nd the royal family. This class
enjoyed great privileges, and must have been practically the most
powerful.--3rd. The commercial, including merchants and
husbandmen.--4th. The servile, consisting of servants and slaves.
Of these four divisions the first alone has been preserved in its
purity to the present day, although the Rajputs claim to be the
representatives of the second class. The others have been lost in
a multitude of mixed castes formed by intermarriage, and bound
together by similarity of trade or occupation. With regard to the
sacerdotal class, the Brahmans, who formed it, were held to be
the chief of all human beings; they were superior to the king,
and their lives and property were protected by the most stringent
laws. They were to divide their lives into four quarters, during
which they passed through four states or conditions, viz. as
religious students, as householders, as anchorites, and as
religious mendicants.

81. _That he is pleased with ill-assorted unions_.

The god Brahma seems to have enjoyed a very unenviable notoriety
as taking pleasure in ill-assorted marriages, and encouraging
them by his own example in the case of his own daughter.

82. _[S']achi's sacred pool near Sakravatara_.

[S']akra is a name of the god Indra, and Sakravatara is a sacred
place of pilgrimage where he descended upon earth. [S']achi is his
wife, to whom a _Urtha_, or holy bathing-place, was probably
consecrated at the place where [S']akoontala had performed her
ablutions. Compare note 14.

83. _The wily Koil_.

Compare note 66.

84. _With the discus or mark of empire in the lines of his
hand_.

When the lines of the right hand formed themselves into a circle,
it was thought to be the mark of a future hero or emperor.

85. _A most refined occupation, certainly!_

Spoken ironically. The occupation of a fisherman, and, indeed, any
occupation which involved the sin of slaughtering animals, was
considered despicable. Fishermen, butchers, and leather-sellers were
equally objects of scorn. In Lower Bengal the castes of Jaliyas and
Bagdis, who live by fishing, etc., are amongst the lowest, and eke
out a precarious livelihood by thieving and dacoity.

86. _And he should not forsake it_.

The great Hindu lawgiver is very peremptory in restricting
special occupations (such as fishing, slaughtering animals,
basket-making) to the mixed and lowest castes. 'A man of the
lowest caste, who, through covetousness, lives