X. * temptible.

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 bom in an inverse order, and called, ^ low-borti, are equal, in respect of duty, to mere ^ Siidras.
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 in- ^ feriour world.
43. ^ The following races of Cshatriyas, by their ^ omission of holy rites and by seeing no Brdhmensj ^ have gradually sunk among men, to the lowest of ^ the four classes:
44. ^ Paunctracas, Odrasy and Draviras; CdmbS/as, ' VavanaSj and Sacas; Pdradas, Pahlavas, ChdnaSy Ci* ^ rdtaSj Deradasy and CThasas;
45. ^ All those tribes of men, who sprang from the
* mouth, the arm, the thigh, and the foot of Brah- ^ ma', but who became outcasts by having neglected
' their
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X
ON TIMES OF DISTRESS. 347
^ their duties^ are called DasytiSj or plunderers, whether chap. ^ they speak the language of Ml^chck'haSy or that of ^•
* Aryas.
46. ^ Those sons of the twice-bom, who are said ^ to be degraded^ and who are considered as low-bom^
* shall subsist only by such employments^ as the twice- ^ bom despise.
47. * Siiias must live by managing horses and Vby driving cars; Amhashfha$y by curing disorders; ^ VaiddhaSy by waiting on women; MdgadhaSy by tra- ^ veiling with merchandize;
48. ^ Nishddasy by catching fish; an Aydgava, by
* the work of a carpenter; a M^da, an Andhra, and ^ (the sons of a Brahmen by wives of the Vaidiha
* and C^ra-classes, respectively called^ a Chunchu ^ and a Madgu, by slaying beasts of the forest;
49. ^ A Cshattrty an C^ra, and a Puccasa, by kil- ^ ling or confining such animals as live in holes :
* DhigvanaSy by selling leather; Vdnas, by striking ^ musical instruments:
50. ^ Near large publick trees, in places for burning ^ the dead, on mountains, and in groves, let those
* tribes dwell, generaUy known, and engaged in their
* several works.
51. ^ The abode of a Chanddla and a Swapdca must ^ be out of the town; they must not have the use ^ of entire vessels; their sole wealth must be dogs ^ and asses:
2 V 2 52. ^ Their
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348 ON THE MIXED CLASSES; AND
CHAP. 52. ^ Their clothes must be the mantles of the de- ^* * ceased; 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, hut ^ 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 bom 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 Msume the
* character
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ON TIMES OF DISTRBSe. 349
^ ohsracter of Us father or of his mothw, he can at chap. ^ 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. Mn whatever country such men aire bom, as
* destroy the purity of the four classes, that country ^ soon perishes, together with the natives of it.
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 base-born
* tribes.
63. ^ Avoiding all injury to animated beings, veracity,
* abstaining 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. ^ Should the tribe sprung from a Brdhmen, by ^ a iStWr^-woman, produce a succession of children by ^ the marriages of its women with other BrAhmens, ^ the low tribe shall be raised to the highest in the
* seventh generation.
65. ^ As the son of a Sddra may^ thus attain the ' rank of a Brdhmen, and as the son of a Brdhmen ^ may sink to a level with Sddras, even so must it
* be with him, who springs from a Cshatriya; even so *^with him, who was* bom of a Vaisya.
66. Mf
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350 ON THE MIXED CLASSES ; AND
CHAP. 66. ' If there be a doubt, as to the preference
X
between him, who was begotten by a Brdhmen for his pleasure, but not in wedlock, o na iSt^rd- woman, and him who was begotten by a Sddra on a Brdhmenl^
67. * JTius 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, be- cause 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; others to the field; and others consider both field and grain; on this point the decision follows:
71. ^ Grain, cast into bad ground, wholly perishes, and a good field, 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 animals, as RTshyasrrnga, and others, .have been transformed into holy men revered and extolled, the paternal side, therefore, prevails.
73. ' Brahma'
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ON TIMES OF DISTRESS. 351
73. * Brahma' himself, having compared a Sudra, chap. who performs the duties of the twice-born, with a twice-born man, who does the acts of a Sddra, said: ^^ Those two are neither equal nor unequal,''
that isy they are neither equal in rank, nor unequal in bad conduct
74. ^ 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. ^ Reading the Vedasy and teaching others to read them, sacrificing, and assisting others to sa- crifice, 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- bom class;
76. ^ But, among those six acts of a Brdhmen, three are his means o^ subsistence; assisting to sa- crifice, teaching the VidaSy and receiving gifts from a pure-handed giver.
77. ' Three acts of duty cease with the Brdhmenj and belong not to the Cshatriya; teaching the VMa^y officiating at a sacrifice, and, thirdly, receiving pre- sents :
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 y military and commercial,
79. ' The
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CHAP.
352 ON THE MIXED CLASSES; AND
79. ^ The means of subsistence^ peculiar to the ^ Cshatriyay are bearing arms^ either held for striking ' or missile, to the VdisyUj merchandize, attending on ^ cattle, and agriculture : but, with a view to the newt ^ 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^ Veduy defending the people, and com- ' merce or keeping herds and flocks.
81. ' 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, how he must live, should he ' be unable to get a subsistence by either of those ^ employments; the answer is, he may subsist as a ^ mercantile man, applying himself in person to tillage
* and attendance on cattle:
83. * But a Brdhmen and a Cshatriyoy obliged to
* subsist by the acts of a Vaisya^ must avoid with ^ care, if they can live by keeping herds, the. busi- ^ ness 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 opin^)n, that agriculture is excel- ' lent } but it is a uKxle of subsistence which the
* benevolent greatly blame; for the iron^mouthed
^ pieces
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ON TIMES OF DISTRESS. 363
* pieces of wood not only wound the earthy but the chap. ^ creatures dwelling in it. ^'
85. ' If, through want of a virtuous livelihood, they ^ 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 Hla, stones, salt, cattle, and ^ human creatures;
87. ^ All woven cloth dyed red, cloth made of sana^ ^ of cskumd'harli^ and of wool, even though not red; ^ fruit, roots, and medicinal plants;
88. * Water^ iron, poison, flesh-meat, the moon- ^ plant, and perfumes of any sort ; milk, honey, butter- ^ milk, clarified butter, oil of tiloy wax, sugar, and ^ blades of cti^a-grass;
89. ^ All beasts of the forest, as deer and the like; ^ ravenous beasts, birds, and fish ; spirituous liquors, ^ n//t, or indigo, and Idcshd^ or lac ; and all beasts
* with uncloven hoofs.
90. ^ But the jBrcf Amen-husbandman may at pleasure ^ sell pure ^tTa-seeds for the purpose of holy rites, ^ if he keep them not long with a hope of more gain,
* and -shall have produced them by his own culture:
91. Mf he apply seeds of tila to any purpose but ^ food, anointing, and sacred oblations, he shall be
2 z ' plunged
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364 ON THE I^IXED CLASSES; AND
CNAF. ^ plunged^ in the shape of a worm^ together with his ^- ^ parents, into the ordure of dogs.
92. ^ By selling flesh-meat, Idcshd, or salt, a JBrdh- ' men immediately sinks low ; hy selling milk three ^ days, he falls to a level with a Stidra;
93. ^ And by* selling the other forbidden commo- * dities with his own free will> he assumes in this ^ world, after seven nights, the nature of a mere ^ Vmsya.
94. ^ iFluid things may, however^ be bartered for ^ other fluids, but not salt for any thing liquid; so ^ may dressed grain for grain undressed^ and ^e/a*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 re- ^ course to the highest, or sucerdataly function.
96. * A man of the lowest class, who, through ' covetousness, lives by the acts of the highest > let ^ the king strip of all his wealth and instantly banish :
97. ^ His own office^ though defectively performed, ' is preferable to that of another, though performed
* completely; for he, who without necessity dischai^s ' 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
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ON TIMES OF DISTRESS. S55
^ of a Sddra, taking care never to do what ought chap. ^ never to be done; but, when he has gained a com- x. ^ petence, let him depart from service^
99. ^ A MAN of the fourth class, not finding em- ^ ployment by waiting on the twice-born, while his
* wife and son are tormented with hunger, may sub- ' sist by handicrafts : . .
100. ^ Let him principally follow those mechanical ^ occupations, as joinery and masonry, or those various ^ practical arts, as painting and writingy by following ^ which, he may serve the twice-born.
101. ^ Should a BrdAmen, 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 BrAhmeny 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.
103. ^ From interpreting the Vdday 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:
2 z 2 105. * Aji'garta,
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366 ON THE MIXED CLASSES; AND
CHAP. 105- ^ Aji'garta, dying with hunger, was going to X- * destroy his own son (named Si/nah-s'bVha) hy selling ' him for same cattle; yet he was guilty of no crime, ^ since he only sought a remedy against famishing:
106. ^ Va'madeVa, 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 :
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. ^ Viswamitra too, than whom none better
* knew the distinctions between virtue and vice, re- ' solved, when he was perishing with himger, to eat ' the haunch of a dog, which he had received from ^ a Chanddla.
109. ^ Among ^Ae 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 worlds and ^ the most blamed in a Brdhmen after his present ' life;
110. ' Because assisting to sacrifice and explaining ' the scripture are two acts always performed for ^ those, whose minds have been improved hy the ^ sacred initiation; but gifts are also received from a ^ servile man of the lowest class.
111. ' The
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ON TIMES OF DISTRESS. 3&7
111. ^ The guilt, incurred by. assisting low men to chap. sacrifice and by teaching them the scripture, is re- ^ moved by repetitions of the gdyatri and oblations to
fire; but that, incurred by accepting gifts from them^ is expiated only by abandoning the ^fts and by rigorous devotion.
112. ^ It were better for a Brdhmen, who could not maintain himself, to glean ears and grains after har- vest from the field of any person whatever : gleaning whole e^rs 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 eoccept gold and silver ^ or of other arti- cles for good MseSf may ask the king for them, if he be of the military class ; but a king, known to be ava- ricious and unwilling to give, must not be solidted.
114. ^ The foremost, in order y 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 rnercantile class; and acceptance of presents, by the sacerdotal class, firom re^>ectable men.
116. ^ Learnings
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3S8 ON THE MIXED CLA8SBS; AND
CHAP. 116. ' Learning, ewciept that eontmned in the iofip^ ^' ' turesy 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 subsis- tence in times of distress.
117- ^ Neither a priest nor a military man, though distressed y must receive interest on loans, but each of them, if he please, may pay the small interest permitted by lawy 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 invasiony 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 ; 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 cropSy and a fiftieth of their personal proJUsy may be an eighth of their crops in a time of (Us- tresSy or a sixthy which is the m^diumy or even a fourth in great publick adversity; but a twentieth of their gains on money, and other moveables, is the highest tak: serving men, artisans, and mechanicks must assist by their labour, but at no time pay taxes.
121. ' If
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ON TIMES OF DISTRESS. 360
12L ^ If a SAdra want a subsistence and cannot char . ^ attend a priest y he may serve a Cshatriya; or, if he ^• ^ cannot wait on a soldier hy birthy 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 newt, the union of the word BrAh- ' men with his naine of servant will assuredly bring * success.
123. * Attendance on Brdhmens is pronounced the ^ best work of a SMra: whatever else he may per- ^ form will comparatively avail him nothing.
124. ^ They must allot him a fit maintenance ac- ^ cording 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 Jire
' and the like; but there is no prohibition against his
^ offering dressed grain as a sacrificey by way of dis^
' charging his own duty.
127. ^ Even Shidrasy who are anxious to perform
^ their
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360 ON THE MIXED CLASSES, &c
CHAP.
^ \ perform, imitate the practice of good men in the
^ household sacraments, but without any holy text, ew*
^ cept those containing praise and salutation, are so
^ far from sinning, that they acquire just applause :
128. ^ As a Sddra, 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 Sddra, 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 sub- ^ sistence; 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 win declare the pure law of expiation for
sin.*
CHAP.
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CHAP. XI-
On Penance and Eapiation.
