Hinduism / by Monier Williams.

  • Monier Monier-Williams
Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hinduism / by Monier Williams. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    as laid down by Manu should be clearly understood. It may be described as follows :— Every Brahman had to pass through four Asrarnas, or conditions of life; that is to say, his life was divided into four periods according as he became successively, — i. Unmarried student (braJima-carin) y 2. Married householder (griha-stha); 3. Anchorite (vdnaprastha); 4. Religious devotee (bhikshu or pa- rivrdjaka or sannydsin). As unmarried student the young Brahman was to reside with his preceptor until he had gained a thorough knowledge of the three Vedas. He was to go through twelve Sanskaras or ‘ purificatory rites/ which purify a man from the taint of sin derived from his parents, and are enjoined with cer- tain variations on all the three first classes alike. They are as follow :— I. Garbhddhdna or garbha-lambhana, ‘ceremony on con- ception ’; 2. Punsavana, on the first indication of a living male’s conception ; 3. Simantonnayana, arranging the parting of the mother’s hair in the fourth, sixth, or eighth month of pregnancy ; 4. Jdta-karman, touching an infant’s tongue with honey and gki thrice at birth ; 5. Ndma-karana, giving a name on the tenth or twelfth day after birth ; 6. Nishkramana, taking out the child in the fourth month to see the sun 7. Anna-prdsana, feeding it with rice between the fifth and eighth month ; 8. C'iidakarman, or caula, tonsure of the hair, except one lock, on the crown, of the head, in the third year ; 9. Upanayana, induction into the order of a twice-born man by investiture with the sacred cord ; 10. Kesanta, cutting off the hair, performed on a Brahman in his sixteenth year, on a Ksha- triya in his twenty-second, on a Vaisya in his twenty-fourth n. Samdvariana, solemn return home after completing a course F
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