Verse 20

¹³One in whom the rites have not been broken off is twice-born, so the unborn one said. Offering, study and giving are laid down for the twice-born, whose birth and works are clean, and the acts their stages call for. ¹⁴For the brahmin, study and the rest, six of them; for the others, no taking of gifts. The living of a king, who guards the people, comes from taxes and the like, from any but a brahmin. ¹⁵The vaisya's living is by trade, and he follows the brahmin line always. The sudra's is the serving of the twice-born, and his living comes from his master. ¹⁶Trade of many kinds; the settled way; the wandering way; and the gleaning of ears and grains. This is the brahmin's living in four kinds, and each later one is better.

¹⁷When there is no trouble, a man of lower standing should not take up a higher living. In trouble any of them may take up any of them, in every way, except the kshatriya's. ¹⁸He should live by what is right and by what is undying, or by what is dead or half-dead, or by truth-and-untruth; and never by the way of the dog. ¹⁹What is right is called the gleaning of ears and grains; what is undying is what comes unasked; what is dead is asking day after day; and ploughing is held to be half-dead. ²⁰Truth-and-untruth is trading, and the dog's way is serving the low. A brahmin should always leave that off, and a kshatriya too, for it is a hateful thing. The brahmin is made of all the Vedas, the king of all the gods.