A History of Sanskrit Literature c12.22

c12.22

By far the most important ceremony of boyhood was that of apprenticeship to a teacher or initiation (*upanayana*), which in the case of a Brahman may take place between the eighth and sixteenth year, but a few years later in the case of the Kshatriya and the Vaiçya. On this occasion the youth receives a staff, a garment, a girdle, and a cord worn over one shoulder and under the other arm. The first is made of different wood, the others of different materials according to caste. The sacred cord is the outward token of the *Ārya* or member of one of the three highest castes, and by investiture with it he attains his second birth, being thenceforward a "twice-born" man (*dvi-ja*). The spiritual significance of this initiation is the right to study the Veda, and especially to recite the most sacred of prayers, the *Sāvitrī*. In this ceremony the teacher (*āchārya*) who initiates the young Brahman is regarded as his spiritual father, and the *Sāvitrī* as his mother.