In the Indian tradition a person's life is marked by a series of rites called samskaras, "perfections" or "consecrations", which accompany them from conception to cremation. Among these, one of the most important is upanayana, the rite by which a boy was admitted to the study of the Vedas and became a "twice-born".
The name and its meaning
The Sanskrit term upanayana means roughly "leading near": the boy is led to the teacher, the guru or acharya, who receives him as a disciple. The rules of the rite are set out in the Grihyasutras, the Vedic manuals of domestic rites, and in treatises of religious law such as the Laws of Manu.
The rite traditionally concerned the three higher classes of Vedic society: brahmins, kshatriyas and vaishyas. Whoever received it was called dvija, "twice-born". The first birth is from the mother's body; the second is spiritual, within the sacred tradition.
The age of the rite
The Laws of Manu give different ages for each class: the eighth year for the brahmin, the eleventh for the kshatriya, the twelfth for the vaishya, counting from conception. Upper limits are also set, beyond which someone who had not received the rite lost the right to the full condition.
The stages of the ceremony
The forms vary widely according to Vedic schools, regions and periods. The most recurrent elements are these.
Preparation
The boy receives a purifying bath and sometimes has his head shaved. He eats a last meal with his mother, a gesture many communities read as a farewell to a childhood spent in the maternal sphere.
The robing
He is given the objects of the student:
- a girdle of sacred grass, traditionally munja grass for the brahmin;
- a staff, whose length and wood vary by class;
- an antelope skin or equivalent garment;
- above all the sacred thread, the yajnopavita.
The thread, made of three strands, is worn over the left shoulder and falls diagonally to the right hip. In certain ritual circumstances, such as rites for the ancestors, its position is reversed. It is the visible sign of the new condition and will be worn throughout life.
The Gayatri
The central moment is the transmission of the Gayatri, or Savitri, a verse of the Rigveda addressed to the sun as a principle of light and inspiration. The teacher teaches it to the disciple, traditionally in a low voice, word by word, then by half-verses, finally in full. The Laws of Manu say that in this second birth the Savitri is the mother and the teacher is the father.
The first alms
The new student then makes his first round of begging, asking for food: traditionally the first to give him alms is his mother. The gesture reverses roles: the son now presents himself to her as a disciple who receives, no longer as a child who is fed.
The time of study
Upanayana opens brahmacharya, the first of the four stages of life. The student lived with the teacher, served him, learned the Vedic texts by heart, observed chastity and a strict discipline. This period, described by the texts as of variable length, closed with another rite, the samavartana, the "return", marked by a solemn bath, after which the young man could marry.
Women and the rite
Some ancient texts suggest that in the Vedic period certain women could receive initiation and study the Vedas. In the later tradition, however, upanayana was largely reserved for males, and for women marriage came to be regarded as the equivalent of this rite. The subject is today a matter of study and debate, including within Indian communities.
Upanayana today
The rite is still celebrated in many families, sometimes in shortened form, and often no longer at the age the texts indicate: in some cases it is performed shortly before marriage. Even so it retains its essential meaning of entry into a tradition.
A second birth
Few rites express so clearly the idea of initiation as a new birth. The boy leaves the maternal sphere and receives a spiritual father and mother, a sign to wear on the body, a sacred word to guard, a new way of living. It is the same core that we find, in very different forms, in many initiatory schools of the world.
In short
- Upanayana is the samskara that admits the boy to the study of the Vedas under a teacher.
- Whoever receives it becomes dvija, "twice-born".
- The three-stranded sacred thread is the permanent sign of the new condition.
- The heart of the rite is the transmission of the Gayatri from teacher to disciple.
- The rite opens the period of study, brahmacharya, closed by the bath of return.
