sum 



MANP. 



Um (riL-zL) lure purposely been separated from the general dutiw 

 contained in the first half of the work. TheM for the mart part are of 

 * religious character, being engrafted on the mtwt rigid distinction of 

 eaate, and therefore tuUlly dependent upon the hierarchical rule* of 

 the Ant order, by which even the minutest actions of the inferior 

 cUssM are invariably to be regulated. Without entering into the maia 

 of formalities and customs by which the main structure of the Brah- 

 minieal, and in tut of every hierarchy is largely cemented, and into 

 those generally absurd and often ridsMMM ceremonies inculcated upon 

 the different branches of society, it will be sufficient to remark that 

 they were evidently congenial to the religious prejudices, and to the 

 habits and disposition of the Hindus, and that most of them hod long 

 bean sanctioned when the sacred code was promulgated. ThU is 

 expressly asserted by the uuthor himself, who professes to give the 

 system of law in its full extent, and the immemorial customs of the 

 four classes, adding that immemorial custom is transcendent law, 

 approved in sacred scripture, and that holy sages have embraced good 

 usages long established. The principal duties of the four classes in 

 general are stated as follows : 



To the first, or sacerdotal order, the supreme ruler assigned the duty 

 of reading the Veda, and of teaching it ; of giving advice to kings, of 

 sacrificing and of assisting others to sacrifice, of giving alms and of 

 receiving gifts, of promoting justice on earth, and of procuring h.ippi- 

 ness hereafter ; in short, a Brahmin must ever be intent on divine 

 worship, devotion, austerity,- and abstinence. It is only in case of 

 need that he is allowed to support himself by tillage or traffic, but 

 never by service for hire. Although he ia by right the chief of the 

 whole creation, and, whether learned or ignorant, must be revered as 

 a powerful divinity, nevertheless he should constantly shun worldly 

 honour, and rather seek disrespect and poverty. 



The Kshatriya, or military class, is bound to defend the people, to 

 read the Veda, to sacrifice and to give alms; the Voisya caste to culti- 

 vate land, to keep herds and flocks of cattle, to carry on trade, to lend 

 at interest, to sacrifice, to read the scriptures, and to bestow presents. 

 The business of the fourth, or Sudra class, is only to serve the three 

 upper orders, and chiefly the Brahmins. 



Now in these four classes, which may be called the pillars of 

 Hindu society, those only who are born of wives equal in caste are to 

 be considered as of the same class with their fathers. But by inter- 

 mixture and marriage with women who ought not to be married, and 

 by the omission of prescribed duties, a great number of impure classes 

 have been formed, which in their turn ore obliged to perform strictly 

 the special rules and obligations enjoined on their caste, or else they 

 will sink to a, still lower degree in the scale of human society. These 

 mixed classes are enumerated at large in the tenth chapter, and prove 

 a far advanced state of civilisation by the very great variety of pro- 

 fessions which they exhibit. But as even the aboriginal tribes and the 

 inhabitants of adjacent countries are asserted to have gradually sprung 

 from the same source, we need scarcely remark that the institution 

 of eaate carried to this extent must be altogether imaginary; and 

 moreover that a system of law founded on these vague and fanciful 

 principles must be a partial and degrading one. Hence the punish- 

 ments, consisting of pecuniary fines and confiscation of property, of 

 mutilation of the body, and death, of exile and loss of caste (which is 

 deemed moral death), are inflicted according to the privileges of the 

 different rlissre ; in general these punishments are slight and trifling 

 for the highest order, but dreadfully severe and cruel for the same 

 crimes when committed by an individual of inferior caste. Thus a 

 soldier who defames a priest shall be fined a hundred punas, a merchant 

 a hundred and fifty, but a mechanic or servile man shall be whipped ; 

 and while the slaying of a Sudra by a man of the sacerdotal class is 

 exactly equivalent to the killing of a cat or dog, the murder of a 

 Brahmin is on inexpiable crime, and be who barely assaults a priest 

 with intention to hurt him shall be whirled about for a century in a 

 place of future punuhment, which is described as " a dark hell." 



With regard to the penal provisions of the criminal law we shall 

 only observe that in most of them the principle of retaliation has been 

 auctioned ; for instance, whoever breaks a dam or sluice, by which 

 an inundation would be caused (Buchanan, ' Mysore,' i., 4), shall be 

 drowned ; an adulterer shall be burned on an iron bed ; a cut-purse is 

 to lose two fingers, and " with whatever limb a thief commits the 

 oflence. even that limb shall the king amputate "(viii. 334; ix. 273,8.). 

 Nevertheless most of the punishments may be commuted for pecuniary 

 fines; and in case a temporal chastisement proves unavailing, threats of 

 future pain are often held out A priest may by muttering impreca- 

 tions and holy charms chastise those who injure him, without complain- 

 ing to the king. In shurt, the first part of the sacred code is . 

 what we should call hieratical. This character is apparent not only in its 

 inflexible severity where religion and its ministers are concerned, and 



a free intercourse 

 , and consequently 

 d, but also in the 



spirit of sublime devotion, of benevolence and tenderness to all sentient 

 creatures, by which sacerdotal institutes are generally distinguished. 



