FOOTNOTES:
[10] This is the general subject and title of the first book; but the following slokas are selected as introductory of and with reference to civil and municipal law.
[11] Pre-eminent, divine sages; probably the great Rishis, the first-created of Brahmá, mentioned in the opening verse of Manu.
In the third book (sl. 186—189) two classes of Munis are described, of whom one, after blessed experience of Heaven, return to Earth, and the other are to continue in the abodes of bliss until the destruction of the universe. These latter are the publishers of the Vedas, Upanishads, Sútras, Puráṇas, in fine of all records of knowledge through the medium of language.
[12] These (according to Hindu notions) have withdrawn their senses from external things by, as it were, mental concentration, fixing the thoughts, without change or wavering, upon the soul in its relations with the Supreme Being.
[13] viz.—the brahmachári, the student of the Vedas,
the grihastha, the head of a family.
the vánaprastha, who has retired from active life, to the forest.
the sanyásí, whose duty it is to pass his time in meditating upon Brahmá, so as to attain to the state of a Yogí.
[14] i. e. the mixed casts. (M.)