. L ^ HiH, who intends to marry for the sake of chap. ^ havmg issue; him^ who wishes to make a sacrifice; ^ him, who travels ; him, who has given all his wealth ' at a saerecj rite; him^ who desires to mamtain his ^ preceptor, his father, or his mother; him, who
* needs a mamtenance for himself, when he first reads ^ the Vddas; and him, who is afflicted with illness;
2. ^ These nine Brdhmens let mankind consider as ^ virtuous mendicants, called sndtacas; and, to relieve ^ their wants, let gifts of cattle or gold be presented ^ to them in proportion to their learning :
3. ^ To these most excellent Brd&mew must rice ^ also be giyen^ with holy presents a/ oblations to ^ Jire and within the consecrated circle ; but the dressed ^ rice, which others are to receive, must be delivered ^ on the outside of the sacred hearth: gold and the
* like may he given any where.
4. ' On sncl^ Brdhmens as well know the V^da^ let ^ the king bestow, as it becomes him, jewels of all ^ sorts, and the solep^l rew^ for officiating at the ^ sacrifice.
5. ^ Hb^ who has ^ wife, and, having begged mo- i 3 a * ney
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362 ON PENANCE
CHAP. * ney to defray his nuptial ewpenceSy marries another ^^' * woman^ shall have no advantage but sensual enjoy- ^ ment : the offspring belongs to the bestower of the ^ gift.
6. ^ Let every man, according to his ability, give
^ wealth to Brdhmens detached from the world and
^ learned in scripture : such a giver shaQ attain hea* ^ ven after this life.
7./ He alone is worthy to drink the r juice of the
^ moon-plant, who keeps a provision of grain suf-
^ ficient to supply those, whom the law conmiands
^ him to nourish, for the term of three years or ^ more ;
8. ' But a twice-born man, who keeps a less provi-
* sion of grain, yet presumes to taste the juice of the ^ moon-plant, shall gather no fruit from that sacra-
* ment, even though he taste it at the first, or w- ^ lemUy much less at any occasional^ ceremony.
9. * He, who bestows gifts on strangers, with a
* view to worldly famcy while he suffers his family to ' live in distress, though he has power to support
* theniy touches his lips with honey, but swallows poi- ' son ; such virtue is counterfeit :
10. * Even what he does for the sake of his future
* spiritual body, to the injury of those, whom he is ^ bound to maintain, shall bring him ultimate misery ^ both in this life and in the next.
11. ^ Should a sacrifice, performed by any twice-
^ bom
I
I
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AND EXPIATION. 368
* bom saerificer^ and by a ^BHJimen especially, be chap. ^ imperfiwt from the want of some ingredient, during xi.
^ tiie reign of a prince, Hrho knows the law,
12. ^ Let hiin take that article, for the completion ^ of the sacrifice, from the house of any Faisya, who ^ possesses considerable herds, but neither saierifices, ^ nor drinks the juice of the moon-plant :
13. * If such a Faisya he not near, he may take
* two or three such necessary articles at pleasure ^ from the house of a JSMra; since a Skidra has no ' business with solemn rites.
14. ^ Even from the house of a Brdhmen or a Csha- ^ triyQy who possesses a hundred cows, but has no ^ oonsecrated fire, or a thousand cows, but performs ^ no sacrifice with the moan^kmt, let a priest with- ^ out scruple take the articles wanted.
15. * From another Brdhmen^ who continually re-
* ceives presents but never gives, let him take such ^ ingredients of the saerifice, if not bestowed an fe- ^ quest: so shall his fame be spread abroad^ and his ^ habits of virtue increase.
16. ^ Thus, likewise, may a Brdhmen^ who has not
* eaten at the time of six meals, or has fasted three ^ whole days, take at the time of the seventh meal, ^ or on the fourth morning , ftom the man, who behaves f basely by not offering him food, enough to supply ^ him till the morrow:
17. ^ He may take it from the floor, where the grain
3 A 2 Ms
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364 ON PENANCE .
CHAP. ^^' * from the house, cr from any place Tfbatever; bat; ^ if the Gvmer ask why he takes H^ the cause of the ^ taking mu»t be declared.
18. ^ The wealth of a virtuous Stdhmeh must at no 5 time be seized by a Cskatriya ; but> having no other ^ means to complete a sacrifice y he may take the ^ goods of any . man, who acts wickedly, and of imy, ^ who performs not his religious duties:
1ft. ^ He, who takes property from the bad for the ^ purpose before-mentioned, and bestows it on the good; ^ transforms himself into a boat, and carries both the ^ good and the bad over a sea of calamities.
SO. ^ Wealth, possessed by men for the perfoimaoce ^ of sacrifices, the, wise caU the property of the ^ gods; but the wealth of men, who perform no . ^ sacrifice, they consider as the . property of demons.
21. ^ Let no pious king fine the man, who takes hy - fteaith or by force what he wants to make a sa^
/ crifce perftct; since it is the Idng^s folly, that ' causes the hunger or wants o£ ^ Brdhmenc
22. ' Having reckoned up the persons, whom the ^ Brdhmen is obliged to support, having ascertained ^ his divine knowledge and moral conduct, let the ^ king allow him a suitable maintenance from his ^ own household;
23. ^ And, having appointed him a maintenance, let ^ the king protect him on all sides; for he gams
^ from
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AND EXMATION. 385
f frbm the Brdhmeh whom he protects, it sixth part chap. f of the remard for his virtue.. **•
24. ^ Lbt nd Brdhmen ever beg a giflk from a iSddta;
^ foTy if he perform a sacrifice after such be^^ing,
f he shall, in the next life, be bom a Chanddlm.
• .
25. ^ The Brdhmen who begs any articles for a ^ sacrifice^ and disposes not of them all for that ^ purpose, shall become a kite or a crow for a hun* ^ dred years.
26. * Any evil-hearted wretch, who, through cove- ' tousness, shall seize the property of the gods or
* of Brdhmensy shall feed in another world on the
* orts of vultures.
27. ^ The sacrifice Vaiswdnari must be constantly ' jperformed on the first day of the new year, or on ^ the new moon of Chaitray as an expiation fcwr hav- •* ing otnitted, through mere forgetfulne^y the ap- ^ pointed sacrifices of cattle and the rites of the ' moon-plant:
28. ^ But a twice-born man, who, without necessity, ^ does an act allowed only in a case of necessity, ^ reaps no fruit from it hereafter : thus has it been ^ decided.
29. * By the Visw^devaSy by the Sddhyasy /and by ^ eminent Bishis of the sacerdotal class, the substitute
* was adopted for the principal act, when they were ^ apprehensive of dying in times of imminent peril;
.30. f But no reward is prepared in a fiatur9 state . ^ f or
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ON PENANCE
char;
for that ill-minded man^ who, when able to perfbtm the principal sacrifice^ has recourse to the substitute*
31. * A Priest, who well knows the law, needs not even by his own power, he may chastise those, who injure him:
32. * His own power, which depends on himself alone, is mightier than the royal power, which depends on other men: by his own might, therefore, may a Brdhmen coerce his foes.
33. ^ He may use, without hesitation, the power- ful charms revealed to At'harvan, and by him to Angiras; for speech is the weapon of a Brdhmen: with that he may destroy his oppressors.
34. ^ A fioldier may avert danger from himself by the strength of his arm; a merchant and a me- chanick, by their property; but the chief of the twice-born, by holy texts and oblations to fire.
35. * A priest, who performs his duties, who justly corrects his children and pupils^ who advises expia-^ tions for sin, and who loves all animated creatures, is truly called a Brdhmen: to him let no man say any thing unpropitious, nor use any offensive lan- guage.
36. * Let not a girl, nor a young woman married or unmarried, nor a man with little learning, nor a iiunce, perform an oblation to fire ; nor a man dis- eased, nor one uninvested with the sacriJUnal striskg;
37. ' Smce
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AND EXPIATION- 867
r 37* ^ Since any of those persons, who mak^ such chap.
^ an oblation, shall fall into a region of torture, to-^ ^*
\^ gether with him, who suflfers his hearth to be used :
* he alone, who perfectly knows the sacred ordinances, ^ and has read all the Vddasj must ofl5ciate at an ^ oblation to holy fire.
38. * A Brdhmen with abundant wealth, who presents ^ not the priest, that hallows his fire, with a horse
* consecrated to Praja'pati, becomes equal to one ^ who has no fire hallowed.
39. * Let him, who believes the scripture, and keeps ^ his organs in subjection, perform all other pious
' acts; but never in this world let him offer a sa-
* crifice with trifling gifts to the officiating priest:
40. * The organs of sense and action, reputation in ^ this lifcy a heavenly mansion in the nexty life itself^
* a great name after deaths children and cattle, are
* all destroyed by a sacrifice offered with trifling
* presents: let no man, therefore, sacrifice without ^ liberal gifts.
41. * The priest, who keeps a sacred hearth, but ^ voluntarily neglects the morning and evening ohla^ ^ tians to his fires, must perform, in the manner to
* be described^ the penance chdndrdyana for one month ; ^ since that neglect is equally sinful with the slaughter
* of a son.
42. * They, who receive property firom a Sddra for ^ the performance of rites to consecrated fire, are con*
' temned.
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3fi8 ON PENANCE
CHAP. ^ temned^ as ministers of the base, by all such * as ^" ^ pronounce texts of the Vida:
43. ' Of those ignorant priests, who serve the holy fire for the wealth of a Siidra^ the giver shall always tread on the foreheads, and thus pass over miseries in the gloom of death.
44. ^ Every man, who does not an act prescribed, or does an act forbidden, or is guilty of excess, 'even in legal gratifications of the senses, must per- form an expiatory penance.
45. ' Some of the learned consider an expiation as confined to involuntary sin ; but others, from th^ evidence of the Veda^ hold it effectual even in the case of a volimtary offence :
46. ' A sin, involuntarily committed, is removed by repeating certain texts of the scripture; but a sin committed intentionally, through strange infatuation, by harsh penances of different sorts.
47. ^ If a twice-born man, by the will of God in this world,, or from his natural birth, have any cor- poreal mark of an expiable sin committed in this or a former state, he must hold no intercourse with the virtuou9> while bis penance remains unp^rformecl
48. ^ Some evil-minded persons, for sins committed in this life, and some for bad actions in a preced- ing state, suffer a morbid change in their bodies :
49. ^ A stealer of gold from a Brdhmen has whit-
^ lows
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AND EXPIATION. 3W
^ lows on his nails; a drinker of spirits, black teeth; chap.
* the slayer of a Brdhmeuj a marasmus; the violator ^'•
* of his guru^s bed, a deformity in the generative
* organs;
50. ^ A malignant informer, fetid ulcers in his nos- ^ trils; a false detractor, stinking breath; a stealer of
* grain, the defect of some lunb ; a mixer of bad ^ wares with goody some redundant member;
51. ^ A stealer of dressed grain, dyspepsia; a stealer ^ of holy words, or an unauthorized reader of the scrips ^ tares, dumbness ; a stealer of clothes, leprosy; a ^ horse-stealer, lameness;
52. ^ The stealer of a lamp, total blindness; the
* mischievous extinguisher of it, blindness in one eye; ^ a delighter in hurting sentient creatures, perpetual ^ illness ; an adulterer, windy swellings in his limbs :
63. ^ Thus, according to the diversity of actions,
* are bom men despised by the good, stupid, dumb, ^ blind, deaf, and deformed.
64. ^ Penance, therefore, must invariably be per-
* formed for the sake of expiation ; since they, who
* have not expiated their sins, will again spring to
* birth with disgraceful marks.
66. ^ Killing a JBrcfAmen, drinking forbidden liquor,
* stealing gold from a priest, adultery with the wife ^ of a father, natural or spiritual, and associating with ^ such as commit those offences, wise legislators must ^ declare to be crimes in the highest degree, tit re-
3 B * speet
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370 ON PENANCE
CHAP, * spect of those after mentioned^ but less than invest in ^^* * a direct linej and some others.
56. * False boasting of a high tribe, malignant in- ^ formation, before the king, of a criminal who must ^ suffer deaths and falsely accusing a spiritual precep-
* tor, are crimes in the second degree; and nearly ^ equal to killing a Brdhmen.
