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X, 101.
OCCUPATIONS OF THE CASTES.
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96. A man of low caste who through covetousness lives by the occupations of a higher one, the king shall deprive of his property and banish.
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 law of another (caste) is instantly excluded from his own.
98. A Vaisya who is unable to subsist by his own duties, may even maintain himself by a Sûdra'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 Sūdra, being unable to find service with the twice-born 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 the twice-born are (best) served.
101. A Brâhmana who is distressed through a want of means of subsistence and pines (with hunger), (but) unwilling to adopt a Vaisya’s mode of life and resolved to follow his own (prescribed) path, may act in the following manner.
97. Nâr. gives as an instance of an ill or incomplete performance of a Brahmana's duty, which is better than completely discharging the duties of another caste, the acceptance of alms from an impure person. Nand. omits this verse, which, indeed, is here out of place and ought to stand in the discussion beginning verse 101.
98. Acts forbidden to him,' i. e. eating the leavings of the others and so forth'(Gov., Kull., Nár.), or eating forbidden food and the like' (Nand.).
99-100. Vi. III, 14; Gaut. X, 60. 101-114. Gaut. VII, 4-5, 23, Ấp. I, 18, 5-8, 14-15.
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