INDIAN CLASSES. 



63 



ceiving gifts ; for a Cfcatriya, bearing arms ; for a 

 Vaifya % merchandize, attending on cattle, and agri- 

 culture ; for a Sudra, fervile attendance on the higher 

 claffes. The moft commendable are, reflectively for 

 the four clafTes, teaching the Veda> defending the peo- 

 ple, commerce, or keeping herds or flocks, and fervile 

 attendance on the learned and virtuous priefts. 



A Brahmana> unable to fubfift by his duties, may 

 live by the duty of a foldier : if he cannot get a fubfift- 

 ence by either of thefe employments, he may apply to 

 tillage, and attendance on cattle, or gain a compe- 

 tence by traffic k, avoiding certain commodities. A 

 CJhatriya, in diltrefs, may fubfift by all thefe means ; 

 but he muft not have recourfe to the higheft functions. 

 In feafons of diftrefs, a further latitude is given. The 

 practice of medicine, and other learned profeffions, 

 painting and other arts, work for wages, menial fer- 

 vice, alms and ufury, are among the modes of fubfift- 

 ence allowed to the Brdhmana and Cjloatriya. A Vaif- 

 ya y unable to fubfift by his own duties, may defcend 

 to the fervile acts of a Sudra. And a Sudra % not find- 

 ing employment by waiting on men of the higher 

 clafTes, may fubfift by handicrafts; principally "fol- 

 lowing thofe mechanical occupations, as joinery and 

 mafonry; and practical arts, as painting and writing; 

 by following of which he may ferve men of fuperior 

 clafTes : and, although a man of a lower clafs is in ge- 

 neral reftricted from the acts of a higher clafs, the 

 Sudra is exprefsly permitted to become a trader or a 

 huibandman. 



Befides the particular occupations affigned to each, 

 of the mixed clafTes, they have the alternative of fol- 

 lowing that profeffion which regularly belongs to the 

 clafs from which they derive their origin on the mo- 

 ther's fide : thofe, at leaft, have fuch an option, who 

 are born in the direct order of the claiTes, as the Murd- 

 habhijhitta, Ambajki'ha* and others, The mixed 

 1 clafTes 



