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Laws of Manu — Manava Dharmashastra

c. 200 BCE – 200 CE · Classical India (c. 2nd century BCE – 3rd century CE) · India

Book I — The Creation

1The great sages approached Manu, who was seated with a collected mind,

2and, having duly worshipped him, spoke as follows:

3"Deign, divine one, to declare to us precisely and in due order

4the sacred laws of each of the four chief castes and of the intermediate ones."

5Manu replied: "This universe existed in the shape of Darkness, unperceived, destitute of distinctive marks,

6unattainable by reasoning, unknowable, wholly immersed, as it were, in deep sleep.

7"Then the divine Self-existent, indiscernible but making all this — the great elements and the rest —

8discernible, appeared with irresistible creative power, dispelling the darkness.

9"He, desiring to produce beings of many kinds from his own body,

10first with a thought created the waters, and placed his seed in them.

11"That seed became a golden egg, in brilliancy equal to the sun;

12in that egg he himself was born as Brahma, the progenitor of the whole world."

The Four Ages

13Four thousand years, they say, is the Krita age.

14Its morning twilight consists of as many hundreds, and its evening twilight is of the same length.

15In the other three ages, with their morning and evening twilights,

16the thousands and hundreds are diminished by one in each.

17These twelve thousand years constitute what is called the age of the gods.

18The eternal duty of a Brahmana is to study the Veda,

19to perform sacrifices, to give gifts, and to receive gifts.

20The duty of a Kshatriya is to protect the people, to bestow gifts, to sacrifice, to study the Veda,

21and to be free from attachment to sensual pleasures.

22The duty of a Vaisya is to keep cattle, to bestow gifts, to sacrifice, to study the Veda,

23to trade, to lend money, and to till the ground.

24The Lord prescribed only one occupation for a Sudra:

25to serve meekly even these other three castes.

Book II — Duties of the Student

26The knowledge of the sacred law is prescribed for those who are not given to the acquisition of wealth

27and to the gratification of their desires.

28To those who seek the knowledge of the sacred law, the Sruti is the highest authority.

29The whole Veda is the first source of the sacred law,

30and next the tradition and the virtuous conduct of those who know the Veda,

31and further the customs of holy men, and finally self-satisfaction.

32From the moment the child is born, all the rites should be performed

33with the recitation of Vedic verses.

34Let the student, having risen before daybreak, meditate on the sacred texts

35and on virtue, and honour his teacher.

Book IV — The Householder

36Let no man ever ask a Sudra for wisdom in a difficulty;

37the man of the twice-born castes should not eat with them.

38Let him say what is true, let him say what is pleasing;

39let him utter no disagreeable truth, and let him utter no agreeable falsehood;

40this is the eternal law.

41Let a man carefully avoid all undertakings which depend on others.

42Whatever he undertakes let him diligently perform.

43The world lives by works, and dies without them.

44A wise man should always bear insult and never insult others;

45he should never grow angry when suffering pain,

46and should never speak evil of others in return.

Book VI — The Forest-Dweller and Ascetic

47When a householder sees his skin wrinkled and his hair white,

48and the sons of his sons, then he may resort to the forest.

49Abandoning all food raised by cultivation, and all his belongings,

50he may depart into the forest, either committing his wife to his sons or accompanied by her.

51Let him not desire to die, let him not desire to live;

52let him wait for his time, as a servant for the payment of his wages.

53Let him bear the harsh words of a teacher without hate;

54let him not become another's enemy for the sake of this perishable body.

55Delighting in what refers to the Soul, sitting in the postures of a Yogi,

56independent of external help, entirely abstaining from sensual enjoyments,

57himself his own companion, he shall live in this world,

58desiring the bliss of final liberation.

Book XII — The Final Reckoning

59Action, either mental, verbal, or bodily, bears good or evil fruit;

60the various conditions of men are produced by their actions.

61Man obtains the result of a good or evil mental act in his mind,

62the result of a verbal act in his speech,

63and the result of a bodily act in his body.

64For sinful acts mostly corporeal, a man shall assume after death a vegetable or mineral form;

65for merely verbal sins, the form of a bird or of a beast;

66and for mental sins the condition of a man of the lowest caste.

67But he who fully performs his own duty, and possesses the light of the Veda,

68enters the Supreme Brahman, and returns not.

notes

The Manusmriti ("Laws of Manu" or Manava Dharmashastra, "The Dharma Text of Manu") is the most well-known and authoritative of the ancient Hindu Dharmashastra texts. Attributed to the sage Manu — the progenitor of humanity in Hindu mythology — it was likely compiled between the 2nd century BCE and the 3rd century CE, drawing on earlier Vedic tradition. The text is a systematic treatment of dharma (law, duty, righteousness) covering the creation of the world, the four ages, the duties of the four varnas (castes) and the four ashramas (stages of life), rules of marriage, food, and ritual purity, criminal and civil law, punishment, and the doctrine of karma. Its influence on Indian legal and social thought was profound; under British colonial administration, it was often (misleadingly) treated as a legal code binding on all Hindus, though its authority was in fact one voice among many. In modern India, it has been the object of intense criticism — most notably by B.R. Ambedkar, who publicly burnt a copy in 1927 as a protest against the caste system it codifies. We present the text here as a primary historical document. The caste divisions and gender restrictions it contains are read today by scholars as evidence of the ideology of a particular Brahmanical class in a particular period, not as prescriptive dharma for any modern reader. Translation: Georg Bühler, "The Laws of Manu," Sacred Books of the East, vol. 25, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1886. Public domain.

DharmaEthicsRitualKarmaHindu

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