The Laws of Manu

by The Laws of Manu (retail) (epub)

  [36] From a ‘Hunter’ is born an ‘Inferior Worker’, who works with leather, and from a ‘Videhan’ come an ‘Andhran’ and a ‘Fatty’, who live outside the village. [37] From a ‘Fierce’ Untouchable man and a ‘Videhan’ woman comes a ‘Pale Puppy-cooker’, whose business is bamboo; and from a ‘Hunter’ (with her) a ‘Wanderer’ is born. [38] From a ‘Fierce’ Untouchable man in a ‘Tribal’ woman the evil ‘Puppy-cooker’ is born, who makes his livelihood from the vice of roots and is always despised by good people. [39] A ‘Hunter’ woman bears to a ‘Fierce’ Untouchable man a son ‘Who Ends Up at the Bottom’, who haunts the cremation-grounds and is despised even by the excluded castes. [40] These (castes), born of the confusion of classes and defined by their father and mother, may be recognized by their own innate activities, whether they conceal or reveal themselves.

  [41] The six sons born in women of the same caste or the very next lower caste have the duties of the twice-born; but all those who are born from a degradation are traditionally regarding as having the same duties as servants. [42] Yet by the powers of their seed and their inner heat, in age after age these (castes) are pulled up or pulled down in birth among men here on earth. [43] But by failing to perform the rituals or to seek audiences with priests, the following castes of the ruling class have gradually sunk in the world to the rank of servants: [44] the ‘Sugarcane-boilers’, ‘Colas’, and ‘Southerners’, ‘Kambojas’, ‘Greeks’, ‘Scythians’, ‘Quicksilvers’, ‘Persians’, and ‘Chinese’, ‘Mountaineers’, ‘Precipice-dwellers’, and ‘Scabs’.

  [45] All of those castes who are excluded from the world of those who were born from the mouth, arms, thighs, and feet (of the primordial Man) are traditionally regarded as aliens, whether they speak barbarian languages or Aryan languages. [46] Those who are traditionally regarded as outcasts (born) of the twice-born and as born of degradation should make their living by their innate activities, which are reviled by the twice-born: [47] for ‘Charioteers’, the management of horses and chariots; for the caste of ‘Remaining-with-the-Mother’, medical healing; for the ‘Videhan’ caste, doing things for women; and for the ‘Magadhan’ caste, trade; [48] for the ‘Hunters’, killing fish; for the ‘Unfit’, carpentry; for the ‘Fatty’, ‘Andhran’, ‘Notorious’, and ‘Diver-bird’, the slaughter of animals that live in the wilderness; [49] for those of the ‘Carver’, ‘Dreaded’, and ‘Tribal’ castes, catching and killing animals that live in holes; for those of the ‘Shame on you!’ caste, leather-working; for those of the ‘Reed-worker’ caste, playing the drum.

  [50] These (castes) should live near mounds, trees, and cremation-grounds, in mountains and in groves, recognizable and making a living by their own innate activities. [51] But the dwellings of ‘Fierce’ Untouchables and ‘Dog-cookers’ should be outside the village; they must use discarded bowls, and dogs and donkeys should be their wealth. [52] Their clothing should be the clothes of the dead, and their food should be in broken dishes; their ornaments should be made of black iron, and they should wander constantly. [53] A man who carries out his duties should not seek contact with them; they should do business with one another and marry with those who are like them. [54] Their food, dependent upon others, should be given to them in a broken dish, and they should not walk about in villages and cities at night. [55] They may move about by day to do their work, recognizable by distinctive marks in accordance with the king’s decrees; and they should carry out the corpses of people who have no relatives; this is a fixed rule. [56] By the king’s command, they should execute those condemned to death, always in accordance with the teachings, and they should take for themselves the clothing, beds, and ornaments of those condemned to death.

  [57] An unknown man, of no (visible) class but born of a defiled womb and no Aryan, may seem to have the form of an Aryan, but he can be discovered by his own innate activities. [58] Un-Aryan behaviour, harshness, cruelty, and habitual failure to perform the rituals are the manifestations in this world indicating that a man is born of a defiled womb. [59] A man born of a bad womb shares his father’s character, or his mother’s, or both; but he can never suppress his own nature. [60] A man born of the confusion of wombs, even if he comes from a leading family, will inherit that very character, to a greater or lesser degree. [61] But the kingdom in which these degraded bastards are born, defiling the classes, quickly perishes, together with the people who live there.