57. ^ Forgetting the texts of scripture, showing con-
* tempt df the Veda^ giving false evidence withoui a ' had motive, killing a friend without malice^ eating ^ things prohibited, or, fro7n their manifest impurity^ ^ unfit to be tasted, are six crimes nearly equal to ' drinking spirits; but perjury and homicide require in ^ atrocious cases the harshest expiation.
58. ^ To appropriate a thing deposited or lent for a ^ time, a human creature, a horse, precious metals, a ^ field, a diamond, or any other gem^ is nearly equal ^ to stealing the gold of a Brdhmen.
59. ^ Carnal commerce with sisters by the same ^ mother, with little girls, with women of the lowest ^ mixed class, or with the wives of a fiicnd or of a ^ son, the wise must consider as nearly equal to a
* violation of the paternal bed.
60. ^ Slaying a bull or cow, sacrificing what ought ^ not to be Bacrificed, adultery, selling oneself, de^ ^ serting a preceptor, a mother, a father, or a ion, ^ omitting to read the scripture, and negleet of ^e ^ fires prescribed by the Dhermasdstra only.
61. * The
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AND EXPIATION. ^71
; 61. * The maniage of a younger brother before the chap.
* elder, and that elder's omission to marry before the ^^ ^ younger, giving a daughter to either of them, and
' officiating at their nuptial sacrifice,
62. ^ Defiling a damsel, usury, want of perfect ^ chastity in a student^ selling a holy pool or garden,
* a wife, or a child,
63. ^ Omitting the sacred investiture, abandoning a ^ kinsman, teaching the Vdda for hire, learning it ^ from a hired teacher, selling commodities, that ought ' not to be sold,
64. ^ Working in mines of any sort, engaging in ^ dykes^ bndgesy or other great mechanical works, ^ spoiling medicinal plants repeatedly ^ subsisting by the ^ harlotry of a wife, offering sacrifices and preparing ^ charms to destroy the mnocenty
65. ^ Cutting down green trees for firewood, per- ^ forming holy rites with a selfish view merely, and ^ eating prohibited food once without a previous design.
66. * Ne^cting to keep up the consecrated fire, ^ stealing any valuable thing besides- goldy non^pay- ^ ment of the three debts, application to the books ^ of a false religion, and excessive attention to musick
* or dancing,
67. ^ Stealing grain, base metals, or cattle, fami- ^ liarity by the twiee-bom with women who have ^ drunk inebriating liquor, killing without malice a wo- ^ man, a Sddroy a Vaisyc^ ot a Cshatriya^ and denying
3 B 2 'a future
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372 ON PENANCE
CHAP. ^ a future state of rewards and punishments^ are all ^- * crimes in the third degree, but higher or lower ac- ' cording to circumstances.
68. ^ Giving pain to a JSrdhmen, smelling at any ^ spirituous liquor or any thing extremely fetid and ' unfit to be smelt, cheating, and unnatural practices ' with a male, are considered as causing a loss of ^ class*
69* * To kill an ass, a horse, a camel, a deer, an ^ elephant, a goat, a sheep, a fish, a snake, or a ' buffalo^ is declared an offence, which degrades the ' killer to a mixed tribe/
70. * Accepting presents from despicable men, ille- ^ gal traffick, attendance on a iStie/ra-master, and ^ speaking falsehood, must be considered as (causes of ^ exclusion from social repasts.
71. * Killing an insect, small or large, a worm, or ^ a bird, eating what has been brought m the same ^ basket with spirituous liquor, stealing fruit, wood, or ' flowiers, and great perturbation of mind on trifling ^ occasions J are offences which cause defilement.
72. ^ You shall now be completely instructed in ^ those penances, by which all the sins just men- ^ tioned are expiable.
73. * If a Brdhmen have killed a man of the sa- ' cerdotal class, without malice prepense y the slayer ^ being far superiour to the slain in good qualities ^ he ^ must himself make a hut in a forest and^ dwell in
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AMD ssnAiiON. 373
»
* it twel^ whole years^ subsisting on alms for the chap. ^ purification of his soul^ placing near him^ as a to- ^
V ken of his crime , the skull of the skdn, if he can
* procure ity or, if not y any human skulL The time of
* penance for the three lower classes must be twenty
* four, thirty sis, and forty eight, years.
74. * Or, if the slayer be of the military i^lass, he
* may voluntarily expose himself as a mark to archers,
* who know his intention; or, according to circum-^
* stances, may cast himself head-long thrice, or even ^ till he die, into blazing fire.
75. * Or, if he be a king, and slew a priest with-
* out malice or knowledge of his class, he may per-
* form, with presents of great wealth, one of the fol- ' lowing sacrifices; an Aswamddha, or a Swerfit, or a
* Gosava, or an Abhijii, or b Viswcfjit, or a Trivrit, ^ or an jignishtut.
76. ^ Or, to expiate the guilt of killing a priest ' without knowing him and without design, the killer ^atoay walk on a pilgrimage a hundred ydjanasy re- ^ peating wiy one ci the VSdas, eating barely enough ' to sustain life, and keeping his organs in perfect
* subjection;
77. ^ Or, if in that case the slayer be unlearned ' but rich, he may give all his property to some ^ Brdhmen learned in the Vida, or a sufficiency of ^ wealth for his life, or a house and furniture &> hold ^ tohile he lives:
78. * Or
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874 ON PINANCa
CHAP. 78. ^ Ory eating only such wild graine %b are of*
^- *- fered to the gods, he niay walk to the head of the
driver Sarctswat\ agaiilist .the course of th^ stream;
* or^ subsfeting on very. Jittle food, he may thrice
* repeat thfe whole collection of V^daSj or the Richy
* Vajushy and Sdrnan.
79. ^ Or, his hair being shorn, he may dwell near \ a town, or on pasture^ground for cows, or in some ^ holy place, or at the root of a sacred tree, taking ' pleasure in doing good to cows and to Brdhmens:
80. * There, for the preservation of a cow or a
* Brdhmeriy let him instantly abandon life ; since , the ^ preserver of a cow or a Brahmen atones for the ^ crime of killing a priest :
81. ^ Or, by attempting at least three times for-
* cibly to recover from robbers the property of a ^ Brdhmeriy or by recovering it in one of his attacks, ^ or even by losing his life in the attempt, he atones ' for his crime.
82. ^ Thus, continually firm in religious austerity', ^ chaste as a student in the first order, with his mind ^ intent on virtue, he may expiate the guUt of unde- ' signedly killing a Brdhmen, after the twelfth year
* has expired.
83b ^ Or, if a virtuous Br&hmen imintentiomUfy kill ^ another y who had no good quality y he may atone for ^ his guilt by proclaiming it in an assembly of priests ' and military men, at the sacrifice of a horse, end
' by
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AND El^UTiON. 971
^ by bathing wi^ otbei: Brdkmens at the close of chap* ^ the sacrifice: *'•
84. * Brdhmens are declared to be the basis, and ' Cshatriyas the summit, of the legal system : he, ^ therefore, expiates his offence by fully proclaiming ' it in such an assembly.
85. * From his high birth alone, a Brdhmen is an ' object of veneration even to deities ; his declarations
* to mankind are decisive evidence; and the VSda ' itself confers on him that character.
86. ' Three at least, who are learned in the Fl^da, ^ should be assembled to declare the proper expia-
* tion for the sin of a priesty btity for the three other ^ classesy the number must be doubled, tripled, and
* quadrupled: what they declare shall be an atone-
* ment for sinners; since the words of the learned
* give purity.
87. ^ Thus a Brdhmen, who has performed one of ^ the preceding expiations, according to the drcum^ ' stances of the homicide and the characters of the per^ ^ sons killed and killing, with his whole mind fixed ' on God, purifies his soul, and removes the guilt of ' slaying a man of his own class:
88. ' He must perform the same penance for killing ' an embryo, the sew of which was unknown, but whose ^ parents were sacerdotal, or a military or a commer* ' cial man employed in a sacrifice, or a iSr^Ameni-wo- ' man, who has bathed after temporary uncleanness;
89 ' And
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d!^ OKPBNANCai
CHAP. 89. ^ And the same for giving fiedse evidence m a
^'- . * cause concerning land or gold, or precious common
^ ditiesy and for accusing bis preceptor unjustly, and
^ for appropriating a deposit, and for killing the wife
* of a priest, who keeps a consecrated fire, or for slay- ^ ing a friend.
90. ^ Such is the atonement ordained for killing a ' priest without malice; but for killing a Brdhmenwiih^ ' malice prepense, this is no expiation: the term of ^ twelve years must be doubled, or, if the case was ^ atrocious, the murderer must actually die in fiamts ^ or in battle.
91. * Any twice-born man, who has intentionally ^ drunk spirit of rice, through perverse delusion of
-* mind, may drink more spirit in flame, and atone ^ for his offence by severely burning his body;
92. ^ Or he may drink boiling hot, until he die,
* the urine of a cow, or pure water, or milk, or ^ clarified butter, or juice expressed from cow-dung :
93. * Or, if he tasted it unknowingly, he may ex-
* piate the sin of drinking spirituous liquor, by eat-
* ing only some broken rice or grains of tila, from
* which oil has been extracted, once every night for
* a whole year, wrapped in coarse vesture of hairs ^ from a cow^s tail, or sitting unclothed in his house, ^ wearing his locks uid beard uncut, and putting out
* the flag of a tavern-keeper.
94. ^ Since the spirit of rice is distilled from the ^ Mala, or filthy refuse, of the grain, and since Mala
Ms
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Am EXPIATION. 377
^ is also a name for sin, let no Brdhtnen^ Cahatriya chap.
* or Vaisya drink that spirit. *'•
95. ^ Inebriating liquor may be considered as of ^ three principal sorts: that extracted from dregs of ^ sugar^ that extracted from bruised rice^ and that ^ extracted firom the flowers of the Madkdca: as one^ ^ so are all; they shall not be tasted by the chief ^ of the twice-born.
96. ' Those liquors, and eight other sorts^ with the ^ flesh of animals, and AsavUy the most pernicious be- ^ veragCy prepared with narcotick drugSy are swallowed
* at the juncates of Yacshas, Racshases^ and Pisdchas:
* they shall not, therefore, be tasted by a Brdhfnen, ^ who feeds on clarified butter offered to gods.
97. ' A Brdhmen^ stupefied by drunkenness, might ^ fall on something very impure, or might even, when ^ intoxicated, pronounce a secret phrase of the i^da, ^ or might do some other act, which ought not to be
* done.
98. ' When the divine spirit, or the light ^ holy ^ knowledge^ which has beep infused into his body, ' has once been sprinkled with any intoxicating liquor, ^ even his priestly character leaves him, and he sinks ^ to the low degree of a Sddra.
99. ^ Thus have been promulgated the various modes ^ of expiation for drinking spirits: I will next pro- ^ pound the atonement for stealing the gold €f.a ^ priest to the amount of a suvema.
3 c 100. ^ Hb,
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578 QN HSNANCB
€HAP. 100. ' Hm, who hw purloined the gold of a J5? ^'- * we», must hasten to the king, and proclww l^s of- t fence ; adding, *^ Inflict on me the punishment due / to my crime/'
lOl, * Then shall the king himself, taking from him ^ an iron mace, toAicA the criminal must hea/r on his '^ shwlder, strike him with it once; and by th&t
* stroke, whether he die or be only ^fl us dead^ the
* thief is released fipom sin: a Brdhmen, by r^id pe-
* nance alone can eoopiate that offence ; another twice- ' horn man ynay also 'perform such a penance at his
* election.
1.02* * The twice-born man, who desires to remove ' by austere devotion the taint caused by stealing ' gold, must perform in a forest, covered with a ' mantle of rough bark, the penance before ordained ^ for him, who tvithout malice prepense has killed a
* Brdhmen.
103. * By these expiations may the twice-bonf atone ' for the guilt of stealing gold from a priest; but the
* sin of adultery with the wife of a father, natural
* or spiritual, they must jexpiate by the following pe-
* nances.
