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IX, 2.
DUTIES OF HUSBAND AND WIFE.
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417. A Brahmana may confidently seize the goods of (his) Sudra (slave); for, as that (slave) can have no property, his master may take his possessions.
418. (The king) should carefully compel Vaisyas and Sudras to perform the work (prescribed) for them; for if these two (castes) swerved from their duties, they would throw this (whole) world into confusion.
419. Let him daily look after the completion of his undertakings, his beasts of burden, and carriages, (the collection of) his revenues and the disbursements, his mines and his treasury.
420. A king who thus brings to a conclusion all the legal business enumerated above, and removes all sin, reaches the highest state (of bliss).
CHAPTER IX. 1. I will now propound the eternal laws for a husband and his wife who keep to the path of duty, whether they be united or separated.
2. Day and night women must be kept in depend
417. Confidently' means according to Medh., Nár., and Nand. without fearing that he commits the sin of accepting a present from a Sudra.'
419. Karmântân, the completion of his undertakings' (Kull., Râgh.), means according to Medh., Gov., and Nand. the works,' i. e. ' agriculture, offices for collecting tolls and duties, and so forth' (Medh., Gov.), according to Når. 'the workshops, e.g. for making arms. The last explanation is perhaps the best.
IX. 1. According to Medh., Gov., and Kull. the duties of husband and wife are placed in the section on civil and criminal law, because the king can and even is bound to enforce their observance by punishments, if either of the two raises a complaint. Separated,' i. e. when the husband is absent or dead' (Nar., Râgh.).
2-3. Gaut. XVIII, 1; Vas. V, 1-2; Baudh. II, 3, 44-45; Vi. V, 1-2; Yâga. I, 85.
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