  [62] Giving up the body instinctively for the sake of a priest or cow or in the defence of women and children is the way for even the excluded (castes) to achieve success. [63] Manu has said that non-violence, truth, not stealing, purification, and the suppression of the sensory powers is the duty of the four classes, in a nutshell. [64] If someone born from a priest in a servant woman produces a child with someone of the higher (caste), the lower (caste) reaches the status of birth of the higher caste after the seventh generation. [65] (Thus) a servant attains the rank of priest, and a priest sinks to the rank of servant; and you should know that this can happen to someone born of a ruler, too, or of a commoner. [66] But if this (question) should arise: ‘Which is higher, someone born by chance from a priest father in a non-Aryan mother, or from a non-Aryan father in a mother of the priestly class?’, [67] this is the decision: ‘Someone born from an Aryan father in a non-Aryan woman may become an Aryan in his qualities; but someone born from a non-Aryan father in an Aryan mother is a non-Aryan.’ [68] The law has been established: neither of these may undergo the transformative rituals, because the birth of the former is deficient in (Aryan) characteristics, and the latter is born ‘against the grain’.

  [69] Just as good seed, sown in a good field, culminates in a birth, so the son born from an Aryan father in an Aryan mother deserves every transformative ritual. [70] Some wise men value the seed, others the field, and still others both the seed and the field; but this is the final decision on this subject: [71] seed sown in the wrong field perishes right inside it; and a field by itself with no seed also remains barren. [72] And since sages have been born in (female) animals by the power of the seed, and were honoured and valued, therefore the seed is valued. [73] Comparing a non-Aryan who carries out the innate activities of an Aryan and an Aryan who carries out the innate activities of a non-Aryan, the Creator said, ‘The two are neither equal nor non-equal.’

  [74] Priests who remain within the womb of the Veda and are steadfast in carrying out their own innate activities should make a living properly by six innate activities, in order, [75] the six innate activities of a high-born priest: teaching (the Veda), reciting (the Veda), sacrificing for themselves, sacrificing for others, giving, and receiving. [76] But of the six innate activities, three innate activities are his means of livelihood: sacrificing for others, teaching, and receiving gifts from a pure man. [77] Three duties of a priest are denied to a ruler: teaching, sacrificing for others, and, third, receiving gifts. [78] And these are also denied to a commoner; this is a fixed rule. For Manu the Lord of Creatures has said that these duties are not for those two (classes). [79] As a means of livelihood, bearing weapons and missiles is for a ruler, while trade, (tending) livestock, and farming are for a commoner. But their duty is giving, reciting (the Veda), and sacrificing. [80] Teaching the Veda, for a priest, protecting, for a ruler, and trading, for a commoner, are pre-eminent among their own innate activities.

  [81] But a priest who cannot make a living by his own innate activity just described may make his living by fulfilling the duty of a ruler, for he is the very next lower class. [82] And if (this question) should arise: ‘What if he cannot make a living by either of these two (livelihoods)?’, he may make his living by farming and tending livestock, the livelihood of the commoner. [83] But a priest or ruler who makes a living by the livelihood of a commoner should try hard to avoid farming, which generally causes violence and is dependent on others. [84] Some people think, ‘Farming is a virtuous trade,’ but as a livelihood it is despised by good people, for the wooden (plough) with the iron mou
th injures the earth and the creatures that live in the earth.

  [85] But if, for insufficient means of livelihood, a man gives up the duty in which he is skilled, to increase his wealth he may sell the merchandise that commoners sell, with the following exceptions: [86] he should avoid (selling) all spices, cooked food with sesame oil, stones, salt, livestock, and human beings; [87] all dyed cloth, as well as cloth made of hemp, linen, or wool, even if they are not dyed; fruit, roots, and medicinal herbs; [88] water, weapons, poison, meat, Soma, all sorts of perfumes, milk, ordinary and special honey, yogurt, clarified butter, oil, sugar, and sacrificial grass; [89] all of the animals that live in the wilderness, animals with fangs, and birds; wine, indigo, lac, and all animals that have a whole hoof. [90] But a farmer may sell pure sesame seeds for religious purposes as much as he likes, if he grows them himself and has not kept them for long. [91] If he uses the sesame seeds for anything other than food, unguents, or gifts, he will become a worm (in his next life) and be submerged in the excrement of dogs, together with his ancestors.

