Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c11.28

c11.28

The ceremonies Garbhādhāna, Jātakarman, Namakarman, cutting of the hair, perforation of the ears and the investiture with the sacred thread are also mentioned by Alberuni 156 f., 130, though, it is true, with the additional remark, that Garbhādhāna is not performed for the feeling of shame. At the present day just this ceremony often takes place and marks the advent of puberty in the female and the beginning of the conjugal life (§ 17); the chief ceremony is often this that the lap of the young wife is filled with rice, cocoanuts and other fruits probably as the symbol of fecundity. The following ceremonies are generally practised even now among the Chitpavan Brahmans of Puna²: Jātakarman, Karṇavedha on the twelfth day after birth, Sūryāvalokana in the fourth month, Annaprāśana in the 6., 8., 10. or 12. month, Caula in the 1.—5. year, investiture with the sacred thread in the 7.—10. year, the return of the student (samāvartana) after an interval of 12 days to one month, then marriage in the Brāhma form (Brahmavivāha), Garbhādhāna at the time of the puberty of the bride, Puṃsavana at the time of pregnancy, Anavalobhana in the 4. month of pregnancy and Sīmantonnayana in the 6.—8. month. Excepting marriage, investiture with the sacred thread (jenvī, janeo= yajñopavīta) is always regarded as the most important ceremony¹. For the Brahmans the initiation ceremony consists of this : the young Brahman takes in his hand a staff of palāśa-wood which reaches up to his hair (as in Vi. 27, 21 f. etc.), wears an antilope skin and the sacred thread and a loin-cloth, puts on a girdle of Munj grass (as in Vi. 27, 18 etc.) and his father whispers the Gāyatrī (sāvitrī) in his ear; in the evening follows the ceremony of begging (bhikṣāval), on which occasion his mother and other ladies give him handsome presents. At the time of the Samāvartana ceremony, which follows shortly, he finally makes the air of starting on a pilgrimage to Benares but lets himself be persuaded to return. A similar survival is to be found in Bengal on the occasion of the investiture with the sacred thread, inasmuch as the young Brhman dressed as a Brahmacārin declares his resolution to enter the spiritual order and is dissuaded from this purpose only with great difficulty². cf. § 54. The investiture with the sacred thread is not even now confined to the Brahmans.