the passionate, worldly prosperity ; but of the good quality, the chief object is virtue the last mentioned objects , are # superior in dignity.

39. 4 SUCH transmigrations, as the soul procures in this universe by each of those qualities I now will declare in order succinctly. AND FINAL BEATITUDE.

40. Souls, endued with goodness, attain always the state of deities ; those filled with ambitious passions, the condition of men ; and those immersed in darkness, the nature of beasts: this is the triple order of transmigration, 41 Each of those three transmigrations caused by the several qualities, must also be considered as threefold, the lowest, the mean, and the highest, according to as many distinctions of acts and of knowledge.

42. ‘ Vegetable and mineral substances, worms, insects, and reptiles, some very minute, some rather larger, fish, snakes, tortoises, cattle, shakals, are the lowest forms, to which the dark quality leads:

43. ‘ Elephants, horses, men of the servile class, and ’contemptible Ml cell has, or barbarians , lions, tigers, and boars, are the mean states procured by the quality of darkness :

44. ‘ Dancers and singers, birds, and deceitful men, giants and bloodthirsty savages, are the highest conditions, to which the dark quality can ascend.

45. ‘ Fhallas , or cudgel players, Mallas , or boxers and wrestlers, Natas , or actors, those who teach the use of weapons, and those who arc addicted to gaming or drinking, are the lowest forms occasioned by the passionate quality :

46. ‘ Kings, men of the fighting class, domestic priests of kings, and men skilled in the war of controversy, are the middle states caused by the quality of passion :

47. ‘ Gandharvas , or aerial musicians, Ruhyacas and Vacs has, or servants and companions of CUVERA, genii attending superior gods, as the Vtdyddh&ras and others, together with various companics of Apasamses or nymphs, arc the highest of those forms, which the quality of passion attains.

148. ‘ Hermits, religious mendicants, other Bi dl miens, such orders of demigods as arc wafted in airy cars, genii of the signs and lunar mansions, and Dattyas, or the offspring of Dm, are the lowest of states procured by the.quality of goodness : ■ Sacrifices, holy sages, doitifs of the lower heaven, genii 49268 ON TRANSMIGRATION of the V (Idas y regents of stars not in the paths of the sun and moon , divinities of years, Pitris or progenitors of mankind, and the demigods named Sanhyas are the middle forms, to which the good quality conveys all spirits moderately endued with it :

50. ‘ Brahma' with four faces, creators of worlds tinder himy as Marichi and others , the genius of virtue, the divinities presiding over {two principles of nature in the philosophy of CAPILA) viahat, or the mighty y and avyactay or unperceived) are the highest conditions, to which, by the good quality, souls are exalted.

51. 4 This triple system of transmigrations, in which each class has three orders, according to actions of three kinds, and which comprises all animated beings, has been revealed in its full extent :

52. 4 Thus, by indulging the sensual appetites, and by neglecting the performance of duties, the basest of men, ignorant of sacred expiations, assume the basest forms.

53. ‘ WlIAT particular bodies the vital spirits enter in this world, and in consequence of what sins here committed, now hear at large and in order.

54. ‘ Sinners in the first degree, having passed through tenible regions of torture fora great number of years, arc condemned to the following births at the close of that period to efface all ic mains of their sin.

55. ‘The slayer of a Brahmen must enter according to the circumstances of his crime the body of a dog, a boar, an ass, a camel, a bull, a goat, a sheep, a stag, a bird, a Chanddla or a Puccasa .

56. ‘ A priest, who has drunk spirituous liquor, shall migrate in the form of a smaller or larger worm or insect, of a moth, of a fly feeding on ordure or of some revenous animal.

57. ‘ He, who steals the gold of a priest, shall pass a thousand times into the bodies of spiders, of snakes and camcleons, of crocodiles and other aquatic monsters, or of mischievous bloodsucking demons.

58. ‘ He who violates the bed of his natural or spiritual father, migiatcs a hundred times into vhc forms of grasses, of shrubs with crowded stems, or of crccfping and twining plants, of vultures AND FINAL BEATITUDE. and other carnivorous animals, of lions and other beasts with sharp teeth, or of tigers and other cruel brutes.

59. ‘ They, who hurt any sentient beings arc born cats and other caters of raw flesh : they, who taste what ought not to be tasted, maggots or small flies; they, who steal ordinary things, devourers of each other : they, who embrace very low women, become restless ghosts.

