________________
X,61.
MIXED CASTES.
415
55. By day they may go about for the purpose of their work, distinguished by marks at the king's command, and they shall carry out the corpses (of persons) who have no relatives; that is a settled rule.
56. By the king's order they shall always execute the criminals, in accordance with the law, and they shall take for themselves the clothes, the beds, and the ornaments of (such) criminals.
57. A man of impure origin, who belongs not to any caste, (varna, but whose character is) not known, who, (though) not an Aryan, has the appearance of an Aryan, one may discover by his acts.
58. Behaviour unworthy of an Aryan, harshness, cruelty, and habitual neglect of the prescribed duties betray in this world a man of impure origin.
59. A base-born man either resembles in character his father, or his mother, or both; he can never conceal his real nature.
60. Even if a man, born in a great family, sprang from criminal intercourse, he will certainly possess the faults of his (father), be they small or great.
61. But that kingdom in which such bastards, sullying (the purity of) the castes, are born, perishes quickly together with its inhabitants.
• Their food shall be given to them by others in a broken vessel, i.e. they shall not cook for themselves in their houses.'
55. Distinguished by marks,'i. e.' by a thunderbolt and the like, or by axes, adzes, and so forth, used for executing criminals, and carried on the shoulder' (Medh.), or by sticks and so forth'(Gov.), or by iron ornaments and peacock's feathers and the like' (Nâr.). Râgh. thinks that they are to be branded on the forehead and on other parts of the body. In olden times the depressed races of Gujarat used to wear a horn as their distinguishing mark.
57-59. Vas. XVIII, 7; Vi. XVI, 17.
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