91. If he applies sesamum to any other purpose but food, anointing, and charitable gifts, he will be born (again) as a worm and, together with his ancestors, be plunged into the ordure of dogs.
92. By (selling) flesh, salt, and lac a Brahmana at once becomes an outcast; by selling milk he becomes (equal to) a Sudra in three days.
93. But by willingly selling in this world other (forbidden) commodities, a Brahmana assumes after seven nights the character of a Vaisya.
94. Condiments may be bartered for condiments, but by no means salt for (other) condiments; cooked food (may be exchanged) for (other kinds of) cooked food, and sesamum seeds for grain in equal quantities.
95. A Kshatriya who has fallen into distress, may subsist by all these (means); but he must never arrogantly adopt the mode of life (prescribed for his) betters.
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 Sudra’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 Sudra, 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 Brahmana 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.
102. A Brahmana who has fallen into distress may accept (gifts) from anybody; for according to the law it is not possible (to assert) that anything pure can be sullied.
103. By teaching, by sacrificing for, and by accepting gifts from despicable (men) Brahmanas (in distress) commit not sin; for they (are as pure) as fire and water.
104. He who, when in danger of losing his life, accepts food from any person whatsoever, is no more tainted by sin than the sky by mud.
105. Agigarta, who suffered hunger, approached in order to slay (his own) son, and was not tainted by sin, since he (only) sought a remedy against famishing.
106. Vamadeva, who well knew right and wrong, did not sully himself when, tormented (by hunger), he desired to eat the flesh of a dog in order to save his life.
107. Bharadvaga, a performer of great austerities, accepted many cows from the carpenter Bribu, when he was starving together with his sons in a lonely forest.
108. Visvamitra, who well knew what is right or wrong, approached, when he was tormented by hunger, (to eat) the haunch of a dog, receiving it the hands of a Kandala.
109. On (comparing) the acceptance (of gifts from low men), sacrificing (for them), and teaching (them), the acceptance of gifts is the meanest (of those acts) and (most) reprehensible for a Brahmana (on account of its results) in the next life.
110. (For) assisting in sacrifices and teaching are (two acts) always performed for men who have received the sacraments; but the acceptance of gifts takes place even in (case the giver is) a Sudra of the lowest class.
111. The guilt incurred by offering sacrifices for teaching (unworthy men) is removed by muttering (sacred texts) and by burnt offerings, but that incurred by accepting gifts (from them) by throwing (the gifts) away and by austerities.
112. A Brahmana who is unable to maintain himself, should (rather) glean ears or grains from (the field of) any (man); gleaning ears is better than accepting gifts, picking up single grains is declared to be still more laudable.
113. If Brahmanas, who are Snatakas, are pining with hunger, or in want of (utensils made of) common metals, or of other property, they may ask the king for them; if he is not disposed to be liberal, he must be left.
114. (The acceptance on an untilled field is less blamable than (that of) a tilled one; (with respect to) cows, goats, sheep, gold, grain, and cooked food, (the acceptance of) each earlier-named (article is less blamable than of the following ones).
115. There are seven lawful modes of acquiring property, (viz.) inheritance, finding or friendly donation, purchase, conquest, lending at interest, the performance of work, and the acceptance of gifts from virtuous men.
116. Learning, mechanical arts, work for wages, service, rearing cattle, traffic, agriculture, contentment (with little), alms, and receiving interest on money, are the ten modes of subsistence (permitted to all men in times of distress).
117. Neither a Brahmana, nor a Kshatriya must lend (money at) interest; but at his pleasure (either of them) may, in times of distress when he requires money) for sacred purposes, lend to a very sinful man at a small interest.
118. A Kshatriya (king) who, in times of distress, takes even the fourth part (of the crops), is free from guilt, if he protects his subjects to the best of his ability.
119. His peculiar duty is conquest, and he must not turn back in danger; having protected the Vaisyas by his weapons, he may cause the legal tax to be collected;