60. ‘ lie, who has held intercourse with degraded men or been criminally connected with the wife of another, or stolen common things from a priest, shall be changed into a spirit, called Brahma - raeshasa.

61. ‘The wretch, who through covetousness has stolen rubies or other gems, pearls, or coral, or precious things of which there arc many sorts, .shall be born in the tribe of goldsmiths or among birds called hemacaras, or gold makers.

62. ‘ If a man steal grain in the husk, he shall be born a rat ; if a yellow mixed metal, a gander; if water, a plava, or diver; if honey, a great stinging gnat ; if milk, a crow ; if extracted juice, a dog; if clarified butter, an ichneumon weasel ;

63. ‘If he steal fleshmeat, a vulture ; if any sort of fat, the water-bird madgu ; if oil, a blatta, or oildrinking beetle; if salt, a .cicada or cricket ; if curds, the bird valaca ;

64. 4 If silken clothes, the bird tittiri ; if woven flax, a fiog ; if cotton cloth, the water-bird crauncha ; if a cow, the lizard godhd; if molasses, the vdggud* ;

65. ‘ If exquisite perfumes, a muskrat ; if potherbs, a peacock ; if dressed grain in any of its various forms, a porcupine ; if raw grain, a hedgehog ;

66. ‘If he steal fire, the bird vaca ; if a household utensil, an ichneumon-fly ;’if dyed cloth, the bird chacora ;

67. ‘ If a deer or an elephant, he shall born a wolf ; if a horse, a tiger ; if roots or fruit, an ape ; if a woman, a bear; if water from a jar, the bird chdtaca ; if carriages, a camel ; if small cattle, a goat.

68. ‘ That man, who designedly takes away the pioperly of another, or eats any holy cakes not fist presented to the deity at a solemn rite, shall. inevitably sink to the condition of a brute. ON TRANSMIGRATION

69. * Women, who have committed similar thefts, incur a similar taint, and shall be paired with those male beasts in the form of their females.

70. ‘ If any of the four classes omit, without urgent necessity, the performance of their several duties, they shall migrate into sinful bodies, and become slaves to their foes.

71. ‘ Should a Brahmen omit his peculiar duty, he shall be changed into a demon called Ulcamuc' ha or zuith a mouth like a firebrand, who devours what has been vomited ; a Cshatriya , into a demon called Cataputana , who feeds on ordure and carrion ;

72. ‘A Vaisya, into an evil being called Maitrdcshajyotica, * who eats purulent carcasses ; and a Siidra , who neglects his occupations,'becomes a foul imbodied spirit called Chaildsaea, who feeds on lice.

73. ‘As far as vital souls, addicted to sensuality, indulge themselves in forbidden pleasures, even to the same degree shall the acuteness of their senses be raised in their future bodies , that they may endure analogous pains ;

74. ‘And, in consequence of their folly, they shall be doomed as often as they repeat their criminal acts, to pains more and more intense in despicable forms on this earth.

75. ‘ They shall first have a sensation of agony in Jdmisra or utter darkness , and in other scats of horror ; in Asipatravana , or the swordleaved forest, and in different places of binding fast and of rending :

76. ‘ Multifarious tortures await them : they shall be mangled by ravens and owls, shall swallow cakes boiling hot ; shall walk over inflamed sands ; and shall feel the pangs of being baked like the vessels of a potter : *

77. ‘ They shall assume the forms of beasts continually miserable, and suffer alternate afflictions from extremities of cold' and heat, surrounded with terrors of various kinds :

78. ‘ More than once shall they lie in different wombs ; and, after agonizing births,' be contlemned to severe captivity, and to servile attendance on creatures like themselves : ( AND FINAL BEATITUDE, 27 > 79- ‘ Then shall follow separations from kindred and friends forced residence with the wicked, painful ;,ains and ruinous losses' o wealth; friendships hardly acquired and at length changed into enmities. . 80. ‘ Old age without resource, diseases attended with anguish pangs of innumerable sorts, and, lastly, unconquerable death."

81. ■ tfith whatever disposition of mind a man shall perform in this life any act religious or moral, in a future body endued with the same quality, shall he receive his retribution.

82. Thus has been revealed to you the system of punishments foi evil deeds : next learn those acts of a Bt ah men, which lead to eternal bliss.

83. ‘ Studying and comprehending the Veda, practising pious austerities, acquiring divine knowledge of law awl philosophy , command over the organs of sense and action, avoiding all injury to sentient creatures, and showing reverence to a natural awl spiritual father, are the chief branches of duty which ensure final happiness.

