The ideal set before the Brahmins in the Dharmasastras was one of poverty, simple living and high thinking, of forsaking the active pursuit of riches and cherishing cultural preservation and advancement. Manu lays down the general rule that when not in distress a Brahmin should acquire wealth only just sufficient to maintain himself and his family.1 The Mahabhasya of Pantanjali quotes as an agama (Vedic passage) the words ‘a Brahmana should study and understand without any motive (of profit) dharma, the Veda with its six subsidiary lores’. According to Manu, a Brahmana should always and assiduously study the Veda alone; that (Veda study) is his highest dharma; everything else is inferior dharma (4.147).2 In another verse Manu says that the study of Vedas is the highest tapasya of a Brahmin (2.166) and a dvija (twice born) who not having studied the Vedas, tries to acquire other forms of learning is degraded to the status of Shudra with all his progeny, even in his life. (Manu Smriti 2.168).3 These statements in the Dharmasastras shows that study of the Vedas was the summum bonum for a Brahmin and this began after he underwent the samskara (sacrament) of Upanayana.
Meaning of Upanayana
The literally word of Upanayana means ‘leading or taking near’ and originally meant taking near the acharya for instruction.4 In the Atharva Veda the word Upanayana is used in the sense of “taking charge of a student’. Here it is meant the initiation of a child by a teacher into sacred lore. Even in the Sutra period the proposal of the student for studentship and its acceptance by the teacher is the central point in the Upanayana samskara. But later on, when the mystic significance of the Upanayana increased, the idea of the second birth through the Gayatri mantra overshadowed the original idea of initiation for education.5
Main purpose of Upanayana
The commencement of Vedic studies was the original purpose of undergoing the Upanayana samskara. In the most ancient times, it was probable that the father himself always taught his son but later the student went to a guru and stayed in his house for studies. Accordingly, the would-be student would go to a teacher with a samidh (fuel stick) in his hand and tell that he desired to enter the stage of studenthood and begged to be allowed to be a brahmachari living with the teacher. The teacher who accepted the pupil instructed him the Savitri (Gayatri) mantra and started teaching him the Vedas. The student had certain duties to perform like tending his guru’s cattle, refraining himself from singing and dancing, sleeping on a cot, consuming honey, etc. He was supposed to earn his food through begging. For undergoing the Upanayana, there was no elaborate ceremonies like those described in Grhya Sutras.6
Originally education was the main purpose of undergoing the Upanayana samskara and ritual or ceremoniously taking the initiate to the teacher an ancillary item. It was not only at the first initiation of a boy but at the beginning of every branch of the Veda, that Upanayana was performed. In the Upanishads we come across a number of cases where a person underwent the rite of Upanayana when approaching a guru for learning a new branch of philosophy.7
Yajnopavita reduced to cord of threads
Today the person who undergoes the Upanayana ceremony starts wearing a sacred thread called janivara or janeoo consisting of three or six threads across his left shoulders and under his right arm. The sacred thread as such is not mentioned in the Grhyasutras. It was a later substitute for the upper garment called yajnopavita, which was put on at the time of a sacrifice.
The root meaning of the word yajnopavita implies that it is a covering for the body (upaviti) to be donned during the ceremonies (yajna). A deer skin served as a covering (upaviti) for the body of the twice born during his prayer hours as a protection against cold.8
The earliest reference to Yajnopavita is found in Taittiriyaranyaka (2.1) where it is described as consisting of the skin or the cloth worn in a certain manner. However during the time of Manu it seems to have become a mere thread twisted in a particular manner. According to Medhatithi it is called Yajnopavita because it is connected with sacrificial performances. The Grhyasutras also do not seem to speak of habitual wearing (of sacred thread). Apastamba has declared that it should be worn while saluting teachers, old men and guests and also when doing homa, japa, meals, achamana and recitation of the Vedas.9
According to P.V.Kane, from the fact that many of the Gryasutras are entirely silent about the giving or wearing of the sacred thread in Upanayana and from the fact that no mantra is cited from the Vedic literature for the act of giving the yajnopavita (which is now the centre of the Upanayana rites), while scores of Vedic mantras are cited for the several component parts of the ceremony of Upanayana, it is most probable, if not certain that the sacred thread was not invariably used in the old times. Originally the upper garment was used in various positions for certain acts and the cords of threads came to be used first as an option and later on exclusively for the upper garment.10
Performance of Sandhyakarma
The performance of Sandhyakarma is an obligation for one who undergoes the Upanayana ceremony and this includes the recital of the Gayatri mantra. According to Shankhayana Gruha Sutra, Sandhya should be performed twice in the morning and evening, sitting in a forest, with fuel sticks in hand, or just with folded hands, observing silence, facing east Gayatri japa should be uttered until the disk of the sun appears in the morning and until the stars appear in the evening.11 The Baudhayanadharmasutra says Sandhya should be performed near the river, holding Darbhas in the hand and sitting on the Darbha grass.12 Earlier recitation of the Savitri (Gayatri) was the only important ritual in the Sandhya rite but later Prayoga manuals introduced Nyasa, Mudra and Bhasmadharana to it.13
Upaakarma, new session for Vedic studies
Dharmashastras refer to a rite called Upaakarma or Upaakarana which means opening, starting or beginning. In several sutras, Upaakarma is spoken as adhyaayopakarma or adhyaayopakarana and adhyaaya means the study of the Vedas. This rite was performed as a beginning of the session in the year for Vedic study.14 In modern times without knowing the significance of this rite, Brahmins change their sacred thread on the day of Upaakarma.
Sacred thread, a decorative badge
Earlier Upanayana was a voluntary ceremony. Whoever desired to learn approached his guru and performed the initiation ceremony and Upanayana was confined to literary and priestly families only.15 Later as new branches of learning evolved, it was felt that to preserve the sacred literature the service of the entire community had to be utilized and hence Upanayana was made a compulsory samskara. Also, it was believed that Upanayana possessed sanctifying power.16 But when Upanayana became a compulsory samskara people gradually forget its real purpose and in the words of Raj Bali Pandey, the Upananaya became a ceremonial farce and the sacred thread an insignificant decorative badge.17
Reference
P.V.Kane – History of Dharmasastra, vol 2, part I, 1941, p.110
Ibid, p.107
Rabindra Kumar Pana – Manusmrti (II & III chapters), Edited and translated, Paramamitra Prakashana, New Delhi, 1999
P.V.Kane – Op.Cit, p.268
Raj Bali Pandey – Hindu Samskaras, A Socio-religious study of the Hindu Sacraments, Vikrama Publications, Banaras, 1949, pp:194-95
P.V.Kane – Op.Cit, pp:271-283
Raj Bali Pandey – Op.Cit, pp:196-198
V.Raghavendra Rao – Evolution of the Yajnopavita, Quarterly Journal of Mythic Society, vol 39, no 1, July 1948, p.49
Mahamahopadhaya Ganganatha Jha – Yajnopavita, Sir Asutosh Memorial Volume, p.62
P.V.Kane – Op.Cit, p.291
Bhagyashree Bhagwat – Sandhya: Ritual and Development in B.K.Dalai, R.A.Muley Edited, Vedic Studies (Problems and Perspectives), Pratibha Prakashan, 2014, p.224
Ibid, p.225
Ibid, p,226
P.V.Kane – History of Dharmasastra, vol 2, part II, 1941, p.807
Raj Bali Pandey – Op.Cit, p.207
Ibid, p.209
Ibid, p.196
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