The second part of the code, containing the monarchical and civil 

 laws, i* more congenial to social order, and although the same spirit ,.i 

 hierarchy prevails, it is often checked by rules of a sound policy and 

 of regular administration. The king, born in the military class, is 



*"'" seventy wnera religion ana its ministers are 

 UM well-calculated distinction of castes, by wlji.-h n I 

 between UM members of society would be prevented, ai 

 more close dependence on the priesthood ensured, 



formed of particles drawn from the substance of the guardian deities ; 

 surpassing all mortals in glory, he is himself a divinity in a human 

 shape, and consequently he must be the protector of all clox.- 

 discharge their duty (7, 4. 9, 301 ff). "He must invaiiahly speak 

 truth and never transgress the rule of strict justice; but as just 

 punishment cannot be inflicted by on ignorant ami covetous king, ho 

 has to learn the science of criminal justice and nf i-.ii. \ . the system of 

 logic and metaphysics and sublime theological truth from learned 

 priests, and from the people the theory of agriculture, commerce, and 

 other practical arts." Nothing is so often and so strongly iuci; 

 by Mann as the equity and justice of kings in protecting the property 

 of tli. ir subjects against fraud and violence. For this purpose the prince 

 shall appoint a governor of one town with its district, another of ten 

 towns, of twenty, of a hundred, and above all these inferior authorities, 

 a high officer, whom we may perhaps call a lord-lieutenant, over each 

 thousand towns. Also, to prevent the people being oppressed, a super- 

 intendent of all affairs shall be established in every large town to 

 inspect the inferior officers. A large number of laws for the mercantile 

 tribe, with rigorous regulations about the sale and purchase of market- 

 able things, about weights and measures, tolls and freights for boats 

 pawing up and down rivers : the severe punishment of robbers . 

 those who will not restore loons and deposits, and the most uiUle 

 definitions of the law of inheritance all tend to show that, however 

 restricted by the rules of caste the social and personal condition of an 

 individual might be, his property at leant was respected and held 

 inviolable. As to the laws of succession, it is laid down as a funda- 

 mental rule, probably derived from ancient patriarchal manners, that, 

 if possible, the whole property of the family should be kept top 

 Accordingly after the death of his father, the eldest son may take 

 entire possession of the patrimony, and the others may live under him, 

 unless they choose to separate. In this case, the widow and such 

 persons as by crimes or mental or corporal defects are legally < \ 

 from participation, being provided for, the heritage is divid, 

 portions according to the minute and almost endless variety of regula- 

 tions by which, owing to the real or imaginary intermarriage and 

 mixture of classes, this port of Hindu law has become exti 

 abstruse and intricate. Property belonging to a sacerdotal student 

 and a minor must be guarded by the king, until the owner shall have 

 concluded his studentship, or until his infancy shall have ceased in 

 his sixteenth year. No tax is levied or charge mode for this trustee- 

 ship nor for any tuition whatsoever; and except custom-dull 

 market-taxes, the only legal tax or annual revenue which a so\ 

 may receive from hi.s whole dominion through his col- 

 on the mercantile and agricultural classes. He may take r.- 

 twelfth part of the crops, or an eighth, and in time of distress even a 

 fourth part, but in every respect he must act like ,-i father to his 

 people. (7, 80, 10, 118 fE) Serving men, artisans, and mechanics 

 never jxxy taxes, but they must occasionally assist by their labour 

 when needed. According to a theory most rigorously supported in a 

 rude state of feudal and despotic government, by several Hindu law- 

 givers of modern times, and even by a passage in Stral.o. the king has 

 been declared sole possessor of the soil ( Digest of Hindu I 

 460; Strabo, p. 1030, tan S< f) ajrfjaifssTAtK*) irao-o). But although the 

 sovereign's right to an annual ground-rent, and his gifts of land, so 

 often recorded in inscriptions and written documents, may originally 

 have been founded on such a doctrine, its practical application \\ m.iil 

 have proved ineffectual, and in fact it is nowhere adopted no; 

 mentioned by the sacred code. On the contrary, it is expressly stated 

 as a rule bid down by ancient sages, that cultivated land shall be the 

 property of him who has cut away the wood, or who has cleared and 

 tilled it (9, 44). To prove the inviolability of the tenure of land, in 

 which the proprietor is rather protected than limited by government, 

 many special laws might be produced, such as those concerning land- 

 marks and boundaries, the common ponds by which the fir! 

 watered, the punishment inflicted on ttsrdsmanand owners for injuring 

 cattle ; and BO far is the agricultural tenant from being dist m I <l in hU 

 possession, that even if land be injured by his neglect, ho Khali only In- 

 punished by a heavier tax. 



The most striking feature by which, on the whole, and notwithstanding 

 its many glaring defects, this code is distinguished, is the rigour and 

 purity of its morals. A complete system of ethics might be gathered 

 from the scattered moral sentences, of which we subjoin the following 

 few examples. " Let not a man be querulous, even though in 

 let him not injure another in deed or in thought, let him n 

 utter a word by which his fellow-creature may Miner uneasiness (2, 161 ). 

 Let him bear a reproachful speech with patience; let him speak re- 

 proachfully to no man; with an angry man let him not in return be 

 angry; abused, let him speak mildly (6, 47>. Let him say what is 

 true, but let him say what is pleasing ; let him speak no disagreeable 

 truth, nor let him speak agreeable falsehood (4, 138 if.). Though 

 oppressed by penury, in consequence of his righteous dealings, let him 

 s-ive his mind to unrighteousness (4,171); let him be firm in 

 his contentment and check all desire of acquiring more than he pos- 

 sesses, for happiness has its root in content, and discontent is the root 

 of misery (4, 12). A wise man should constantly discharge all tho 

 moral duties, though he perform not constantly the ccramui 

 religion (4, 204); he should act without any view of reward, ai, 

 stonily shun religious hypocrisy, for he who describes himself to 