84. ‘ Among all those good acts performed in this world, said the sages, is no single act held more powerful than the rest in leading men to beatitude?

85. ‘ Of all those duties, answered BlIRTGlT, the principal is to acquire from the Upamshads a true knowledge of one supreme GOD ; that is the most exalted of all sciences, because it ensures immortality :

86. ‘ In this life, indeed, as well as the next, the study of the VMa , to acquire a knowledge of God, is held the most efficacious of those six duties in procuring felicity to man ;

87. 1 For in the knowledge and adoration of one God, which the Vdda teaches, all the rules of good conduct, before-mentioned in order, are fully comprised#

88. * The ceremonial duty, prescribed by the Vdda, is of two kinds ; one connected with this world, and causing prosperity on earth ; the other abstracted from it, and procuring bliss in heaven .

89. ‘A religious act proceeding from selfish views in this world, as a sacrifice for rain , or in the next, as a pious oblation in ON TRANSMIGRATION hope of a future reward \ is declared to be concrete and interested ; but an act performed with a knowledge of God, and without selflove, is called abstract and disinterested.

90. ‘ He, who^frequently performs interested rites, attains an equal station with the regents of the lower heaven ; but he, who frequently performs disinterested acts of religion, becomes for ever exempt from a body composed of the five elements :

91. * Equally perceiving the supreme soul in all beings and all beings in the supreme soul, he sacrifices his own spirit by fixing it on the spirit of God, and approaches the nature of that sole divinity, who shines by his own effulgence.

92. ' ‘Thus must the chief of the twice-born, though he neglect the ceremonial rites mentioned in the Sdstras , be efiligent alike in attaining a knowledge of God and in repeating the Veda :

93. ‘ Such is the advantageous privilege of those, who have a double birth from their natural mothers and from the gayatri their spiritual mother , especially of a Brdhmen ; since the twice-born man, by performing this duty but not otherwise, may soon acquire endless felicity.

94. ‘ To patriarchs, to deities, and to mankind, the scripture is an eye giving constant light ; nor could the Veda Sdstra have, been made by human faculties ; nor can it be measured by human reason unassisted by revealed glosses and comments : this is a sure proposition.

95. ‘ Such codes of law as are not grounded on the Veda ; and the various heterodox theories of men, produce no good fruit after death ; for they all are declared to have their basis on darkness.

96. ‘ All systems, which are repugnant to the VJda, must have been composed by mortals, and shall soon perish : their modern date proves them vain and fabe.

97. 1 The three worlds, the four classes of men, and their four distinct orders, with all that has been, all that is, and all that will be, arc made known by the V Ida :

98. ‘ The nature of sound, of tangible and visible shape, of taste, and of odour, the ‘fifth object of sense, is clearly explained AND FINAL liEATITUDF J 2 7 3 hi the Vtda alone, together W1>u 4.1 “■ — -»■ ,h' 99- ‘ All creatures are sustained by the primeval Veda Sdstra, vvh,ch the wise therefore hold supreme, because it is the supreme source of prosperity to this creature, man.

100. ‘ Command of armies, royal authority, power of inflic ting punishment, and sovereign dominion over all nations, lie only well deserves, who perfectly understands the VMa Sdstra,

101. ‘As fire with augmented force burns up even humid trees, thus he, who well knows the Veda, burns out the taint of sin, which has infected his soul.

102. ‘He, who completely knows the sense of the Veda Sdstra,. while he remains in any one of the four orders, approaches the divine nature, even though he sojourn in this low world.

103. ‘ They, who have read many books, are more exalted than such, as have seldom studied ; they, who retain what they have read, than forgetful readers ; they, who fully understand, than such as only remember ; and they, who perform their known duty, than such men, as barely know it.

104. Devotion and sacred knowledge are the best means by which a Brdhmen can arrive at beatitude: by devotion he may destroy guilt ; by sacred knowledge lie may acquire immortal glory.

105. ‘Three modes of proof, ocular demonstration, logical inference, and the authority <Sf those various books, which arc deduced from the Veda, must be well understood by that man, who seeks a distinct knowledge of all his duties :

106. ‘ He alone comprehends the system of duties religions and civil, who can reason, by rules of logic agreeable to the Veda , on the general heads of that system as revealed by the holy sages, x' 107. ‘ These rules of conduct, which lead to supreme bliss, have been exactly and comprehensively declared : the more secret learning of this Mdnava Sdstra shall now be disclosed.

