120 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
power to punish his wrongdoer without resort to court [1] . He could take the property of the common man (the Shudra) without compensation and without reference to court if the same was necessary for the performance of his religious duties [2] . If he discovers a hidden treasure he was free to appropriate the whole [3] of it without giving the usual share to the king ‘since he was the lord of all’ and was entitled to claim half [4] if it was discovered by another. He was entitled to whole amount accumulated from legal fines from a king whose death was due to some incurable disease. [5] He was exempt from taxation [6] . He was entitled to compel the king to provide for his daily food and to see that he did not starve [7] . His property was free from the law of escheat. [8]
The superman of the Hindu Social order is not bound by the rules as to occupation if he is in distress.
Manu says:—
X. 81. “Yet a Brahman, unable to subsist by his duties just mentioned, may live by the duty of a soldier; for that is the next in rank.”
X. 82. “If it be asked, how he must live, should he be unable to get a subsistence by either of those employments; the answer is, he may subsist as a mercantile man, applying himself in person to tillage and attendance on cattle.”
X. 83. “But a Brahman and a Kshatriya, obliged to subsist by the acts of a Vaishya, must avoid with care, if they can live by keeping herds, the business of tillage, which gives great pain’ to sentient creatures, and is dependent on the labour of others, as bulls and so forth.”
X. 84. “Some are of opinion, that agriculture is excellent but it is a mode of subsistence which the benevolent greatly blame, for the iron mouthed pieces of wood not only wound the earth, but the creatures dwelling in it.”
X. 85. “If, through want of a virtuous livelihood, they cannot follow laudable occupations, they may then gain a competence of wealth by selling commodities usually sold by merchants, avoiding what ought to be avoided.”
X. 102. “The Brahmana, having fallen into distress, may receive gifts from any person whatever; for by no sacred rule can it be shown, that absolute purity can be sullied.”
1 Manu XI. 31—This privilege has been abolished.
2 Manu XI. 32.—This privilege no longer exists.
3 Manu VIII. 37.
4 Manu VIII. 38.
5 Manu IX. 323.
6 Manu VII. 133.
7 Manu VII. 134.
8 Manu IX. 189