Note on the sacred thread

Note: this text is extracted from Book XII, chapter 86

The rite of investiture with the sacred thread is known as upanayana, and is the most important ceremony in a Brāhman’s life. Before it takes place he is only a Śūdra, but now he becomes a Brāhman and enters the ranks of the Twice-born. From a boy dependent on women, he now becomes a man, and henceforth can eat only with men. But of the greatest importance is the fact that until upanayana no Brāhman can marry, and consequently cannot raise up seed so necessary for the performance of Śrāddha and other similar ceremonies.

The investiture generally takes place when the boy is eight years of age, if a Brāhman, eleven if a Kṣatriya and twelve if a Vaiśya. Interesting descriptions of the ceremony will be found as follows: J. Campbell, Bombay Gazetteer, vol. ix, pt. i, pp.14n¹, 36-39, 141; vol. xv, pt. i, pp. 152-154, 170, 174, 196, 198, 343; vol. xviii, pt. i, pp. 116-120, 187-189, 226-228; vol. xxiv, pp. 48-50, 140, 141. See also J. Jolly, “Recht und Sitte,” § 56, Encyclopædia of Indian Philology, 1896, and L. D. Barnett, Antiquities of India, pp. 140-142.

The most recent account, however, and certainly the most detailed, appears in Mrs Stevenson’s Rites of the Twice-Born, pp. 27-45. Although reference should be made there for full details, I shall give a few extracts dealing with the most important parts of the ceremony.

The date on which so great a rite can take place has to be carefully selected. Firstly, it must start only on a Monday, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday. Secondly, the chosen day must fall in the bright fortnight. The month can only be Māgha, Phālguna, Chaitra or Vaiśākha. Invitations are sent out about ten days before the ceremony.

The first act is the setting up of a booth on four posts. There is also a fifth post, quite small, which represents Brahmā. Gaṇeśa is fully worshipped, after which the fifteen divine mother-goddesses are installed and worshipped. The seven other goddesses are also worshipped and four Brāhmans recite a hymn from a different Veda. The boy has to spend the night preceding the actual ceremony in absolute silence, with his body smeared with a yellow substance (pītī). In the morning the child is led to the booth, where the sacrificial fire is burning on the altar. He is now shaved, washed, and eats with his mother for the last time. After several other minor acts the actual investiture takes place. But first we must describe the thread itself. It is of cotton spun by a Brāhman virgin and twisted by a Brāhman. The colour varies, in accordance, it is said, with the mind of the caste of the weaver. Thus the Brāhmans wear white, the Kṣatriyas red, and the Vaiśyas yellow. Originally the cord of a Brāhman was of muñja grass, that of Kṣatriyas was a bowstring or of kāśa grass, and that of Vaiśyas of wool, hemp or mūrvā. The length of the cord is ninety-six times the breadth of the four fingers of a man, the reason being that a man’s height is ninety-six times the breadth of one finger; and each of his four fingers represents one of the four states his soul experiences—viz. waking, dreaming, dreamless sleep, and the state of the Absolute Brahma. The cord must be threefold, because there are three qualities out of which our bodies are compounded: reality, passion, darkness. The twist of the thread must be upward, so that the good quality may predominate, and so the wearer may rise to great spiritual heights. The threefold thread must be twisted three times, lest the bad quality, the darkness, should strive to gain ascendancy and pull the soul down. The whole cord is tied together by a knot called Brahmagranthi, which has three parts, representing Brahmā, Viṣṇu, and Śiva, and in addition to this, extra knots are made in the cord to represent the various Pravaras to be found in the particular gotra or lineage of the candidate. We proceed to the actual investiture.

The boy faces the sun, holding the thread by the thumb and little finger of each hand, in such a way that it passes in front of the three middle fingers. The left hand must be held higher than the right. The preceptor repeats a mantra, at the conclusion of which the boy slips the thread over his own head. He now receives a staff, varying in size and wood according to his caste. He then sits on a stool facing west and receives water poured into his joined hands. He now looks at the sun, offers a coconut and receives a new name, to be used only at the ceremony. A series of questions and answers follows, concluding with the teaching of the most famous of all mantras, the gāyatrī. So sacred is the verse that both the boy and his guru are covered with a silk shawl, lest any sound be overheard. The right ear of the child into which the verse is repeated becomes holy for life after merely hearing it. It usually takes three days for the verse to be learned perfectly. The boy now offers nine pieces of wood dipped in clarified butter to the fire, with appropriate prayers to Agni, Sarasvatī, and the Sun.

The initiate is now a Twice-born Brāhman, and ceremonially pure, so he touches all the different parts of his own body to purify them also. In the evening, for the first time in his life, the boy can perform the evening worship, Sandhyā, which hereafter never must be omitted.

This important part of the ceremony used to occur at the end of the second day, the complete investiture taking three days. In modern times, however, the three days’ ceremonies are usually performed in a single day. During the night of the second day the initiate has to observe many rules of self-denial, such as absolute silence, sleeping on the floor, avoiding any food containing salt, etc. On the third day he pours clarified butter nine times into the sacred fire, begins the study of the Vedas, and has a bath. This bath makes him eligible for marriage. The water for it is fetched by eight “lucky” women in eight new water-pots, containing rice, red powder and flowers. He dons new clothes, wears a bigger loin-cloth, and partakes of a little food. The symbols of his studentship are given away and his mother marks his eyelashes with lamp-black and makes a smudge of it near his right ear. This is the final chance on the part of the mother to safeguard her son against evil influences. The boy can now look in a mirror, carry an umbrella, and wear shoes. In place of his student’s staff he is given a green bamboo tied with the yellow loin-cloth he had worn before the initiation. Then follows the staging of a little comedy, in which the boy pretends he is making a pilgrimage to Benares. The pilgrimage is interrupted and the boy is taken home. There are still certain rules he is expected to observe. He should not play or sing, look down into deep water, climb a tree for fruit, walk streets in the evening, leap from high cliffs, or ever speak unworthily. He must admire the glow of the sun both night and morning. He must never make fun of a woman, or spit towards the sun, and should keep away as far as possible from all low-caste persons and women. At night he should always have a light when he dines to prevent him from injuring any living thing in the dark. Finally, he must always tell the truth. He is now a man in every sense of the word, and must never dine with women, and sleep only in the men’s part of the house.

The above is an outline of a much fuller description given by Mrs Stevenson, as already stated.—n.m.p.