108. ‘If it be asked, how4he law shall be ascertained, when particular cases arc not comprised under any of the general rules , *74 ON TRANSMIGRATION the answer is this: “That, which well instructed Brdhmens propound, shall be held incontestible law.”

109. ‘Well instructed Brdhmens are they, who can adduce ocular proof froirifcthe scripture itself, having studied, as the law ordains, the Vedas and their extended branches, or VSddngqs, Mimdnsd, Nydya , Dhernundstra, Pwdnas:

110. ‘A point of law, before not expressly revealed , which shall be decided by an assembly of ten such virtuous Brdlnnens under one chief, or, if ten be 7iot procurable , of three such under one president, let no man controvert. in. ‘The assembly of ten under a chief either the king himself or adjudge appointed by him, must consist of three, each of them peculiarly conversant with one of the three Vedas, of a fourth skilled in the Nydya , and a fifth in the Mlmdnsd philosophy; of a sixth, who has particularly studied the Niructa ; a seventh, who has applied himself most assiduously to the Dhennasdstra; and of three universal scholars, who are in the three first orders.

112. ‘One, who has chiefly studied the Rigvcda, a second, who principally knows the Yajush , and a third best acquainted with the Sdmaiiy are the assembly of three under a head, who may remove all doubts both in law and casuistry,

113. ‘Even the decision of one priest, if more cannot be assembled, who perfectly knows the principles of the Vedas, must be considered as law of the highest authority ; not the opinion of myriads, who have no sacred knowledge.

114. ‘Many thousands of Brdhmens cannot form a legal assembly for the decision of contests, if they have not performed the duties of a regular studentship, are unacquainted with scriptural texts, and subsist only by the name%of their sacerdotal class. <

115. ‘The sin of that man, to whom dunces, pervaded by the quality of darkness, propound the law, of which they arc themselves ignorant, shall pass, increased a hundredfold, to the wretches who propound it. n6. ‘This comprehensive system of duties, the chief cause AND FINAL BEATITUDE. *75 of ultimate felicity, has been declared to you ; and the Brahmen, who never departs from it, shall attain a superior state above.

117. ‘Thus did the all-wise Menu, who possesses extensive dominion, and blazes with heavenly splendour, disclose to me, from his benevolence to mankind, this transcendent system of law, which must be kept devoutly concealed from persons unfit to receive it. . . 118. * LET every Bidhmen with fixed attention consider all nature, both visible and invisible, as existing in the divine spirit ; for, when he contemplates the boundless universe existing in the divine spirit, he cannot give his heart to iniquity :

119. ‘The divine spirit alone is the whole assemblage of gods ; all worlds are seated in the divine spit it, and the divine spiiit no doubt produces, a chain of causes and effects consistent with free ivdl, the connected scries of acts performed by imbodied souls.

120. ‘ He may contemplate the subtil ether in the cavities of his body ; the air in his muscular motion and sensitive nerves ; the supreme solar and tgnious light, in his digestive heat and his visual organs ; in his corporeal fluids, water ; in the terrene parts of his fabric, earth ; ,21. ‘In his heart, the moon; in his auditory nerves, the guardians of eight regions; in his progressive motion, ViSllNU ; in his muscular force, HakA; in his organs of speech, Agni; in excretion, Mitra; in procreation, Brahma :

122. ‘ But he must consider the supreme omnipresent intelligence as the sovereign lord of them all, by whose energy alone they exist; a spirit, bf no means the object of any sense, which can on y be conceived by a mind wholly abstracted /torn waiter, and as it were slumbering ; but whit h for the purpose of assisting hie, meditation, he may imagine more subtil than the finest conceivable essence, and more bright than the purest gold. I2, ‘ Him some adore as trtnscendently present in elementary fire ; others, in Menu, lord of features, an immediate agent lithe creation ; jomc, as more distinctly present m In lilt a, regent f ON TRANSMIGRATION the clouds and the atmosphere ; others, in pure air ; others, as th6 most High Eternal Spirit.

124. ‘It is J-Ie, who, pervading all beings in five elemental forms, causes them by the gradations of birth, growth, and dissolution, to revolve in this world, until they deserve beatitude , like the wheels of a car.

125. ‘Thus the man, who perceives in his own soul the supreme soul present in all creatures, acquires equanimity towards them all, and shall be absorbed at last in the highest essence, even that of the Almighty himself.

