History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c20.52.3

v2.c20.52.3

The smṛtis further ordain that when the calamity or distress ceases, the person who has taken to the avocations of another varṇa should perform prāyaścitta, should resume his proper avocations and abandon the wealth acquired by him by resorting to improper avocations; vide Manu XI. 192-193; Viṣṇu Dh. S. (54. 27-28), Yāj. III. 35, Nārada (ṛṇādāna 59-60). Manu (X. 96) prescribes that, if a person of a lower varṇa maintains himself through greed by the avocation²⁵⁷ peculiar to a higher varṇa, the king should confiscate the wealth and should at once banish him from the country. A classical example of the keenness with which good kings were expected to prevent persons of lower varṇas doing the actions allowed only to higher varṇas is furnished by the story of Śambūka narrated in the Rāmāyaṇa (VII. 73-76.) The Uttararāmacarita of Bhavabhūti echoes the same sentiments. A śūdra²⁵⁸ who engaged in *japa*, *homa*, *tapas* or became an ascetic or repeated (Vedic) *mantras* was to be punished (or killed) by the king and was also guilty of mortal sin. Manu (X. 98) allows a vaiśya, if unable to maintain himself by the pursuits peculiar to his varṇa, to live by means of the actions proper for a śūdra viz. serving members of the twice-born classes. It is also said by Gaut. (VII.