  [92] By (selling) meat, lac, or salt, a priest immediately falls; by selling milk, he becomes a servant in three days. [93] But by willingly selling other (forbidden) merchandise, a priest assumes the nature of a commoner here on earth in seven nights. [94] Spices may be weighed in exchange for spices in equal quantities, but not salt for spices; cooked food (may be weighed in exchange) for uncooked food, and sesame seeds for equal (quantities of) grain.

  [95] A ruler in adversity may also make a living by all of these (means); but he should never be so proud as to assume the livelihood of his betters. [96] If a man of the lowest caste should, through greed, make his living by the innate activities of his superiors, the king should confiscate his wealth and banish him immediately. [97] One’s own duty, (even) without any good qualities, is better than someone else’s duty well done; for a man who makes his living by someone else’s duty immediately falls from (his own) caste. [98] A commoner who cannot make a living by his own duty may also subsist by the livelihood of a servant; but he must not commit actions that (he) should not do, and he should stop when he can. [99] If a servant is unable to engage in the service of the twice-born and is on the brink of losing his sons and wife, he may make a living by the innate activities of a manual labourer, [100] practising those activities of a manual labourer and those various handicrafts by which the twice-born are served.

  [101] A priest who remains on his own path and does not engage in the commoner’s livelihood, even when he is fainting and starving for lack of a livelihood, should act in keeping with the following law: [102] a priest in adversity may accept gifts from anyone, for the assertion that ‘What is purifying can be defiled’ is not established by law. [103] Accepting gifts from despicable people or teaching them or sacrificing for them is not a fault in priests, for they are the equals of fire or water. [104] A man who eats the food of anyone, no matter who, when he is on the brink of losing his life is not smeared with evil, just as the sky is not smeared with mud.

  [105] Ajīgarta, famished, stepped forward to kill his own son but was not smeared with evil, for he was acting to remedy his hunger. [106] When Vāmadeva, who knew the difference between right and wrong, was in distress and wanted to eat the flesh of a dog in order to save his life’s breath, he was not smeared (with evil). [107] When Bharadvāja, who had amassed great inner heat, was distressed by hunger with his sons in a deserted forest, he accepted many cows from the carpenter Vṛdhu. [108] When Visvāmitra, who knew the difference between right and wrong, was distressed by hunger, he set out to eat the hindquarters of a dog, which he received from the hands of a ‘Fierce’ Untouchable.

  [109] Among accepting gifts (from despicable men), sacrificing for them, or teaching them, accepting gifts is the worst and most despised for a priest (even) after his death. [110] Sacrificing and teaching are always done for men who have undergone the transformative rituals, but gifts are accepted even from a servant of the lowest birth. [111] The error of sacrificing or teaching (despicable men) is dispelled by chanting (the Veda) and making offerings into the fire, but the one that arises from accepting gifts (from them is dispelled) by discarding (the gift) and by inner heat.

  [112] A priest who cannot make a living should even glean (ears of corn) and gather (single grains) from any (field) whatsoever; gleaning is better than accepting gifts, and gathering is preferable even to that. [113] If priests who are Vedic graduates are fainting (with hunger) for want of base metals or money, they should ask the king, and if he does not wish to give anything he should be rejected. [114] (Accepting) an untilled field is not as much of a fault as (accepting) a tilled one; a cow, a goat, a sheep, gold, grain, and cooked food – each (is less of a fault to accept) than the one that follows it.

  [115] There are seven ways of getting property in accordance with the law: inheriting, finding, buying, conquering, investing, working, and accepting from good people. [116] (Imparting) knowledge, handicrafts, working for wages, service, tending livestock, marketing, farming, being supported, begging for alms, and lending money are ten ways of making a living. [117] Neither a priest nor a ruler should lend money at interest, but (either) may, if he really wishes, and for religious purposes, lend at very low interest to a very evil man.

