Manava Dharmashastra 2.36

2.36

garbhasthasya yaḥ saṃvatsarastata ārabhya yo'ṣṭamo'bdaḥ | garbhaśabdena sāhacaryātsaṃvatsaro lakṣyate | na hi mukhyayā vṛttyā garbhasya saṃvatsaro'ṣṭama iti vyapadeśaṃ labhate| tasminnaupanāyanaṃ brāhmaṇasya kurvīta | upanayanamevopanāyanam | svārthiko'ṇ | "anyeṣāmapi dṛśyate" ( pā. sū. 6|

In the eighth year from conception one should perform the initiation of the Brāhmaṇa; of the king in the eleventh year from conception; and of the Vaiśya in the twelfth.—(36)

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
Counting from the year that one spends in the mother’s womb, when the child reaches the eighth year;—the term ‘garbha’ stands for the year spent in the womb; this indication being due to the presence of the term ‘year,’ ‘abda’; certainly the ‘year’ could never be the ‘eighth’ from ‘garbha,’ if this latter were taken in its direct sense;—in this year one should perform the Initiation of the Brāhmaṇa.

The term ‘aupanāyanam’ stands for ‘upamyanam,’ the ‘aṇ’ affix having the reflexive sense; and the lengthening of the vowel in the latter term (‘nayanam’) being in accordance with (Pāṇini 6.3.198); or the lengthening of the vowels of both terms (‘upa’ and ‘nayanam’) may be regarded as a Vedic anomaly.

‘Upanayana,’ ‘Initiation,’ is the name of a sacrament described in the Gṛhyasūtras and well-known to Vedic scholars, its other name is ‘Mauñjī-bandha,’ ‘Girdle-Investiture.’ That ceremony in which the child is taken over to—made over to—(upanīyate)—the teacher, for the purposes of teaching—and not for any such other purpose as the building of a Avail, or the making of a mat—is what is called ‘Upanayana.’ It is the name of a particular sacramental rite.

‘Of the King in the eleventh year from conception’;—for the Kṣatṭriya the ceremony should be performed in the eleventh year ‘from conception,’—i.e., ‘beginning from conception,’ or ‘after conception.’

The term ‘king’ ‘rājan’ (in ‘rājñaḥ’) should he taken as standing for the Kṣatriya caste; and does not necessarily mean one who is a duly anointed king; firstly because such is the sense in which the word is generally used in books; secondly because in the present context it occurs along with the terms ‘Brāhmaṇa’ and the rest (which are all denotative of castes); and thirdly because we find the term ‘Kṣatriya’ used in the rules that follow regarding the details of the ceremony; e.g., it is raid that ‘the girdle of the Kṣatriya should consist of the bow-string’ (below, Verse 12). It is true that the term ‘king’ is sometimes used in the sense of the ‘rulers’ of ‘countries,’ and as such applied to Vaiśyas and other castes also; but such usage is purely figurative and indirect. And the figurative meaning of a word can be accepted only when the original direct meaning is found inapplicable. That the term ‘king’ in the text stands for the Kṣatriya is shown by the following words of the author of the Gṛhya-sutra—‘One should initiate the Brāhmaṇa in the eighth year, the Kṣatriya in the eleventh and the Vaiśya in the twefth.’ It is on this understanding that the revered Pāṇini derives the word ‘rājya’ (‘Kingship’) from the word ‘rājan’ (King), explaining it as ‘the function the King,’ and hence used in the ordinary sense of ‘lord of country’ [ i.e., the ‘function of ruling a country’ really belongs to the Kṣatriya caste, and when persons of other castes arc called ‘King’ their title is based upon their doing ‘the work of the King’].

Of the Vaiśya, the ceremony should be performed in the twelfth year from conception.—(86)