"In times of distress the peculiar functions of the castes may be modified, as you shall hear. A Brahman may follow the occupations of a Kshatriya or a Vaiśya; the Kshatriya may adopt those of the Vaiśya; and the Vaiśya those of the Kshatriya: but these two last should never descend to the functions of the Śúdra, if it be possible to avoid them 4; and if that be not possible, they must at least shun the functions of the mined castes. I will now, Rájá, relate to you the duties of the several Ásramas or conditions of life."

Footnotes

290:1 Sagara, as we shall see, was a king of the solar race. Aurva was a sage, the grandson of Bhrigu. When the sons of king Kritavírya persecuted and slew the children of Bhrigu, to recover the wealth which their father had lavished upon them, they destroyed even the children in the womb. One of the women of the race of Bhrigu, in order to preserve her embryo, secreted it in her thigh (Uru), whence the child on his birth was named Aurva: from his wrath proceeded a flame, that threatened to destroy the world; but at the persuasion of his ancestors he cast it into the ocean, where it abode with the face of a horse. Aurva was afterwards religious preceptor to Sagara, and bestowed upon him the Ágneyástram, or fiery weapon, with which he conquered the tribes of barbarians, who had invaded his patrimonial possessions. Mahábh. Ádi Parvan, Dána Dharma P., Hari Vanśa.

291:2 Most of the Puráńas, especially the Kúrma, Padma, Vámana, Agni, and Garud́a, contain chapters or sections more or less in detail upon the moral and ceremonial duties of the Hindus; and a considerable portion of the Mahábhárata, especially in the Moksha Dharma Parvan, is devoted to the same subject. No other Pauráńik work, however, contains a series of chapters exactly analogous to those which follow, and which contain a compendious and systematic description of the Ácháras, or personal and social obligations of the Hindus. The tenor of the whole is conformable to the institutes of Manu, and many passages are the same.