The law declares:-- "From his high birth alone a Brahman is an object of veneration, even to deities, and his declarations are decisive evidence." "A Brahman, who has performed an expiation with his whole mind fixed on God, purifies his soul." Drinking intoxicating liquor (except in the Soma sacrifice) is strictly prohibited, and it is even declared that a Brahman who tastes intoxicating liquor sinks to the low caste of a Sudra.

If a Brahman who has tasted the Soma juice even smells the breath of a man who has been drinking spirits, he must do penance by repeating the Gayatri, suppressing his breath, and eating clarified butter.

Next to Brahmans, cows were the objects of reverence, probably because, in the earliest times, the Aryan race, as nomads, depended on this animal for food.

He who kills a cow must perform very severe penances, among which are these:-- "All day he must wait on a herd of cows and stand quaffing the dust raised by their hoofs; at night, having servilely attended them, he must sit near and guard them." "Free from passion, he must stand while they stand, follow when they move, and lie down near them when they lie down." "By thus waiting on a herd for three months, he who has killed a cow atones for his guilt." For such offences as cutting down fruit-trees or grasses, or killing insects, or injuring sentient creatures, the penance is to repeat so many texts of the Veda, to eat clarified butter, or to stop the breath.

A low-born man who treats a Brahman disrespectfully, or who even overcomes him in argument, must fast all day and fall prostrate before him.