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 6 HISTOKY OF INDIA. [Book IV.

A 1). - besides listening with the utmost deference to his instructions, spent a large part of every day in irksome o}3servances, and even menial services. Among others, The first aiui he bchovcd "to carry water-pots, flowers, cow-dung, fresh earth, and cusa grass, stages of a as mucli as may be useful to his preceptor;" to bring logs of wood from a dis- ^ raiiiHii!, ^c^j^QQ^ and with them "make an oblation to fire without remissness, both evening and morning," and to seek his daily food " by begging, with due care from the houses of persons renowned for discharging their duties," and where such liouses could not be found, by "begging through the whole district round the village." If so disposed he might pass his whole life in this manner, induced by the con- sideration that " that Brahmin who has dutifully attended his preceptor till the dissolution of his body, passes directly to the eternal mansion of God;" but, in general, regarding studentship merely as a probationary stage, he passed to a second, in which, provided his rules as a student had not been violated, he was permitted to "assume the order of a married man," and "pass the second quarter of human life in his own house.' During this stage, devoting himself chiefly to the study of the Veda, and living "with no injury, or with the least possible injury to animated beings," he might, "for the sole purpose of supporting life," acquire property " by those irreproachable occupations which are peculiar to his class, and unattended with bodily pain. '" Among the approved means of subsistence are enumerated gleaning, and gifts received, unasked, from worthy persons. Next in order are alms obtained by asking, and tillage, and last of all, traffic and money-lending, "but service for hire is named sivavritti, or dog- living, and of course he must by all means avoid it." In the latter part of this second stage, if the Brahmin "has paid, as the law directs, his debts to the sages, to the manes, and to the gods," that is, according to commentators, if he has duly read the scripture, begotten a son, and performed regular sacrifices, "he may resign all to his son, and reside in his family house, with no employment but that of an umpire." Thethiid The third stage of the Brahmin's life arrives when he "perceives his muscles

stage. ... . . I. 5)

become flaccid, and his hair gray, and sees the child of his child. He must now take up his consecrated fire, and the implements for making oblations to it, and departing from the town "repair to the lonely wood." During the second stage, when he was a householder, mortification was rather the exception than the rule. He was never, if able to procm-e food, to "waste himself wntli hunger," nor, possessing any substance, to "wear old or sordid clothes." On the contrary, with his liair, nails, and beard clipped, his passions subdued, his mantle white, his body pure, a staflT of venu, a ewer with water in it, a bvmch of cusa grass, or a copy of the Veda, in his hand, and a pair of bright golden rings in his ears, he was diligently to occupy himself in reading the Veda, and be constantly intent on such acts as might be salutary to him. Now, however, when retired to the forest, he was to "wear a black antelope's hide, or a vesture of bark," to "suffer the hair of his head, his beard, and his nails to grow continually," to eat