126. ‘Here ended the sacred instructor ; and every twiceborn man, who, attentively reading this Mdnava Sdstra promulgated by BllRlGU, shall become habitually virtuous, will attain the beatitude which he seeks. GENERAL NOTE. 3pIIE learned Hindus are unanimously of opinion, that many & laws enacted by MENU, their oldest reputed legislator, were confined to the three first ages of the world, and have no force in the present age, in which a few of them arc certainly obsolete ; and they ground their opinion on the following texts, which are collected in a work entitled Mandana ratna pradlpa : I CUATU : In the Cali age a son must not be begotten on a widow by the brother of the deceased husband ; nor must a damsel, once given away 'in marriage be given a second tunc; nor must a bull be offered in a sacrifice ; nor must a waterpot be carried by a student in theology. II vriUASPATI: i. Appointments of kinsmen to beget children on widows, or married women, when the husbands arc deceased or impotent, arc mentioned by the sage MENU, but forbidden by himself with a view to the order of the four ages : no such act can be legally done in this age by any others than the husband. 0 In the first and second ages men were endued with tiue pietyand sound knowledge ; so they were in the third age; but in the fourth, a diminution of their moral and intellectual powers was ordained by their Create) . , Thus were sons of many different sorts made by ancient sages,' but such cannot now be adopted by men destitute of those eminent powers. III. PaRaVRA: l A man, who has held intercourse with a deadly sinner, must abandon his country in the first age ; he must lcpve his town, in the secofld ; his family, in the thud age; but m the fourth he needs only desert the offender. 2 In the first age, he is degraded by mere conversation with a degraded man ; in the second, by touching him ; m the thud, f * . r . fmm him • tut in the fourth, the sinner alone by receiving food from mm , uuu bears his guilt. GENERAL NOTE. IV. ‘ Na RADA : The procreation of a son by a brother of the deceased \ the slaughter of cattle in the entertainment of a guest, the repast on fleshmeat at funeral obsequies, and the order of a hermit are forbidden or obsolete in the fourth age. V. A'ditya purdna : 1. What was a duty in the first a^e must not in all cases be done in the fourth ; since, in the Caliyuga , both men and women are addicted to sin :

2. Such are a studentship continued for a very long time, and the necessity of carrying a waterpot, marriage with a paternal kinswoman, or with a near maternal relation, and the sacrifice of a bull,

3. Or of a man, or of a horse : and all spirituous liquor must in the Cali age be avoided by twice-born men ; so must a second gift of a married young woman, whose husband has died before consummation, and the large portion of an eldest brother, and procreation on a brother’s widow or wife. VI. S/nriti : 1. The appointment of a man to beget a son on the widow of his brother; the gift of a young married woman to another bridegroom, if her husband should die while she remains a virgin ;

2. The marriage of twice-born men with damsels not of the same class ; the slaughter, in a religious war, of Brdhmens , who are; assailants with intent to kill ;

3. Any intercourse with a twice-born man, who has passed the sea in a ship, even though he have performed an expiation ; performances of sacrifices for all sorts of men ; and the necessity of carrying a waterpot ;

4. Walking on a pilgrimage till the pilgrim dk ; and the slaughter of a bull at a sacrifice ; the acceptance of spirituous liquor, even at the ceremony called Sautrdmani ;

5. Receiving what has been licked off, at an oblation to fife, from the pot of clarified butter ; entrance into the third order, or that of a hermit, though ordained for the first ages ; •v'

6. The diminution of crimes in proportion to the religious acts and sacred knowledge of the offenders ; the rule of expiation for a Brahmen extending to death ; GENERAL NOTE.

7. The sin of hoMing any intercourse with sinners ; the secret expiation of any great crimes except theft; the slaughter of cattle in honour of eminent guests or of ancestors :

8. The filiation of any but a son legally begotten or given i\ adoption by his parents ; the desertion of a lawful wife for any offence less than actual adultery :

9. These parts of ancient law were abrogated by wise legislators, as the cases arose at the beginning of the Cali age, with an intent of securing mankind from evil. On the preceding texts it must be remarked, that none of them, except that of Vrihaspati, are cited by Culi.u'ca, who never seems to have considered any other laws of May u as restrained to the three first ages ; that the Smriti , or sacred code, is quoted without 'the name of the legislator; and that the prohibition, in any age, of selfdefence , even against Brdhmens , is repugnant to a text of SUMANTU, to the precept and example of CRISHNA himself, according to the Mahdblidral, and even to a sentence in the Veda, by which every man is commanded to defend his own life from all violent aggressors.

1. V J 6 ; 6 ■ &J — - i &'Z ... END.