  [118] A ruler in extremity who takes even a quarter (of the crop) is free from offence if he protects his subjects to his utmost ability. [119] His own duty is conquest, and he must not turn his back on a challenge; when he has protected the commoner with his sword, he may collect the just tax from him: [120] the tax on grain from the commoners is one eighth, (or) one twentieth, (or) at least one ‘scratch-penny’. Servants, artisans, and craftsmen should give him the service of their innate activities.

  [121] But if a servant is searching for a means of livelihood he may make himself useful to a ruler, it is said; or a servant may try to make a living by making himself useful to a wealthy commoner. [122] But he should make himself useful to priests, either for the sake of heaven or for the sake of both (worlds), for by the mere word ‘priest’ he achieves what is to be done. [123] Serving priests alone is recommended as the best innate activity of a servant; for whatever he does other than this bears no fruit for him. [124] They should assign him a livelihood out of their own family property according to his deserts, taking into account his ability, his skill, and the number of his dependants. [125] They should give him the leftovers of their food, their old clothes, the spoiled parts of their grain, and their worn-out household utensils.

  [126] A servant cannot commit any crime that causes him to fall, nor does he deserve any transformative ritual; he has no authority to carry out duties, nor is he forbidden to carry out duties. [127] But servants who want to carry out duties, who know duty, and who emulate the duties of good men, without reciting Vedic verses, are not defiled but praised. [128] For the more a servant undertakes the behaviour of good men, without resentment, the more he gains this world and the next, blameless. [129] A servant should not amass wealth, even if he has the ability, for a servant who has amassed wealth annoys priests.

  [130] The duties for the four classes in extremity, through which, properly pursued, they attain the ultimate level of existence, have thus been proclaimed.

  [131] The rule for the four classes has thus been proclaimed in its entirety. After that I will explain the auspicious rule for restorations.

  End of Chapter 10

  [2] Since ‘others’ here is plural rather than dual, it would seem to include the servant class.

  [3] See 1.93, where similar reasons for the priest’s superiority are given. The commentators suggest that his transformative rituals are pre-eminent because he is initiated earlier than the others.

  [5] ‘With the grain’ (ānulomyena), literally ‘with the hair’, i.e. the natural direction of marriage, designates a hypergamous union, where the husband is of a class higher than that of the wife, in contrast with hypogamous marriages that are ‘against the grain’ (pratiloman). Since the
wives here are said to be equal to their husbands, it may be that they are equal in ways other than class, as is suggested by the next two verses. This, however, goes ‘against the grain’ of all the commentators, one of whom attempts to solve the dilemma by suggesting that ‘with the grain’ here means that the husband is older (as Manu advises that he should be, in 9.94). 10.41 (which refers to children born of both kinds of wives) suggests another solution, which has been adopted here by inserting an ‘or’. In any case, the child of the union is to have the caste of his father.

  [8] The names of the castes are difficult to translate, and it is unlikely that people using those names thought about what they meant, any more than we think of the meaning of ‘Brown’ or ‘Smith’ when we use such names. Nevertheless, the caste names do have suggestive lexical elements and I thought it worthwhile to try to indicate, quite tentatively, what some of these might be. The ambaṣṭha is born of the commoner wife, and the niṣāda (‘Hunter’) or pāraśava (‘Saving-corpse’, whose name is explained at 9.178) of the servant wife.

  [9] This is the ugra, mentioned at 4.212.

  [10] These outcasts are the apasadas.

  [11] The ‘Charioteer’ (sūta) is also an oral poet, the traditional narrator of the Epics and Purāṇas. The māgadha is, like the ‘Charioteer’, a court poet, a professional panegyrist. Magadha and Videha are ancient kingdoms on the Ganges.

  [12] The āyogava (‘Unfit’, a caste of carpenters) is born from the wife of the commoner class; the ksattṛ (‘Carver’, oddly enough also the name of the priest who carves up the victim in a Vedic sacrifice) from the wife of the royal class; and the caṇḍāla (the ‘Fierce’, and paradigmatic, Untouchable) from the wife of the priestly class. The higher the wife, the lower the mixed offspring.

  [14] ‘Of the Next (Lower Class)’ is anantara.