104, * He, who knowingly and actually has defiled ^ the wife of his father, she being of the same class, ^ must extend himself on a h^ted iron bed, loudly
* proclaiming his guUt; and, there embracing the red ^ hot iron image of a woman, he shall atone tost Us ^ crime by death :
105. * Or,
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AND fiXWAWON. flW
105. V Or, hflvmg IiSin«elf aatptAMed Ms {Mais ftiid CUAp. ^ sorottun, ttod bokliug th«ia ib Mb fittgdMi be mt^ ^• 'walk in a direct path toward the Aouth^^e^t, ot the ^ region of Nirriti, until he fall dead on th6 grotttid:
' 106. ^ Or, i/* Atf Aarf iViiitaken her far another wMOmy
* he may perform iot a whole year, with intense ttp- ^ plication of mind, the penance prcg6patyd^ witE part ^ of a bed, ^ in vesture of coarse bark, letting his hair and beard ^ grow, and liTing in a deserted forest:
107. * Or, if she was of a lotver class and a e&rrUpt
* woman^ he may expiate the sin of violating the bed ^ of his fathw, by continuing the penance chandr6ya^ ^ na for three months, always mortifying his body by ^ eating only forest herbs^ or wild grains boiled in ■ water.
108. * By the preceding penances may sinners of
* the two higher degrees atone for their guilt ; and
* the less offenders may expiate theirs by the follow- ^ ing austerities.
109. * Hb, who has committed the smaller offence ^ of killing a cow tvithout malicey must drink for the ^ first month barley-corns boiled soft in water; his
* head must be shaved entirely ; and, covered with the ^ hide of the slain cowy he fliust Sx his abode on her ^ late pasture ground :
110. * He may eat a moderate quantity of wild ' grains y but without any facjtitiout salt, for the next
3 c 2 ^ two
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9^ oKstmAvcE.
CHAP. \ ^HFO mMitto: tik &e time of each fontk r
^^ ^the €0€nmg of evefy second day; regnlarly bathing^iit
' the urine of cows^ and keeping fak memben nn^r
^ pontroul: . -
111. ^ AU day he must wait on liie herd, abd ^ stand quaffing the dust, raised hf their hoofs; at ^ night/ having servilely attended and stroked and sa-» ^ luted them^ he mast surround them with a fencOf and
* sit near to guard them :
112. ^ Pure and free from passion, he must -stand,' ^ while ^ey stand ; follow them, when they move to- ^ gether ; and lie down by them^ whai they lie down ^
'^ 113. * Should a cow be sick or terrified by tigers ^ or thieves, or fall, or stick in mud, he must re- ^ lieve her by all possible means :
114. ^ In heat, in rain, or in cold, or while the ^ blast furiously rages, let him not seek his own ' shelter, without first sheltering the cows to the ut- ' most of his power :
115. * Neither in his own house, or field, or floor
* for treading out grain, nor in those of any other
* person, let him say. a word of a cow, who eats
* com or grass, or of a calf, who drinks milk :
116. ' By waiting on a herd^ aqcording to thtise
* rules, for three months, the slayer of a cow atpi^s
* for his guilt ;
117. ^ j5u/,.his penance b^ing performed, he vmst

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AND BZHAIiON. 861
^ give tea obws aad^ a Irall^ or, Im stodc not being chap. ^ 90 latgey most deliver all be powessee^ to socb as ^ ' best know tbe FUda.
118. ' Thb preceding penances^ or that called chdn^ ^ irayana^ must be performed for the isolation of all ^ twice-born men, who have committed sm8 of the / lower w third degree ; except those, who have in- r corred the goilt of an avaeimi;
119. ^ But he, who has become Avacimuy must sa- ' crifice a bku:k or a one-eyed ass, by way of a meat- '^ oflfering to Nirriti, patroness of the south-sweaty by ^ night, in a place where four ways meet : ,
120. ^ Let him daily offer to her in fire the flit of ' tiiat ass, and, at the close of the ceremony, let him ^ offer clarified butter, with the holy text Sem and so ^ forth, to Pavana, to Indra, to Vrihaspati, and to
* AoNi, regents of wind, clouds, a planet, and fire. '
121. ^ A voluntary effusion, natwraUyi or otherwise, ^ of that which may produce a man, by a twice-born
* youth during the time of his studentship, or before ^ marriage, has been pronounced avacima, or a vio- ^ lation of the rule prescribed for the first order, by ^ sages, who knew the whole system of duty, and ut- ' tered the words of the Veda.
122. ^ To the four deities of purification, Ma'ruta,
* Indra, Vrihaspati^ Agni, goes all the divine light, ^ which the Veda had imparted, from the student, ' who comuita the fool sin eniiaeitna;
123. ' But,
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ONPBKANCE
CHAP. 123. ' But, this crime lumng flctiially been cowunlt- ^^- ■' ted, he must go beggii^ to seven houseSi dothed ' only with the hide of the sacrificed ass, and opeiily ' proclaiming his act:
134- ^ Eating a single meal begged from them, at ^ the regalar time of the day, thai isy in the morning
* or evening, and bathing each dtxy at the thrw sava- ^ nasy he shall be absolved from his guilt at the end ' of one year.
\^h. ^ He, who has voluntarily committed any sin,
* which causes a loss of class, must perform the tor- ' menting penance, thence called santapana ; or the ^ pr^apatyaj if ke offended involunitarily.
126. ^ For sins, which degrade to a mixed dass,
* or exclude from society, the sinner must have re- ' course to the lunar expiation chdndrdyana for one
* month : to atone for acts which occasion defilement,
* he mtist swallbw nothing for three days but hot ^ barley-gruel.
127. \ For killing intentionally a virtuou$ man of / the military class, the penance must be a fourth ^ part of that ordained for killing a priest ; for killing ' a Vaisya, only an eighth ; for killing a Sddra, who ' had been constant in discharging his duties, a six- ^ teenth part:
U^. ' But, li a Brdhmen kill a Cshatriya without ' malice, he must^ after a fidl pdrfoiiaiaBee of hi* Te-
* ligious
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AND E29IATI01I. 39B
UgiovB rites^ givb ike priests one bull together mth chap. a tbouatuid powa; ^*
129. ^ Or he vwy perform for three years the pe- nance for slftyiQg a Brdhmm, mortifying his organs of sensation «ad AQtion^ letting his hair grow long^ and living remote from the town, with the root of a tree for his mansion.
130. ^ If he kill without mcdice a Viaisya, who had a good moral eharaoter, he may p^onn the same penance for one year, or give the priests a hwidred cows and a bull:
131. ^ For six months must he perform this whole penance^ if mthaut intention \iie IdU a Sddra; or he may give ten white cows and a bull to the priests.
132. * If he kill by design a cat, or an ichneumon, the bird chdshay or a frog, a dog^ a lizard, an owl, or a crow, he must perform the ordinary penance required for the death of a SildrOy that is the chdn^ drdyana :
133. * Or, if he kill one of them undesignedly, he may drink nothing but milk for three days and nights, or each night walk a yd^n, or thrice bathe in a river, or silently repeat ttie text on the di- vinity of water; that is, if he be disabled by real infirmity from performing the first mentioned penances, he may have recourse to the newt in order*
134 ^ KBrdkmen, if he kill a gmke, must gtve to
^ some
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964 ON PENANCE
CHAP. ^ same priest a hoe, or iron-headed stick i if an ^u- ^^ ^ nuch, a load of rice-straw, and a m6§ha of lead;
135. / If a boar, a pot of clarified butter j if the ^ bird tittifriy a drdwa of ^t/ci-seeds; if a parrot, a
* steer two years old; if the water-bird crauncha^ a ^ steer aged three years:
136. * If he kill a goose^ or a phenieopteros, a ^ heron^ or cormorant, a bittern, a peacock, an ape, ' a hawk, or a kite, he must give a cow to some ' Brahmen:
137. ^ If he kill a horse, he must give a mantle; v« Mf an elephant, five black bulls; if a goat or a
^ sheep, one bull ; if an ass, a calf one year old :
138. ' If he kill a carnivorous wild beast, he must
* give a cow with abundance of milk; if a wild ' beast not carnivorous, a fine heifer ; and a racticd, ' of gold, if he slay a camel:
139. ^ If he kill a woman of any class caught in ^ adultery, he must give as an expiation, in the di- ^ rect order of the four classes, a leathern pouch, a
* bow, a goat, and a sheep.
140. ' Should a Brdhmen be unable to expiate by ' £^s the sin of killing a snake and the rest, he ^ must atone for his guilt by performing, on each ^ occasion, the penance prAfdpaiya.
141. ^ For the slaughter of a thousand small animals ^ which have bones, or for that of boneless animals
^ enow
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AND EXPIATION. 886
^ enow to fill a cart^ he must perform the chAndrAyanOf chap.
* or common penance for killing a Shidra; *^
142. ^ But^ for killing boned animals^ he must also ' give some trifle, as a pana of coppery to a Brdh- ' men: for killing those without bones, he may he ^ absolved by holding his breath, al the close of his ^ penancCy while he thrice repeats the g6yatri with its
* heady the pranava^ and the i)yahrttis.
143. ^ For cutting once without malice trees yielding
* fipuit, shrubs with many crowded stems, creeping or ^ climbing plants, or such as grow again when cut,
* if they were in blossom when he hurt them, he must ^ repeat a hundred texts of the Veda.
144. * For killing insects of any sort bred in rice
* or other grains, or those bred in honey or other ^ ' fluids, or those bred in fruit or flowers, eating clari-
' fled butter is a full expiation.
145. ^ If a man cut, wantonly and for no good piur- ^ pose, such grasses as are cultivated, or such as ^ rise in the forest spontaneously, he must wait on a
* cow for one day, nourished by milk alone.
146. ^ By these penances may mankind atone for ^ the sin of injuring sentient creatures, whether com- ^ mitted by design or through inadvertence: hear now ^ what penances are ordained lor eating or drinking ^ what ought not to be tasted.
147. ^ He, who drinks undesignedly any spirit but
3d 'that
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386 ON PENANCE
CHAP. ^ with the sacrificial string ; even for drinking inten^ ^ tionally the weaker sorts of spirit^ a penance ex- ^ tending to death must not (as the law is now fixed) ' be prescribed,
148. ^ For drinking water which has stood in a ^ vessel, where spirit of rice or any other spirituous ^ liquor had been kept, he must swallow nothings for ^ five days and nights, but the plant sanc'haptishpi ^ boiled in milk :
149. * If he touch any spirituous liquor, or give ^ any away, or accept any in due form, or with ^ thanks y or drink water left by a Sddra^ he must ' swallow nothing for three days and nights, but cusd- ^ grass boiled in water,
150. ^ Should a Brdhmen^ who has once tasted the
* holy juice of the moon-plant, even smell the breath ' of a man who has been drinking spirits, he must
* remove the taint by thrice repeating the gdyatri, ^ while he suppresses his breath in water, and by
* eating clarified butter after thai ceremony.
151. ^ If any of the three twice-born classes have ^ tasted unknowmgly human ordure or urine, or any ^ thing that has touched spirituous liquor^ they must, ^ after a penance^ . be girt anew with the sacrificial ' thread;
152. * But, in such new investiture of the twice- ' bom, the partiid tonsure, the zone, the staffs the
* petition
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AND EXMATION 3^
^ petition of alms, and the atriot ralm of abstinence, chap. * need not be renewed- ^
153. * Should one of them eat the food of those ^ persons, with whom he ought never to eat, or food ^ left by a wotnap or a Stidru, or any prohibited fle^h, ^ he must drink barley-gruel only for seven eUofs and ^ nights.
154. * If a Brdkmen drink sweet liquors turned ^ acid, or astringent juices from impure fruits, he be- ^ comes unclean, as long as those fluids remain un* ^ digested.
155. ^ Any twice-born man, who by accident has ^ tasted the dung or urine of a tame boar, an ass, ^ a camel, a shakal, an ape, or a crow^ must per- ^ form the penance chdndrdyana.
156. ^ If he taste dried flesh-meat, or mushrooms ^ rising from the ground, or any thing brought from
^ a slaughter-house, though he knew not whence it ' came, he must perform the same penance.
