________________
as are many other verses of legal character contained in the epic and elsewhere.]
[Footnote 27: Although S[=u]tras may be metrical too in part, yet is the complete metrical form, as in the case of still later Ç[=a]stra, evidence that the work is intended for the general public.]
[Footnote 28: The priest alone, in the post-Vedic age, has the right to teach the sacred texts; he has immunity from bodily punishment; the right to receive gifts, and other special privileges. The three upper castes have each the right and duty of studying the sacred texts for a number of years.]
[Footnote 29: Weber has shown, loc. cit., that the Ç[ru]dras did attend some of the more popular ceremonies, and at first apparently even took a part in them.]
[Footnote 30: The 'four orders' or stadia of a priest's life, student, householder, hermit, ascetic, must not be confused with the 'four (political) orders' (castes), priest, warrior, farmer, slave—to which, from time to time, were added many 'mixed castes,' as well as 'outcasts,' and natural pariahs. At the time of Manu's code there were already many of these half-assimilated groups.]
[Footnote 31: Theoretically, twenty-one; but an extra one has slipped in by mistake.]
[Footnote 32: The girl is given or bought, or may make her own choice among different suitors. Buying a wife is reprehended by the early lawgivers (therefore, customary). The rite of marriage presupposes a grown girl, but child marriages also were known to the early law.]