Skandapurana 4.36

Skanda said:

"I will state further particulars of right conduct, O pot-born [Agastya],

Having heard which even an ordinary man becomes wise and does not enter the darkness of ignorance.

Brahmins, kṣatriyas, and vaiśyas—the three classes are known as the twice-born:

First born from the mother, and second from the upanayana.

Their rites are Vedic, beginning with conception and ending at the cremation ground.

The wise man should deposit the semen during the fertile season, avoiding Mūla and Maghā.

Before quickening, the puṃsavana [is done], then the sīmantonnayana

In the sixth or eighth month; and then, once born, the birth rite (jātakarma).

The naming on the eleventh day; taking out from the house in the fourth month;

The first feeding of food in the sixth month; tonsure in the [third] year, or according to family tradition.

In this way the sin arising from the seed and born of the womb is pacified.

For women, these rites are performed silently, but marriage is accompanied by mantras.

In the seventh or eighth year a brahmin is fit for the Sāvitrī [initiation];

A king in the eleventh, and a vaiśya in the twelfth, or according to family tradition.

For the increase of Vedic radiance, a brahmin is fit in the fifth year;

A king desiring strength should take the muñja-girdle in the sixth, and a vaiśya in the eighth.

And the guru should teach the Veda preceded by the great vyāhṛtis,

And having initiated that student, he should engage him in purification and right conduct.

He should perform purification according to the rule declared before, and likewise the sipping of water,

Having cleaned teeth and tongue, and having purified bodily impurities.

Having bathed with mantras to the water-deities, carefully having restrained his breaths,

And having performed the standing worship of the sun at both twilights,

And having then performed the fire sacrifice, he should salute the brahmins,

Saying: 'I of such-and-such gotra salute [you].'

For one devoted to salutation and devoted to serving elders,

Life span, fame, strength, and intellect increase day by day.

Called by the guru, he studies; he should offer to him what he has received;

In action, mind, and speech, he should always act for his welfare.

Those who should be taught are: one who asks out of righteousness, not for wealth; the virtuous, the trustworthy, the giver of knowledge, and the giver of wealth.

[and those who are] capable, grateful, pure, free from malice, and free from envy. (15)

He should wear a girdle, a staff, a sacred thread, and an antelope skin;

he should beg alms for his subsistence among irreproachable brahmins. (16)

For a brahmin, a kṣatriya, and a vaiśya, at the beginning, middle, and end,

the begging of alms should respectively be marked by the word bhavat. (17)

Restraining his speech and permitted by his teacher, he should eat his food without despising it;

he should not eat food provided by a single person, [except that] he may eat [it] at a śrāddha and in times of distress. (18)

Overeating produces unhealthiness, shortens life, and bars heaven;

it destroys merit and is hated by the world; therefore, one should avoid it. (19)

The best among twice-born should nowhere eat twice during a single day;

knowing the rules of the agnihotra, a twice-born should eat in the evening and morning. (20)

Honey, meat, injury to living beings, gazing at the sun, applying collyrium,

[consorting with] women, stale food, remnants of meals, and slander he must avoid. (21)

The maximum time for initiation for a brahmin, a kṣatriya, and a vaiśya

is up to the sixteenth, the twenty-second, and the twenty-fourth year [respectively]. (22)

Beyond this they are not to be consecrated; they are fallen, devoid of dharma.

By means of the sacrifice called Vrātyastoma one may rid oneself of that fallen state. (23)

One should not enter into relations with those who have fallen from the Sāvitrī. / For the twice-born, the skin [should be] of a black antelope, a ruru deer, and a goat, respectively. (24)

The skins of the twice-born are, in order, black antelope, deer, and goat.

They should wear, in order, hempen, linen, and woolen garments. / The girdle of a brahmin should be made of muñja grass; of a kṣatriya, bowstring; (25)

The girdle of a twice-born is made of muñja grass, and that of the arm-born is of bowstring bowstring-hemp.

it should be threefold, smooth, and even; but that of a vaiśya [should be] made of hemp threads. (25)

In the absence of muñja, it should be made of kuśa grass, aśmantaka, or balvaja,

furnished with one knot, or with three, or with five. (26)

The sacred thread should be, in order, of cotton, hemp, and wool;

it should be three-stranded and twisted upward for the increase of life. (27)

The staff of a brahmin should be of bilva or palāśa; of a king,

of nyagrodha or a young branch [of badara]; of a vaiśya, of pīlu or udumbara. (28)

In height, it should reach up to the crown of the head, to the forehead, or to the nose;

the staff for a brahmin, a kṣatriya, and a vaiśya should have intact bark and not be marred by fire. (29)

Having circumambulated the fire from left to right and worshiped the sun,

equipped with a staff, skin, and sacred thread, he should beg alms as prescribed. (30)

Beginning with his mother, mother's sister, sister, and father's sister,

these should be begged from first; he should utter the solicitation to them. (31)

As long as he studies the Veda, observing the Vedic observances,

so long should he remain a student; thereafter, having bathed, he should become a householder. (32)

This [student] is declared to be the upakurvāṇa; the second among them is the naiṣṭhika.