157. ^ For knowingly eating the flesh of carnivorous ^ beasts, of town-boars, of camels, of gallinaceous ^ birds, of human creatures, of crows, or of asses, ^ the penance tapUtcricb^hray or ^ming and severe^ ^ is the only atonement.
158. * A Brdhmeny who, before he has completed ^ his theological studies, eats food at monthly obse- ^ quies to one an^eetor^ must fast three days (fnd ^ nights^ and sit in water a day:
3 D 2 159. ' But
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388 ON PENANCE
CHAP. 159. ^ But a student in theology^ who at a&y time ^' ^ unknowingly tastes honey or flesh, must perform ^ the lowest penance, or the prdjdpafya, and proceed ^ to finish his studentship.
160. * Having eaten what has been left by a cat, ^ a crow, a mouse, a dog, or an ichneumon, or what ^ has even been touched by a louse, he must drink, ^ boiled in watery the plant brahmasuverchald.
161. ^ By the man, who seeks purity of soul, no ^ forbidden food must be tasted: what he has unde- ^ signedly swallowed he must instantly vomit up, or
* must purify himself with speed by legal expiations.
162. ^ Such, as have been declared, are the various
* penances for eating prohibited food: hear now the ^ law of penance for ah expiation of theft.
163. ' The chief of the twice-born, having volun- ^ tarily stolen such property, as grain, raw or dressed, ^ from the house of another Brdh^neny shall be ab- ^ solved on performing the penance prdjdpatya for a
- ' whole year;
164. ^ But the penance chdndrdyana must be per-
* formed for stealing a man, woman, or child, for ' seizing a field, or a house, or for taking the waters
* of an enclosed pool or well.
165. * Having taken goods of little value from the ^ house of another man, he must procure absolution ^ by performing the penance sdntapana; having first
^ restored,
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AND EXPIATION. 389
^ restored, as the penitent thief always musty the goods chap. ' that he stole. ^•
166. ^ For taking what may be eaten, or what may ^ be sipped, a carriage, a bed, or a seat, roots,
* flowers, or fruit, an atonement may be made by
* swallowing the five pure things produced by a cow, ^ or milky curdsy hutte^^ urine ^ dung :
167. ^ For stealing grass, wood, or trees, rice in ^ the husk, molasses, cloth or leather, fishy or other ' animal food, a strict fast must be kept three days ^ and three nights.
168- * For stealing gems, pearls, coral, copper, ^ silver, iron, brass, or stone, nothing but broken rice ^ must be swallowed for twelve days;
169. ^ And nothing hut milk for three days, if ' cotton or silk, or wool had been stolen, or a. beast ^ either with cloven or imcloven hoofs, or a bird, ^ or perfumes, or medicinal herbs, or cordage.
170. ^ By these penances may a twice-born man ^ atone for the guilt of theft; but the following aus- ^ terities only can remove the sin of carnally ap- ^ proaching those, who must not be carnally approached
171. ^ He, who has wasted his manly strength with ^ sisters by the same womb, with the wives of his ^ friend or of his son, with girls under the age of ^ puberty, or with women of the lowest classes, must ^ perform the penance ordained for defiling the bed ^ of a preceptor:
172. ^ He,
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390 ON PENANCE
CHAP. 172. ^ He, who has carnally known the daughter
^ of his paternal aunt, who is almost equal to a s^ister^
^ or the daughter of his maternal aunt, or the
^ daughter of his maternal uncle, who is a near kins-
* man, must perform the chdndrayanay or lunar pe- ^ nance;
173. ^ No man of sense would take one of those
* three as his wife: they shall not be taken in mar- ^ riage by reason of their consanguinity; and he, ' who marries any one of them, falls deep info sin.
174. ^ He, who has wasted, what might have pro- ^ duced a man, with female brute animals, with a ^ woman during her courses, or in any but the natu- ^ ral part, or in water, must perform the penance sdn-
* tapana : for a bestial act with a cow the penance ^ must be far more severe.
175. ^ A twice^bom man, dallying lasciviously with ^ a male in any place or at any timcy or with a fe- ^ male in a carriage drawn by bullocks, or in water, ^ or by day, shall be degraded^ and must bathe him- ^ self publickly with his apparel.
176. ^ Should a Brdhmen carnally know a woman
* of the Chanddla or Ml^ch^ha-trihes, or taste their ^ food, or accept a gift from them, he loses his own ^ class, if he acted unknowingly, or, if knowingly, ^ sinks to a level with them.
177. ^ A wife, excessively corn^pt, let her husband ^ confine to one apartment, and compel her to per*
^ form
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AND EXPIATION. 891
^ fonn the penance ordained for a man, who has com-* chap. ^ mitted adultery: ^'•
178. ^ If, havhig been solicited by a man of her ^ own class, she again be defiled, her expiation mnst ^ be the penance prAjdpatya added to the chdndrAyana.
179. * The guilt of a Brdhmeriy who has dallied a ^ whole night with a C%an€^A-woman, he may re- ^ move in three years by subsisting on % alms,, and in-
* cessantly repeating the g&yatri with other mys- ^ terious texts.
180. ^ These penances have been declared for sin- ^ ners of four sorts, those who hart sentient creatures^ ^ those who eat prohibited foody those who commit thefty ^ and those who are guilty ^f lasciviausness : hear now
* the prescribed expiation for such, as hold any inter- ^ course with degraded offenders.
181. ^ He, who associates himself for one year with ^' a fallen sinner, falls like him; not by sacrificing, ^ reading the Feda^ or contracting affinity with him, ^ jsince by those acts he loses his class immediately y but
* even by usiujg the same carriage or seat, or by ^ taking his food at the same board:
182. ^ That man who holds an intercourse with any ^ one of those degraded offenders, must perform, as ^ an atonement for such intercourse, the penance ^ ordained for that sinner himself.
183. ^ The sapindas and samAnddacas of a man de-
* graded, for a crime in the first degree^ must offer
^ a libation
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3d2 ON PENANCE
CHAP. 4 ^ libation of water to his manes, as if he were
^ naturalltf dead, out of the town, in the evening of
* some inauspicious day, as (he ninth of the moon, ^ his paternal kinsmen, his officiating priest, and his ^ spiritual guide being present.
184. ^ A female slave must kick down with her foot ^ an old pot filled with water, which had for that pur- ^ pose been placed before the south, as if it were an ^ oblation for the dead; and all the kinsmen, in the
* nearer and remoter degrees, must remain impure for ^ a day and a night:
185. ^ They must thenceforth desist from speaking ^ to him, from sitting in his company, from deliver-
* ing to him any inherited or other property, and ^ from every civil or usual attention, m inviting him
* on the first day of the year, and the like.
186. ^ His right of primogeniture, if he was an el- ^ der brother, must be withholden from him, and what- ^ ever perquisites arise from priority of birth : a
* yoimger brother, excelling him in virtue, must ap- ^ propriate the share of the first-born.
187. * But, when he has performed his due penance, ^ his kinsmen and he must throw down a new vessel ^ full of water, after having bathed together in a ^ pure pool:
188. ^ Then must he cast that vessel into the
* water; and, having entered his house, he may per- ^ form, as before, all the acts incident to his rela- ^ tion by blood.
189. ' The
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AND EXPIATION, 99S
189. * Tlie same ceremony must be perforaied by chap. ^ the kindred even of women degraded^ for whom ^^•
^ clothes, dressed rice, and water must be provided; ^ and they must dwell in huts near the family house.
190. ^ With sinners, whose expiations are unper- ^ formed, let not a man transact business of any ^ kind; but those, who have performed their expia- ^ tions, let him at no time reproach:
191. ^ Let him not, however, live with those, who ^ have slain children, or injured their benefactors, or ^ killed suppliants for protection, or put women to ^ death, even though such offenders have been legally ^ purified.
192. ^ Thosb men . of the twice-born dasses, to ^ whom the gdyatrl has not been repeated and ex* ^ plained, according to law, the assembly must cause ^ to perform three prdjdpatya penances, and afterwards ^ to be girt with the sacrificial string;
193. ^ And the same penance they must prescribe ^ to such twice-born men, as are anxious to atone ^ for some illegal act, or a neglect of the Vdda.
194. * If priests have accepted any property from ^ base hands, they may be absolved by rdinquishing ^ the presents, by repeating mysterious texts, and by ^ acts of devotion:
195. ^ By three thousand repetitions of the gdyatrl ^ with intense application of mind, and by subsisting ^ on milk only for a whole month on the pasture
3 b ^ of
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894 ON PENANCE
CHAP. ^ of cows^ a Brihmen^ who has received any gift ^^' ^ firom a bad man, or a had gift from any mauy may ^ be cleared itom sin.
196. ^ When he has been mortified by abstinence, ' and has returned from the pasturage, let him bend ^ low to the other BrdhmenSy who must thus interro- ^ gate him : ^^ Art thou really desirous, good man, of ^ readmission to an equality with us?^'
197. * If he answer in the affirmative, let him give ^ some grass to the cows^ and in the place, made ^ pure by their having eaten on it, let the men of ^ his class give their assent to his readmission.
198. ^ He, who has officiated at a sacrifice for out- ^ casts, or burned the corpse of a stranger, or per- ^ formed rites to destroy the innocent, or made the ^ impure sacrifice, called Ahinuy may expiate his guilt ^ by three prdjapaiya penances.
199. ^ A TwicB-BORN man, who has rejected a sup- ' pliant for his protection, or taught the VSda on a ^ forbidden, day, may atone for his offence by sub- ' sisting a whole year on barley alone.
200. ^ He, who has been bitten by a dog, a sha- * kal, or an ass, by any carnivorous animal frequent-' ^ ing a town, by a man, a horse, a camel, or a ^ boar, may be purified by stopping his breath during ^ one repetition of the gdyatri.
201. ' To eat only at the time of the sixth meal, ^ or on the evening of every third day^ for a month,
' to
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AMD EXPIATION. 9M
^ to repeat a Sankiiii of the Pifdas^ and to make chaf. ^ leighi oblations to ftre^ accotnpanied with eight holy ^^* ^ texts^ are always an expiation for those, who are ^ excluded from society at repasts.
202. * Should a Brdhmen voluntarily ascend a car- ^ rii^e borne by camels or drawn by asses, or design- ^ edly bathe quite naked, he may be absolved by ^ one suppression of breath, while he repeats in his ^ mind the most holy tewt
203. ^ He, who has made any excretion, being
* greatly pressed, either without water near himy or ^ in water, may be purified by bathing in his clothes ^ out of town, and by touching a cow.
204. * For an omission of the acts, which the Vida '^ commands to be constantly performed, and for a vio- ^ lation of the duties prescribed to a housekeeper, the ^ atonement is fasting one day.
205. * He, who says hush or pish to a Brdhmen^ ' or thou to a superiour, must immediately bathe, eat ^ nothing for the rest of the day, and appease him ^ by clasping his feet with respectful salutation.
206. ^ For striking a Brdhmen even with a bl^e ^ of grass, or tying him by the neck with a cloth,
* or overpowering him in argument, and adding con-
* temptuous words, the offender must soothe him by ^ falling prostrate.
207. ^ An assaulter of a Brdhmen^ with intent to
3 E 2 ' kill,
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896 ON PENANCE
CHAP. * kill, shall remain in hcU a hundred years ; for ae- ^' \ tually striking him with the like tntentf a thonsaiid :
208. ^ As many small pellets of dust as the blood ^ of a Brdhmen collects on the ground, for so many ^ thousand years must the shedder of that blood be ^ tormented in helL
209. ^ For a simple assault, the first or comrmn pe-
* nance must be performed; for a battery, the third
* or very severe penance ; but for shedding blood, ^ tbithout killings both of those penances.
210. ^ To remove the sins, for which no particular ^ penance has been ordained, the assembly must award ' a fit expiation, considering the ability of the sin-
* ner to perform ity and the nature of the sin.
211. ^ Those penances, by which a man may atone ^ for his crimes^ I now will describe to you; pe- ^ nances, which have been performed by deities, by ^ holy sages, and by forefathers of the human race.
