Adhyāya I, Kaṇḍikā 19

1. In the eighth year let him initiate a Brāhmaṇa,

2. Or in the eighth year after the conception;

3. In the eleventh a Kṣatriya;

4. In the twelfth a Vaiśya.

5. Until the sixteenth (year) the time has not passed for a Brāhmaṇa;

6. Until the twenty-second for a Kṣatriya;

7. Until the twenty-fourth for a Vaiśya.

8. After that (time has passed), they become patitasāvitrīka (i.e. they have lost their right of learning the Sāvitrī).

9. No one should initiate such men, nor teach them, nor perform sacrifices for them, nor have intercourse with them.

10^[1]. (Let him initiate) the youth who is adorned and whose (hair on the) head is arranged, who wears a (new) garment that has not yet been washed, or an antelope-skin, if he is a Brāhmaṇa, the skin of a spotted deer, if a Kṣatriya, a goat's skin, if a Vaiśya.

11. If they put on garments, they should put on dyed (garments): the Brāhmaṇa a reddish yellow one, the Kṣatriya a light red one, the Vaiśya a yellow one.

12. Their girdles are: that of a Brāhmaṇa made of Muñja grass, that of a Kṣatriya a bow-string, that of a Vaiśya woollen.

13. Their staffs are: that of a Brāhmaṇa of Palāśa wood, that of a Kṣatriya of Udumbara wood, that of a Vaiśya of Bilva wood.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

19, 10. By the 'arranging of the hair' the cutting of the hair is implied, as is seen from chap. 22, 22.