He should remain in the teacher's house for as long as his life lasts. (33)

He who, having entered the householder stage, again observes student celibacy,

is neither an ascetic nor a forest hermit; he is excluded from all life stages. (34)

A twice-born should not remain even for a single day without an āśrama;

for one who remains without an āśrama must perform expiation. (35)

Recitation, oblations, vows, gifts, personal study, and libations to the ancestors—

performing [these] while fallen from his āśrama, he does not obtain their fruit. (36)

The girdle, skin, and staff are the distinguishing marks of the student;

Vedic sacrifices and the like of the householder; [untrimmed] nails and hair of the forest dweller; (37)

the triple staff and so forth are declared to be the marks of the ascetic.

Lacking these marks, one must perform expiation day after day. (38)

A worn-out water pot, staff, sacred thread, and antelope skin—

throwing these into the water, he should take other ones with mantras. (39)

One should perform the ceremony of shaving the hair in the sixteenth year, and in order,

in the twenty-second and twenty-fourth [for the others], for the attainment of the householder state. (40)

Above austerity, sacrifice, vows, and every auspicious rite,

the Śruti alone is the cause of the prosperity of final beatitude for twice-born men. (41)

At the beginning and completion of the Veda, one should always utter the praṇava;

for what is recited without 'oṃ' is fruitless and does not lead to accomplishment. (42)

The three-footed supreme Gāyatrī is declared to be the mouth of the Veda,

together with the three great vyāhṛtis preceded by the praṇava. (43)

A self-controlled man who repeats this triad a little over a thousand times

outside [the village] every day for a month is released even from a great sin. (44)

He who practices this every day throughout the year with undivided mind,

having a body of ether and a purified self, attains the supreme Brahman. (45)

The three syllables of the oṃkāra, the triad 'bhūḥ, bhuvaḥ, svaḥ',

and the three lines of the Sāvitrī were milked by the three Vedas. (46)

If a Veda-knowing brahmin recites this syllable and this [verse] preceded by the vyāhṛtis

at the two twilights, he is endowed with the merit of the Vedas. (47)

He enjoys ten times the fruit of a ritual sacrifice of prescribed rules.

A sacrifice of recitation is declared to be ten times greater than a prescribed rite. (48)

A whispered recitation is a hundred times that, and a mental recitation a thousand times that. (49)

Having studied the Vedas, or two Vedas, or one Veda according to his ability, a twice-born

reaps the fruit of the gift of the earth filled with gold. (50)

To practice austerity, the best of the twice-born should constantly study the Śruti alone;

for the study of the Śruti is declared to be the supreme austerity of a brahmin. (51)

He who, having abandoned the study of the Śruti, wishes to read something else,

abandons a milch cow and wishes to milk a village sow. (52)

And when a twice-born performs the initiation of a student and teaches him the Veda,

along with the ritual manuals and secret teachings, the wise know him as an ācārya. (53)

He who teaches a portion of the Śruti, or its auxiliary limbs,

for the sake of a livelihood, is called an upādhyāya by the learned. (54)

That twice-born who performs rites according to the rule, beginning with the impregnation rite,

and nourishes him with food, is celebrated here as the guru. (55)

He who, being chosen by someone, performs the establishment of the sacred fire, the cooked offerings, and sacrifices such as the Agniṣṭoma,

is called his officiating priest (ṛtvij) here. (56)

An ācārya exceeds ten upādhyāyas, and a father exceeds a hundred ācāryas;

but a mother exceeds a thousand fathers in venerability. (57)

Seniority among brahmins is through knowledge, but among the arm-born (kṣatriyas) through valor;

among vaiśyas it is through grain and wealth, but among the foot-born (śūdras) through age alone. (58)

Just as an elephant made of wood, just as a deer made of leather,

so is a brahmin who does not study: these three merely bear the name. (59)

If a celibate twice-born involuntarily discharges semen in a dream,

he should bathe, worship the sun, and recite three times the verse beginning with 'punar mām'. (60)

In the houses of those devoted to their own duty and engaged in Vedic rites and sacrifices,

a celibate student, restrained, should beg for food daily. (61)