212. ^ When a twice-born man performs the com- ' man penance, or that of Praja'pati^ he must for ' three days eat only in the morning; for three days, ' only in the evening; for three days, food unasked ^ but presented to him; and for three more days, no- ' thing.
213. ^ Eating for a whole day the dung and urine ^ of cows mixed with curds, milk, clarified butter, ^ and water boiled with euM-grass, and then fasting ^ entirely for a day and a night, is the penance
* called
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AND EXPIATION.
m
^ called Sdntapana, (either from th^ devout man San- Chap.
* TAPANA9 or from tarmentingj. x^-
214. * A twice-born man performing the penance,
* called very severe, in reject of (he common^ must
^ eat, as before, a single mouthful, or a ball of rice . ^ M large as a hen's eggy iFor three times three days;
* and for the last three days, must wholly abstain ^ from food.
215. ' A Brdhmeny performing the ardent penance, ^ must swallow nothing but hot water, hot milk, hot ^ clarified butter, and hot steam, each of them for ^ three days successively, performing an ablution and ^ mortifying all his members.
216. ^ A total fast for twelve days and nights^ by ^ a penitent with his oi^ans controlled dnd his mind ^ attentive, is the penance named pardca, which ex- ^ piates all degrees of gmlt.
217. ^ If he diminish his food by one mouthful each ^ dat/y during the dark fortnight, eating ff teen mouth' ^ fuls on the day of the opposition^ and increase it, ^ m the same proportion^ during the bright fortnight, ' fasting entirely on the day 6f the oonjunctiony and ^ perform an ablution regularly at sunrise, noon, and ^ sunset, this is the ehdndrdyonay or the lunar pe-
* nance:
218. ^ Such is the penance called ant-shaped or nar- ^ row in the middle f but, if he perform the barley- ^ shaped, or broad in the middle^ he must observe the
^ same
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968 ON PENANCE
CHAP« ^ same rule^ beginning with the bright half-monUi, ^^' ^ and keeping under command his oigans of a^aon * and sense.
219. ^ To perform the Iwiar penance of an ancho* ^ ret, he must eat only eight mouthftds of forest ^ grains at noon for a whole months taking care to ^ subdue his mind.
220. ^ If a Brdhmen eat only four mouthfuls at sun- ^ rise, and four at sunset, for a months keeping his ^ organs controlled, he performs the lunar penance of
children.
c
221. ^ He, who, for a whole month, eats no more ^ than thrice eighty mouthfuls of wild grains, as he ^ happens by any means to meet with them, keeping ^ his organs in subjection, shall attain the same abode ^ with the regent of the moon :
222. ^ The eleven Rudrasy the twelve AdityaSy the
* eight Vasusy the MarutSy or genii of the winds, and ^ the seven great Rishisy have performed this lunar ^ penance as a security from all evil.
223. ^ The oblation of clarified butter to fire must
* every day be made by the penitent himself, accom-
* panied with the mighty words, earthy sky, heaven; ^ he must perfectly abstain from injury to sentient ^ creatures, from falsehood, from wrath, and from all
* crooked ways.
224. ^ Or, thrice each fday^ and thrice each night ^ for a monthi the peoitont may plunge into water
^ clothed
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AND EXPIATION. SW
' cloithed in his mantle, and at no time conversing chap. ^ with a woman5 a Sddroy or an outcast.
225. ^ Lbt him be always in motion, sitting and
* rising alternately; or, if imable to be thtcs restless, ^ let him sleep low on the bare ground; chaste as a ^ student of the f^Sda, bearing the sacred zone and ^ ^taff, showing reverence to his preceptor, to the ' gods, and to priests;
226. ^ Perpetually must he repeat the gdyatri, and ^ other pure texts to the best of his knowledge: ^ thus in all penances for absolution from sin, must ^ he vigilantly employ himself.
227- ^ By these expiations are twice-born men ab- ^ solved whose offences are publickly known, and are ^ mischievous by their ewcnnple; but for sins not pub- ^ lick, the assembly of priests must award them ^ penances, with holy texts and oblations to fire.
228. ^ By open confession, by repentance, by de- ^ votion, and by reading the scripture, a sinner may ^ be released firom his guilt; or by alms-giving, in
* case of his inability to perform the other cu^ts of re- ^ ligton.
229. ^ In proportion as a man, who has committed ^ a sin, shall truly and voluntarily confess it, so for ^ he is disengaged irom that offence, like a snake ' from his slough;
230. ^ And, in proportion as his heart sincerely
^ loathes
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CHAP. XL
400. ON PENANCE
^ loathes his evil deed, so far shall his vital spirit ^ be freed from the taint of it.
231. ^ If he oommit sin^ and actually repent, that ^ sin shall be removed from him; but if he merely ^ say, ^* I will sin thus no more/' he can only be ^ released by an actual abstinence from guilt.
232. ^ Thus revolving in his mind the certainty of ^ retribution in a future state, let him be constantly ' good in thoughts, words, and action.
233. ^ If he desire complete remission of any foul ^ act which he has committed, either ignorantly or ^ knowingly, let him beware of committing it again; ^ for the second fault his penance must be doubled.
234. ^ If, having performed any expiation, he feel ^ not a perfect satisfaction of conscience, let him re- ^ peat the same devout act, imtil his conscience be
* perfectly satisfied.
235. ^ All the bliss of deities and of men is de- ^ clared by sages, who discern the sense of the ySda^ ^ to have in devotion its cause, in devotion its con- ^ tinuance, in devotion its frillness.
236. * Devotion is equal to the performance of all ^ duties; it is divide knowledge in a Brdhmen; it is ^ defence of the people in a Cshatriya; devotion is ^ the business of trade and agriculture in a Vaisya;
* devotion is dutifrQ service in a SMra.
237- VHoly sages, with subdued passions, feeding
^ only
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AND EXPIATION. 401
* only on fhdt, roots, and air, by devotion alone are char
* enabled to survey the three worlds, terrestrial^ ^^ ^ ethereal^ and celestial^ peopled with animal creatures,
^ locomotive and fixed.
238. ^ Perfect health, or unfailing medicines, divine ^ learning, and the various mansions of deities, are ^ acquired by devotion alone: their efficient cause is ^ devotion.
239. * Whatever is hard to be traversed, whatever ^ is hard to be acquired, whatever is hard to be ^ visited, whatever is hard to be performed, all this ^ may be accomplished by true devotion; for the dif- ' ficulty of devotion is the greatest of alL
240. ^ Even sinners in the highest degree, and of ^ course the other offenders, are absolved firom guUt
* by austere devotion well practised.
241. ^ Sauls, that animate worms, and insects, ser- ^ pents, moths, beasts, birds, and vegetables, attain ^ heaven by the power of devotion.
242. ^ Whatever sin has been conceived in the ^ hearts of men, uttered in their speech, or com-
* mitted in their bodily acts, they speedily bum it
* all away by devotion, if they preserve devotion as ^ their best wealth.
243. ^ Of a priest, whom devotion has purified^ the
* divine spirits accept the sacrifices, and grant the ^ desires with ample increase.
3 p 244. ' Even
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4
CHAP. 244 ^ Even Bbahha'^ lord of creatures^ by devo- ^- ^ tion enacted this code of lawsj and the sages by ^ devotion acquired a knowledge of the VSdas.
246. ^ Thus the gods themselves, observing in this ', universe the incomparable power of devotion, have ^ proclaimed aloud the transcendent excellence of ^ pious austerity.
246. * By reading each day as much as possible of ^ the V^duy by performing the Jive great sacraments, ^ and by forgiving all injuries, even sins of the high- ' est degree shall be soon effaced:
247. ^ As fire consumes in an instant with his ^ bright flame the wood, that has been placed on ^ it, thus, with the flame of knowledge, a Brdhmen,
* who understands the f^Sda, consumes all sin.
248. ' Thus has been declared, according to law, ^ the mode of atoning for open sins : now learn the ^ mode of obtaining absolution for secret offences.
249. ^ Sixteen suppressions of the breath, while the
* holiest of texts is repeated with the three mighty
* words, and the triliteral syllable, continued each
* day for a month, absolve even the slayer of a ^ Brdhmen from his hidden faults.
250. ' Even a drinker of spirituous liquors is ab- ^ solved by repeating each day the text apa used by ^ the sage Cautsa, or that beginning with preti used
* by Vasisht'ha, or that called mdhitra, or that, of ^ which the first word is suddhavatyah.
261. ' By
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^r
AND EXPIATION. '408
251. ^ By repeating each day fw^ a mon^ the text CHAP. ^ dsytwdmiya^ or the hymn Swasoficalpay the stealer ^'
* of gold from a priest becomes instantly pure.
262. ^ He, who has violated the bed of his pre- ^ ceptor, is cleared from secret faults by repeating ^ sixteen times a day the text havishyantiya^ or that ^ beginning with na tam^hahy or by revolving in his ^ mind the sixteen holy verses, called Paurusha.
253. ^ The man, who desires to expiate his hidden ^ sins great and small, must repeat once a day for ^ a year the text ava^ or the text yatcinchida.
254. ^ He, who has accepted an illegal present, or ^ eaten prohibited food, may be cleansed in three ^ days by repeating the text taratsarfiandiya.
255. ^ Though he have committed many secret sins, ^ he shall be purified by repeating fiDr a month the ^ text sdm&raudra^ or the three texts dryamna^ while ^ he bathes in a sacred stream.
256. ^ A grievous offender must repeat the seven ^ versea, beginning with Loira, for half a year; and ^ he, who has defiled water with any impurity, must ^ sit a whole year subsisting by alms.
257. ^ A twice-bom man, who shall oflFer clarified
* butter for a year, with eight texts appropriated to ^ eight several oblatiims^ or with the texts na mi^ ^ shall efface a sid even of an extremely high de- ' gree.
3 F 2 258. * He,
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404 ON PENANCE
CHAP. 35B« ^ He^ who bad committed a orime of the ftret
^' ^ degree^ shall be absolved^ if he attend a herd of

^ repeat the texts beginning with pdvamdni^ living
^ solely on food given in charity.
259. ' Or, if he thrice repeat a Sanhitd of the ^ V^daSy or a large portion of them with all the ^ mantras and br&hmenas^ dwelling in a forest with ^ subdued organs, and purified by three pardcas, he ^ shall be set free from all sins how beinous soever.
260. ^ Or he shall be released from all deadly sins, ^ if he fast three days, with his members mortified,
* and twice a day plunge into water, thrice repeating ^ the text aghamarskana :
261. ^ As the sacrifice of a horse, the king of sa- ^ crifices, removes all sin, thus the text aghamarehana ' destroys all offences.
262. ^ A priest, who should retain in his memory ^ the whole Rigvida^ would be absolved fix>m guilt, ^ even if he had slain the inhabitants of the three
* worlds, and had eaten food from the foulest hands.
263. ^ By thrice repeating the mantras and hrdh^ ^ menas of the SSchy or those of the Yajushy or those ^ of the Sdman, with the upanishadsy he shall per*
* fectly be cleansed from every possible taint:
264. ^ As a clod of earth, cast into a great lake, ^ sinks in it, thus is every sinful act submerged in
* the triple Veda^
266. ' The
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AND EXHATION. 405
265. ^ The divisions of the BUch^ the branches of the Yajushj and the manifold strains of ^- the Sdman must be considered as forming the triple Vdda: he knows the Vida^ who knows them col- lectively.
266. ^ The primary triliteral syllable, in which the three V^dw themselves are comprised, must be kept secret, aa another triple VSda: he knows the V4day who distinctly, knows the mystick sense of that word.'
CHAP.
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CHAP. XII. On Tnmsnigratim. and Fhttd Beatitude,
CHAP. 1. ' O THOU, who art free from sin/ said the dewmt
XII
sagesy * thou hast declared the whole system of duties
* ordamed for the four classes of men: explain to us ' now, from the first principles, the ultimate retribu- ^ tion for their deeds/
2. Bhrigu, whose heart was the pure essence of virtue, who proceeded from Menu himself, thus ad- dressed 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 three-fold 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.
