1 Let all, discharging their prescribed duties, study the scripture; but the scholars among them shall teach it.

2 The scholar must know the means of subsistence prescribed by law for all, instruct the others, and himself live according to the law.

62 Dying, without the expectation of a reward, in defence of the helpless, of women and of children, secures salvation even to the lowly.

63 Abstention from injuring creatures, veracity, abstention from unlawfully appropriating the goods of others, purity, and control of the organs, Manu has declared to be the summary of the law for all people.

74 Scholars who are devoted to God and firm in discharging their duties, shall live by duly performing the following six acts, which are enumerated in their proper order.

75 Teaching, studying, making offerings for God's sake, helping others to make their offerings, making gifts and receiving them are the six acts prescribed for a scholar.

76 But among the six acts ordained for him three are his means of subsistence, namely helping others in their offerings, teaching, and accepting gifts from pure men.

77 Passing from the scholar to the ruler, three acts incumbent on the former are not prescribed, namely teaching, helping others in their offerings, and, thirdly, the acceptance of gifts.

78 The same are likewise not prescribed for a merchant, that is a settled rule; for Manu has not prescribed them for men of those two callings.

79 To carry arms for striking and for throwing is prescribed for rulers and warriors as a means of subsistence; to trade, to rear cattle, and agriculture for merchants; but their duties are liberality, the study of the scripture, and the performance of offerings for God's sake.

80 Among the several occupations the most commendable are, teaching the scripture for a scholar, protecting the people for a ruler, and trade for a merchant.

81 But a scholar, unable to subsist by his peculiar occupations just mentioned, may live according to the law applicable to rulers; for the latter is next to him in rank.

82 If it be asked, "How shall it be, if he cannot maintain himself by either of these occupations?" the answer is, he may adopt a merchant's mode of life, employing himself in agriculture and rearing cattle.

83 But a scholar, or a ruler, living by a merchant's mode of subsistence, shall carefully avoid the pursuit of agriculture, which causes injury to many beings and depends on others.

84 Some declare that agriculture is something excellent, but that means of subsistence is blamed by the virtuous; for the wooden implement with iron point injures the earth and the beings living in the earth.

85 But he who, through a want of means of subsistence, gives up the strictness with respect to his duties, may sell, in order to increase his wealth, the commodities sold by merchants, making however the following exceptions.

86 He must avoid selling condiments of all sorts, cooked food and sesamum, stones, salt, cattle, and human beings,

87 All dyed cloth, as well as cloth made of hemp, or flax, or wool, even though they be not dyed, fruit, roots, and medical herbs;

88 Water, weapons, poison, meat, Soma, and perfumes of all kinds, fresh milk, honey, sour milk, clarified butter, oil, wax, sugar, Kusa-grass;

89 All beasts of the forest, animals with fangs or tusks, birds, spirituous liquor, indigo, lac, and all one-hoofed beasts.

90 But he who subsists by agriculture, may at pleasure sell unmixed sesamum grains for pious purposes, provided he himself has grown them and has not kept them long.

91 If he applies sesamum to any other purpose but food, anointing, and charitable gifts, he will suffer for it in the hereafter.

92 By selling flesh, salt, and lac a scholar at once falls from his dignity; by selling milk he does so in three days.

93 But by willingly selling in this world other forbidden commodities, a scholar loses after seven nights the character of a scholar and becomes a mere trader.

94 Condiments may be bartered for condiments, but by no means salt for other condiments; cooked food may be exchanged for other kinds of cooked food, and sesamum seeds for grain in equal quantities.

95 A ruler who has fallen into distress, may subsist by all these means; but he must never arrogantly take up an occupation that is not his own.

97 It is better to discharge one's own appointed duty incompletely than to perform completely that of another; for he who lives according to the calling of another is instantly cut off from his own.

98 A merchant who is unable to subsist by his own duties, may even maintain himself by the labourer's mode of life, avoiding however acts forbidden to him, and he should give it up, when he is able to do so.

99 But a labourer, being unable to find service and threatened with the loss of his sons and wife through hunger, may maintain himself by handicrafts.

100 Let him follow those mechanical occupations and those various practical arts by following which people are best served.

101 A scholar who is distressed through a want of means of subsistence and pines with hunger, but is unwilling to adopt a merchant's mode of life and resolved to follow his own prescribed path, may act in the following manner.

102 A scholar who has fallen into distress may accept gifts from anybody; for according to the law it is not possible to assert that anything pure can be sullied.

104 He who, when in danger of losing his life, accepts food from any person whatsoever, is no more tainted by sin than the sky by mud.

106 Vamadeva, who well knew right and wrong, did not sully himself when, tormented by hunger, he desired to eat the flesh of a dog in order to save his life.

107 Bharadvaja, a performer of great austerities, accepted many cows from the carpenter Bribu, when he was starving together with his sons in a lonely forest.

108 Visvamitra, who well knew what is right or wrong, approached, when he was tormented by hunger, to eat the haunch of a dog, receiving it from the hands of a lowly man.

112 A scholar who is unable to maintain himself, should rather glean ears or grains from the field of any man; gleaning ears is better than accepting gifts, picking up single grains is declared to be still more laudable.

113 If scholars who have completed their studies are pining with hunger, or in want of utensils made of common metals, or of other property, they may ask the king for them; if he is not disposed to be liberal, he must be left.

114 The acceptance of an untilled field is less blamable than that of a tilled one; with respect to cows, goats, sheep, gold, grain, and cooked food, the acceptance of each earlier-named article is less blamable than of the following ones.

115 There are six lawful modes of acquiring property, namely inheritance, finding or friendly donation, purchase, conquest, the performance of work, and the acceptance of gifts from virtuous men.

116 Learning, mechanical arts, work for wages, service, rearing cattle, traffic, agriculture, contentment with little, and alms, are the nine modes of subsistence permitted to all men in times of distress.

118 A ruler who, in times of distress, takes even the fourth part of the crops, is free from guilt, if he protects his subjects to the best of his ability.

119 His peculiar duty is conquest, and he must not turn back in danger; having protected the merchants by his weapons, he may cause the legal tax to be collected;

120 Namely from merchants one-eighth as the tax on grain, one-twentieth on the profits on gold and cattle, which amount at least to one karshapana; labourers, artisans, and mechanics shall benefit the king by doing work for him.

121 If a labourer, unable to subsist by serving the learned, seeks a livelihood, he may serve rulers, or he may also seek to maintain himself by attending on a wealthy merchant.

124 Out of their own family property a suitable maintenance must be allotted to a servant, after considering his ability, his industry, and the number of those whom he is bound to support.

127 People of humble station who are desirous to gain merit, and know their duty, commit no sin, but gain praise, if they imitate the practice of virtuous men.

128 The more such a man, keeping himself free from envy, imitates the behaviour of the virtuous, the more he gains, without being censured, exaltation in this world and the next.

130 The duties of the four classes in times of distress have thus been declared, and if they perform them well, they will reach the most blessed state.

131 Thus all the legal rules for the four classes have been proclaimed; I next will promulgate the auspicious rules for penances.