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VASISHTHA.
I, 16.
the region where the sun rises, -as far as the black antelope wanders (between these two limits), so far spiritual pre-eminence (is found).'
16. Those religious acts which men, deeply versed in the knowledge of the three Vedas and acquainted with the sacred law, declare to be lawful, (are efficient) for purifying oneself and others.'
17. Manu has declared that the (peculiar) laws of countries, castes, and families (may be followed) in the absence of (rules of) the revealed texts.
18. Sinful men are, he who sleeps at sunrise or at sunset, he who has deformed nails or black teeth, he whose younger brother was married first, he who married before his elder brother, the husband of a younger sister married before the elder, the husband of an elder sister whose younger sister was married first, he who extinguishes the sacred fires, (and) he who forgets the Veda through neglect of the daily recitation.
taken with Krishnapandita, as the ocean,' because in the latter sense sindhu is a masculine. It must be a boundary-river, probably the Sarasvatî. By sûryasyodana, the region where the sun rises,' the udayagiri or mountain of the east' may possibly be meant.
16. This verse, too, is marked as a quotation by the concluding word iti, though it is not necessary that it should be taken as a quotation from the Nidâna. Here, and in the sequel verses ending in iti are marked as quotations by hyphens.
17. Manu VII, 203 ; VIII, 41; Gautama XI, 20. Gâti, castes.' which sometimes, and perhaps as appropriately, has been translated by 'tribes,' denotes in my opinion those numerous subdivisions of the four great varnas, which we now find all over India, and which can be shown to have existed for a very long time. Usually the word 'caste' is also applied to them.
18. Krishnapandita explains vîraha, 'he who extinguishes the sacred fires,' by the destroyer of his sons or of his spiritual clients'
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