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 mind :
6. ^ Scurrilous
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ON TRAKSMI6RATI0N, Ac 407
6. \ Scurrilous language, falsehood, indiscrimmate chap. ^ backbiting, and useless tattle, are the four bad acts ^^*
^ of th« tongue :
7. * Taking effects not given, hurting sentient crea- ^ tures without the sanction of law, and criminal in- ^ tercourse with the wife of another, are the three ^ bad acts of the body; and all the ten have their ^ oppositesy which are good in an equal degree.
8. ^ A rational creature has a reward or a punish- ^ ment 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 or mineral form; for ^ such acts mostly verbal, the form of a bird or a ^ beast; for acts mostly mental, the lowest of human ^ conditions:
10. ^ He, whose firm understanding obtains a com- ' mand over his words, a command over his thoughts, ^ and a command over his whole body, may justly be ^ called a tridandi, or triple commander; not a mere ^ anchoret J who hears three visible staves. . ^
11. ^ The man, who exerts this triple self-command ^ with respect to all animated creatures, wholly sub- ' duing both lust and wrath, shall by thost means ^ attain beatitude.
12. ^ That substance, which gives a power of mo-
^ tion
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CHAP. ^ tion to the body, the wise call csMtrajnyay or jivdt- x^'- ^ fnauy the vital spirit; and that body, which thence ^ derives active functions, they name bhtttdtmany or ' composed of elements :
13. ^ Another internal spirit, called mahat, or the ' great soul, attends the birth of all creatures imbo- ^ died, and thence in all mortal forms is conveyed ^ a perception either pleasing or painful.
14. ' Those two, the vital spirit and reasonable soul, ' are closely united with fve elements, but connected ^ with the supreme spirit, or divine essence, which ' pervades all beings high and low :
15. * From the substance of that supreme spirit are ^ diffused, like sparks from fre, innumerable vital spi- ' rits, which perpetually give motion to creatures ex- ^ alted and base.
16. * 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;
17. ^ And, being intimately united with those minute ^ nervous particles, according to their distribution, ' they shall feel, in that new body, the pangs inflict- ^ ed in each case by the sentence of Yama.
18. ^ When the vital soul has gathered the fruit of ^ sins, which arise from a love of sensual pleasure,
' but
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^ but must produce misery, and, when its taint has chap.
^ thus been removed, it approaches again those two xii.
^ most eflFiilgent essences, th^ intellectual soul and the
^ divine spirit:
19. ^ They two, closely conjomed, examine without ^ remission the virtues and vices of that sensitive soul, ^ according to its union with which it acquires plea* * sure or pain in the present and future worlds.
20. ^ If the vital spirit had practised virtue for the ^ most part, and 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 de- ^ serted by those pure elements, and, having a coarser ^ bocfy of sensible nerves, it feels the pains to which ^ Yama shall doom it :
22. ^ Having endured those torments according to ^ the sentence of Yama, and its taint being almost ^ removed, it i^ain reaches those five pure elements ^ in the order of their natural distribution.
23. ^ Let each man, considering with his inteUec- ^ tual powers these migrations of the soul according ^ to its virtue or vice, iftio a region of bliss or pain, ^ continually fix his heart on. virtue.
24. ^ Bb it known, that the three qualities of the ^ rational soul are a tend^iey to goodness, to pasfidon, ^ and to darkness; and, endued with one or more of
3 G ^ them.
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CHAP. ' them, it i^emains incessantly attached to aJi thesef ^^ ^created substances!
25. ^ When any one of the three qualities predomi- ' nates in a mortal frame, it renders the imbodied ^ spirit eminently distinguished for that quality.
26. * Goodness is declared to be true knowledge; ^ darkness, gross i^orance ; passion, an emotion of * desire or aversion : such is the compendious descrip- ^ tion of those qualities, which attend all soids.
27. ^ When a man perceives in the reasonable soul ^ a disposition tending to virtuous love, unclouded ' with any malignant passion, clear as the purest ^ light, let him recognise it as the quality of good- ^ ness :
28.^ A temper of mind, which gives uneasiness and ^ produces disaffection, let him consider as the ad- ^ verse quality of passion, ever agitating imbodied spi- ' rits :
29« ^ That indistinct, inconceivable, unaccountable ' disposition of a mind naturally sensual, and clouded ' with infatuation, let him know to be the quality of ' darkness.
30. ^ Now will I declare at largfi the various acts, ' in the highest, middle, and lowest degrees^ whiph ^ proceed from those three dispositions of mind.
31. * Study of scripture^ austere devotion, sacred ^ knowledge, corporeal purity^ command over the or-
' '■ ^ gans.
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f ^OL^y peifonnaiices of dutito^ aotd meditation oti tlie chap. ^ divine spirit^ accompany the ^ood quality df the soul:
32. ^ Interested motives for abts of retigion 'or mo- ' ralifj/y perturbation of mind on slight occcmonSy com- *^ mission of acts forbidden by law, and habitual in- ^ dtdgence in selfish gratifications, are attendant on ^ the quality of passion:
33. ^ Covetousness, indolence, avarice, detraction, * atheism, omission of prescribed acts, a habit of so- ^ liciting favours, and inattention to necessary busi- ^ ness, belong to the dark quality.
34. ^ Of those three qualities^ as they appear in the ^ thref^ tii^es, pasty prese^ty and future y 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 ^ ashan^ of having done, of doing, or of going to 'do:
36. * 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 afllicted, if he fail of attaining ' his object:
•37. 'To the quality of goodness belongs every act, ' by which he hopes to acquire divine knowledge,
3 G 2 ' which
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412 ON TRANSMfORATIOK
CHAP. ^ brings placid joy to his consdence.
38. * Of the dark quality^ as described^ the princi*
* pal object is pleasure; of the passionate^ worldly ^ prosperity; but of the good quality^ the chief object ^ is virtue: the last mentioned objects are auperiour ^ in dignity.
39. ^ Such transmigrations^ as the soul procures in ^ this universe by each of those qualities^ I now will
* declare in order succinctly.
^40. ^ Souls^ endued with goodness, attain always the ^ state of deities; those filled with ambitious passions, \ the condition of men; and those innnersed in dark- ' ness, 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 ^ three-fold^ the lowest, the mean, and the highest^ ' according to as many distinctions of aets and of ^ knowledge.
42. * Vegetable and mineral substances, worms,, in- ' sects, and reptiles, some very minute, some rather ' larger, fish, snakes, tortoises, cattle, shakals, are ^ the lowest forms, to wluch the dark quality leads :
43. ^ Elephants, horses, men of the servile class, ^ and contemptible MlSeKhas, or barbarians, lions, ti- ^ gers, and boars, are the mean states procured by ^ the quality of darkness :
44. ^ Dancers
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AMD FINAL BEATITUDE. 41§
44. ^ Dfmoers andsingera^ birda, and deceitful m^n, chap. ^ giants and blood-thirsty savages^ are the highest xn. ^ conditions^ to which the dark quality can ascend,
45 ^ J^haUma^ or oudgel-play^^rs^ MaUas^ or boxers * and wrestlers^ Natm, or actors^ those who teach ^ the use of weapons^ and those who are addicted ^ to gaming or drinking, are the lowest forms pc* ^ casioned by tiie passionate quality:
46. * Kings^ men of the fighting class, domestick .^ priests of kings, and men skilled in the war of ^ controversy, are the middle states caused by the ^ quality of passion:
47. ^ Gandharvizs, or aerial musicians, Guhyacas and ^ Yac$ha9j or servants and companions of Cuvb'ra, ^ genii attending superiour gods, as the Fufyddharas /and others, together with various companies of ^ uipsarases or nymphs, are the highest of those forms, ' which the quality of passion attains.
48. ^ Hermits, religions mendicants, other Brdhmensy \ such orders of demigods as are wafted in airy cars, - genii of the signs and lunar mansions, and Daityas, ' or the qff^spring of Diti, are the lowest of states ^ procured by the quality of goodness:
49. ^ Sacrificers, holy sages, deities of the lower ^ heaven, genii of the Vddasy regents of stars not in ^ the pathi of ike sun a$id moon, divinities of years, ^ Pitfis or progenitors of mankind, iuad the demigods ^ named Sddhya$, are the middle forms, to which the
* good
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CHAP. ^ good ™- ' with it: ^
50. ^ Brahma' witli four faces, creators of woiids ^ under him, as Mari'chi ami others, the geniiie of ^ virtue^ the divhuties presidmg over (TSn^ principles ^ ef nature in the philosopky jof Capila) mahat, or the ^ mighty, and m^yacta, or unperceived, are the hi^best ^ conditions, to which, by the good quality, souls are ' exalted,
61. ^ 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. ^ Thus, by indiflging the sensual appetites, and ^ by neglecting the performance of duties, the basest ^ of men, ignorant of sacred expiations, assume the ' basest forms.
53. ^ What particular bodies the vital spirit enters
* in this world, and an consequence of what sins 'here committed, now hear at large and in order.
54. ' Sinners in the first degree, having passed
* through terrible regions of torture for a great num- ' ber of years, are condemned to the following births ' at the close of that period, to efface all remains of \ their sin.
55. ' The slayer of a Brdhmen must enter ofiford- ^ ing to the 4^cumstanees of hie crime the body of
' * a dog,
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ANP FINAL 9BATITUO& 415
^ a ibg5 a boary aili «««/ a dtfael, a bully a go^, a char Vsheap^ a stag, a bird^ a Chemddia, or a Pucoasa. ^^
56. ^ A priest, wbo has drunk spirituous liquor, ^ shall migrate into the form of a smaller or larger ^ worm or insect, of a moth, of a fly feeding on ^ orduie, or of some ravenous animal.
57. ^ He, who steals the gold of a priest^ shall ^ pass a thousand times into the bodies of spiders, ^ of snakes and cameleOns, of crocodiles and other
* aquatick monsters, or of mischievous blood-sucking
* demons.
58. * He, who violates the bed of his natural of ^ spiritual father, migrates a hundred times into the ' forms of grasses, of shrubs with crowded stems> or of ' creepiiig and twining plants, of vultures 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, are bom ' cats and other eaters 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. ^ He, who has held intercourse with degraded ' men, or been criminally connected with the wife of ^' another, or stolen comm&n things from a priest, ^ shall be changed into a spirit aalled Brdhma- ^ rdcshasm
61. ' The
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416 dN TRANSMIGRATION
CHAP. 6L * The wretch^ who through covetousness has
^^^ ^ stolen rubies or other gems, pearls, or coral, or
' precious things of which there are many sorts,
^ shall be bom in the tribe of goldsmiths, or among
' birds called h^macdras, or gold^makers.
62. ^ If a man steal grain in the husk, he shall ' be bom a rat; if a yellow mixed metal, a gander; ^ if water, a plava, or diver ; if honey a great sting- ^ ing gnat ; if milk, a crow ; if expressed juice, a ' dog ; if clarified butter, an ichneumon-weasel ;
63. ^ If he steal flesh-meat, a vulture; if any sort ^ of fat, the water-bird madgui if oil, a blatta, or ^ oil-drinking beetle; if salt, a cicada or cricket; if ' curds, the bird valdca;
64. * If silken clothes, the bird titUri; if woven ^ flax, a frog; if cotton cloth, the water-bird craun- ^ cha; if a cow, the lizard gddhd; if molasses, the * bird vAgguda;
65. ^ If exquisite perfumes, a musk-rat ; if potherbs, ' a peacock ; if dressed grain in any of its various ' forms, a porcupine; if raw grain, a hedge^ho^;
66. ^ If he steal fire, the bird vaca; if a house- ^ hold utensil, an ichneumon-fly; if dyed cloth, the ^ bird chacdra;
67- ^ If a deer or an dephant, he shall be bom a ^ wolf; if a iiorse, a tiger; if roots or frmt, an ' ape ; if a woman, a bear ; if water from a jar^ the
' bird
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* bird chAtaeu; if carriages, a camd; if small cattle, chap. ^ a goat. ^"•
68. ^ That man, who designedly takes away the pro-
* perty of another, or eats any holy cakes not first ^ presented to the deity at a solemn rite, shall in- ^ evitably sink to the condition of a brute.