If, without being sick, he does not go begging and does not kindle the sacred fire

for seven nights, he must perform the vow of an avakīrṇin (one who has broken his vow of celibacy). (62)

He should not behave as he pleases within the sight of his guru;

he should not utter his name without an honorific title, even in his absence. (63)

Where censure of the guru takes place, or where there is slander,

one should either cover both ears or depart from that place to elsewhere. (64)

By slandering the guru one becomes a donkey; a censurer of the guru becomes a dog;

an envious person becomes a petty insect; one who enjoys his property becomes a worm. (65)

A guru's wife who is a young woman should not be greeted by touching her feet

anywhere by one who is twenty years of age and knows virtues and faults. (66)

The nature of women is fickle, and that is remembered as a danger for men;

wise men are never careless with women. (67)

Because they thoroughly subdue both the wise and the unwise,

and bring them under their control like a bird tied with a string. (68)

One should not remain in solitude with a mother, a daughter, or a sister;

the senses are powerful in this world and delude even the learned. (69)

Just as one who digs with effort reaches water in the ground,

so the disciple reaches knowledge through service to the guru. (70)

If the sun should rise or set over a celibate student

while sleeping due to negligence, he should fast for the day while reciting [sacred verses]. (71)

The suffering that parents endure at the birth of a son

cannot be repaid even in a hundred years. (72)

Therefore, one should always do what is pleasing to the two of them and to the guru;

when those three are thoroughly pleased, all austerity is fulfilled. (73)

Service to those three is said to be the supreme austerity;

whatever one does while transgressing them can never succeed. (74)

Only by honoring these three may the wise person conquer the three worlds. (75)

He shines in heaven like a god, increasing their delight.

Through devotion to his mother [he conquers] the earth; likewise through devotion to his father, the mid-region;

and by serving his guru, the successful man likewise conquers heaven.

This indeed is declared to be the four aims of human life for men,

namely, the satisfaction of these [three]; any other duty is called secondary.

Having studied the Vedas, or two Vedas, or even one Veda in due order,

with his celibate studenthood unswerving, the twice-born should then enter the householder stage.

Celibacy remains unbroken through the grace of the Lord of All;

and the supreme grace of the Lord of All brings about the attainment of Kāśī.

Through the attainment of Kāśī knowledge arises, and from knowledge one attains nirvāṇa;

for right conduct among the wise is an endeavor directed toward nirvāṇa.

Just as right conduct exists in the household, it does not exist in any other stage of life.

Having studied all the branches of knowledge, one should finally enter the householder stage of life.

There is nothing superior to the householder stage if the wife is obedient;

for harmony between husband and wife is the cause of the flourishing of the three ends of life.

If a wife is compliant, what need is there even for heaven?

If a wife is hostile, what need is there even for hell?

The householder stage is for the sake of happiness, and a wife is the root of that happiness;

and she is a [true] wife who is modest; modesty is surely [the basis of] the three ends of life.

Women are compared to leeches by the dull-witted;

upon reflection, there is a vast difference between doe-eyed women and leeches.

A poor leech draws only blood,

whereas a woman constantly takes away the mind, wealth, strength, and happiness.

Skillful, prolific in children, virtuous, pleasant in speech, and obedient—

endowed with these qualities, she is Śrī herself in female form.

Having bathed with the guru's permission and having completed his vow and Vedic study,

he should then marry a wife of equal class, endowed with auspicious marks.

She who is not of the father's gotra and also not a sapiṇḍa of the mother

is fit for marriage for twice-born men, for the increase of dharma.

In making a marital alliance, one should avoid a family afflicted with epilepsy, consumption, or leukoderma;

likewise, one should avoid one under public reproach, and one producing only daughters.

Free from disease, having brothers, slightly younger than himself,

gentle-faced, and sweet-spoken—such a wife a twice-born man should marry.

Not named after a mountain, a constellation, or a tree, nor bearing the name of a river or a serpent,

nor bearing the name of a bird, a snake, or a servant: the wise man should marry one with a gentle name.

Nor should she have redundant or missing limbs; she should not be too tall or emaciated,

neither hairless nor overly hairy, nor having rough or thick hair on her head.

He should not out of infatuation marry a maiden of a low family;

from marrying a low woman, even his offspring falls into debasement.

Having examined the bodily marks first, he should then marry the maiden.

A maiden of auspicious marks and right conduct increases the lifespan of her husband.

Thus the conduct of a celibate student has been fully expounded to you.

O Pot-born Sage, in this context I shall now describe the bodily marks of women.

Thus ends the thirty-sixth chapter in the first half of the Kāśīkhaṇḍa in the fourth part of the glorious Skandapurāṇa, containing eighty-one thousand verses.