69. * Women, who have committed similar thefts, ^ incur a similar tamt, 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 Brdhmen omit his peculiar duty, he
* shall be changed into a demon called Ulcdmuc'ha
* or with a mouth like a firebrand^ who devours what
* has been vomited; a Cshatriyaj into a demon called ^ Catapdtana, who feeds on ordure and carrion;
72. ^ A VaisyUy into an evil being called Maitrdcsha- ^ jyrf/tVa, who eats purulent carcasses ; and a Sddra, ^ who neglects his occupations, becomes a foul im- ^ bodied spirit called ChaildsacUy 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 j thai they may en-- ^ dure nnalagous pains;
3 H 74. * And,
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418 ON TEANSMIG&ATBON
CHAP. 74 ^ And^ in oonaequenoe of their foUy^ 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 ^ Tdmisra or utter darkness, and in other seats of
* horrour; in Asipatravanay or the sword-leaved forest, ' and in different places of binding fast and of rend- ' ing:
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:
7T. * They shall assume the forms of beasts con- ^ tinually miserable, and suffer alternate afflictions
* from extremities of cold and of heat, surrounded
* with terrours of various kinds:
78. * More than once shall they lie in different
* wombs; and, after agonizing births, be condemned ^ to severe captivity, and to servile attendance on
creatures like themselves :
(
79. ^ Then shall follow separations from kindred and
* friends, forced residence with the wicked, painful
* gains and ruinous losses of wealth ; friendships hardly ^ acquired and at length changed into enmities,
80. ^ Old age without resource diseMes atfeeoded
' with
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' with angoiBh^ pangs of innumerable Borts, and^ lastly, chap. ' unconquerable death. ^^
N.8L * With whatever disposition of mind a man ^ shall perform in this liiSe any act religious or moraly ^ in a future body endued with the same quality, ^ shall he receive his retribution.
82. ^ Thus has been revealed to you the system of ^ punishm^its for evil deeds: next leam those acts of ' a Brdhmerty which lead to eternal bliss.
7 83. * Studying and comprehending the /^da, prac- ^ tising pious austerities, acquiring divine knowledge ^ of law and philosophy , command over the organs of ^ sense and action, avoiding all injury to sentient
* creatures, and showing reverence to a natural and
* 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 beati- ' tMder
y 85. * Op all those duties, answered Bhrigu, the ^ principal is to acquire from the Upanishads a true
* knowledge of one supreme GOD; that is the most
* exalted of all sciences, because it ensures immor- ' tality:
86. Mn this life, indeed, as well as the next, the ^ Mudy of the Fidda, to acquire a knowledge of GOD^
3 H 2 Ms
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CHAP. ^ is held the most efficacious of those six duties in ^11- * procuring felicity to man;
y 87. * For in the knowledge and adoration of one ' GODy which the Feda teaches^ all the rules of good ' conduct, before^mentumed in order, are fully com-
* prised.
88. * The ceremonial duty, prescribed by the VSda^ ^ is of two kinds; one connected with this world, ' and causing prosperity on earth; the other abstracted ^ from it, and procuring bliss in heaven.
7 89. ^ A religious act, proceeding from selfish views
* in this world, as a sacrifice for rainy or in the next,
* as a pious oblation in hope of a future reward, is
* declared to be concrete and interested; but an act ' performed with a knowledge of God, and without ' self-love, 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 ex*
* empt from a body composed of the five elements:
'^ 91. ^ Equally perceiving the supreme soul in all be* ^ ings and all being? in the supreme soul, he sacri- ' fices his own spirit by fiocing it on the spirit of ^ GODy and approaches the nature of that sole di-
* vinity, who shines by his own effulgence.
92. ^ Thus must the chief of the twice-born, thov^
' he
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AND FINAL BEATITUDE. ^1
^ he neglect the cer^nonial ritesi mentioned in the chap. ^ Sdstrasy be diligent 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 /rom their natural mothers
* and from the gdyatri their spiritual mother ^ especially ^ of a Brdhmen; since the twice-born man, by per-
* forming 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 V^da-Sdstra have been made by human fa- ^ culties; 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 VSday 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 Fifda^ ^ must have been composed by mortals, and shall ^ soon perish: their modem date proves them vain ^ and false.
97. ^ The three worlds, the four classes of men, ^ and their four distinct orders, with aU that has ^ been, all that is, and all that will be, are made ^ known by the FlMa:
98. ' The
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CHAP. 98. * The nature of sounds of tangible and visible
^"- ' sliape, of taste, and of odour, the fifth ehfect of
^ sense, is clearly explained in the Vi^da alone, to-
^ gether with the three qualities of mind, the births
^ attended with them, and the acts which they oc-
* casion.
99. ^ All creatures are sustained by the primeval ' Veda-Sdstra, which the wise therefore hold supreme,
* because it is the supreme soiuxje of prosperity to
* this creature, man.
100. ^ Ck)mmand of armies, royal authority, power
* of inflicting punishment, and sovereign dominion ' over all nations, he only well deserves, who per-
* fectly understands the Veda-Sdstra.
101. ^ As fire with augmented force bums up even
* humid trees, thus he, who well knows the Vdda, ' burns out the taint of sin, which has infected his
* soul.
102. * He, who completely knows the sense of the
* V^da-Sdstraj 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 fiilly understand, than such as
* only remember; and they who perform their known ' duty, than such men as barely knov it.
104. ' De-
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AND FINAL BEATITUDE. *28
/104. * Devotion and sacred knowledge are the best chap.
* means by which a Brdhmen ean arrive at beatitude : ^"' ^ by devotion he may destroy guilt; by sacred know-
* ledge he may acquire immortal glory.
105. * Three modes of proof, ocular demonstration, ^ logical inference, ai»d the authority of those various ^ books, which are deduced from the ySda^ must be ^ well understood by that man, who seeks a distinct ^ knowledge of all his duties.
106. ^ He alone comprehends the system of duties, ^ * religious and civil, who can reason, by rules of logick
* agreeable to the Fl^da, on the general heads of that
* system as revealed by the holy sages.
107. * These rules of conduct, which lead to su-
* preme bliss, have been exactly and comprehensively ' declared: the more secret learning of this Mdnava
* Sdstra shall now be disclosed.
108. * If it be asked, how the law shall be ascer- ^ tained, when particular cases are not comprised ten-
* der any of the general ruleSy 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 from the scripture itself, having ^ studied, as the law ordains, the Vedas and their
* extended branches, m VddAngaSy MimAnsh^ NyAya^
* J^erma^sastra^ Purdnas:
110. ^ A point of law, before not expressly revealed y
* which
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CHAP. ^ which shall be decided by an assembly of ten such
^^^- ^ virtuous Brdhmens under one chief, or, if ten he
^ not procurable^ of three such under one president,
^ let no man controvert.
111. ^ The assembly of ten under a chief, eithei' the
* king himself or a Judge appointed by him, must ^ consist of three, each of them peculiarly conversant
* with one of the three Vedas, of a fourth skilled ' in the Nyaya^ and a fifth in the Mimansh philoso-
* phy ; of a sixth, who has particularly studied the
* Niructa; a seventh, who has applied himself most
* assiduously to the Dherma'sdstra ; and of three uni- ' versal scholars, who are in the three first orders.
112. * One, who has chiefly studied the Eigv^da, a
* second, who principally knows the Yqjush, and a ^ third best acquainted with the Sdmany are the assem- ^ bly of three under a head, who may remove all ' doubts both in law and casuistry.
113. * Even the decision of one priest, if more can- ^ not be assembledy who perfectly knows the princi- ^ pies of the VMaSy must be considered as law of the ' highest authority; not the opinion of myriads, who
* have no sacred knowledge.
114. V Many thousands of Brdhmens cannot form a
* legal assembly for the decision of contests, if they ' have riot performed the duties of a regular student-
* ship, are unacquainted with scriptural texts, and
* subsist only by the name of their sacerdotal class.
115. ' The
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115. ^ The sin of that man, to whom dmices, per- chap.
* vaded by the quality of darkness, propound the ^^^• ^ law, of which they are themselves ignorant, shall
* pass, increased a hundred-fold, to the wretches who ^
* propound it.
^ 116. * This comprehensive system of duties, the ^ chief cause of ultimate felicity, has been declared ' to you; and the BrahmeUy who never departs from
* it, shall attain a superiour state above.
117. * Thus did the all- wise Menu, who possesses
* extensive dominion, and blazes with heavenly splen- ^ dour, disclose to me, from his benevolence to man- ^ kind, this transcendent system of law, which must
* be kept devoutly concealed from persons unfit to ^ receive it.
118. * Let every Brdhmen with fixed attention con- ^ sider all nature, both visible and invisible, as exist-
* ing 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 assem- ^ blage of gods; all worlds are seated in the divine ^ spirit; and the divine spirit no doubt produces,
* by a chain of causes and effects consistent with free^
* willj the connected series of acts performed by im-
* bodied souls.
120. ^ He may contemplate the subtil ether in the ^ cavities of his body; the air in his muscular motion
3 I 'and
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CHAP, c j^^ sensitive nerves ; the supreme solar and igneous ^ light, in his digestive heat and his visual oiganB; ' in his corporeal fluids, water ; in the terrene parts ^ of his fabriek, earth ;
121. ' In his heart, the moon; in his auditory ^ nerves, the guardians of eight regions; in his pro-
* gressive motion, Vishnu ; in his muscular force, ' Hara ; in his organs of speech, Aoni ; m excretion^ ' Mitra; in procreation, Brahma':
122. ^ But he must consider the supreme omnipre- ' sent intelligence as the sovereign lord of them all, ^ by whose energy alone they exist; a spirit, by no ' means the object of any sense, which can only be ' conceived by a mind wholly abstracted from matter, ' and as it were slumbering; but which, for the pur- ^ pose of assisting his meditation, he mky imagine ^ more subtil than the finest conceivable essence, and
* more bright than the purest gold.
123. ' Him some adore as transcendently present
* in elementary fire ; others, in Menu, lord of crea-
* tures, or an immediate agent in the creation; some,
* as more distinctly present in Indra, regent of the ^ clouds and the atmosphere; others, in pure air; ' others, rs the most High Eternal Spirit.
124. ^ It is He, 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
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^ 125. ^ Thus the man, who perceives m his own soul chap.
* the supreme soul present in all creatures, acquires ^^^• ^ equanimity toward them all, and shall be absorbed
^ at last in the highest essence, even that of the Al-
* mighty himself/
126. Hbre ended the sacred instructor; and every twice-born man, who, attentively reading this Ma- nava Sastra, promulgated by Bhrigu, shall become habitually virtuous, will attain the beatitude which he seeks.
3 I 2
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GENERAL NOTE.
Thb learned Hindus are unanimously of opinion^ that many laws enacted by Menu, their oldest re- puted legislator^ were confined to the three first ages of the worlds and have no force in the present age, in which a few of them are certainly obsolete ; and they ground their opinion on the following texts, which are collected in a work entitled, Madana-ratna- pradipa.
1. Cratu: In the Ca/t-age a son must not be be- gotten on a widow by the brother of the deceased htbshand; nor must a damsel, once given away in marriage y be given ^second time; nor must a bull be offered in a sacrifice; nor must a water-pot be carried by a student in theology.
H. Vrihaspati : 1. Appointments of kinsmen to beget children on widows, or married women, when the hm- bands are deceased or impotent, are 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 hus- band.
2. In the first and second ages men were endued
with
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GENERAL NOTE. 429
with true piety and 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 Creator:
S. Thus were sons of many different sorts made by ancient sages, but such cannot now be adopted by men destitute of those eminent powers.
m. Para'sara: I. A man, who has held intercourse with a deadly sinner^ must abandon his country in the first age; he must leave his town, in the se- cond; his family, in the third age; but in the fourth he needs only desert the offender.
2. In the first age, he is degraded by mere con- versation with a degraded man; in the second, by touching him ; in the third, by receiving food fix>m him; but in the fourth, the sinner alone bears his guilt.