History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c23.329

v2.c23.329

There is a great divergence of views about the number of locks of hair to be left on the head and the portion of the head where they are to be left. Baud. gṛ. says that one or three or five locks⁶⁰⁴ may be left on the head or according to family usage and he further says that some sages say that the locks should be as many as the pravaras invoked by the father.⁶⁰⁵ Āśv. gṛ., and Pār. gṛ. say that locks may be kept according to family usage. Āp. gṛ. says that the locks may in number follow the pravara or they may be kept according to family usage. Gobhila and Khādira say that the locks should be arranged according to gotra and family usage. Whether they mean by 'gotra' the number of pravaras of the gotra or some rule such as the Kāṭhaka gives is not clear. The Kāṭhaka gṛ. says that the Vāsiṣṭhas keep a lock on the right, that persons of Atri and Kāśyapa gotra (or pravara) keep locks both on the right and the left, that the Bhṛgus shaves the entire head, that the Aṅgiras gotra keeps five locks or only a line of hair, while persons of other gotras (like Agastya, Viśvāmitra &c.) keep a śikhā (without any particular number of locks) simply because it is an auspicious sign or one may follow the usage of one's⁶⁰⁶ family. Vaik.⁶⁰⁷ says that the locks may be one, two, three, five or seven according to the pravaras. Ṛgveda⁶⁰⁸ VII. 33. 1 refers to the fact that Vasiṣṭhas had a lock of hair on the right side of the head and so the rule of the Kāṭhaka has a very hoary antiquity behind it. Up to modern times one of the characteristic outward signs of all Hindus was the śikhā (the top-knot). A verse of Devala says that whatever religious act a man does without the *yajñopavīta* or without śikhā is as good as undone and Hārīta rules that a person who cuts off his śikhā through hate or ignorance or foolishness becomes pure only after performing the *taptakṛcchra* penance.⁶⁰⁹ In the Mudrārākṣasa (I.8) there is a reference to the śikhā of Cāṇakya having been kept untied when he was angered by the Nandas. Śabara (on Jaimini I. 3. 2) remarks that the śikhā (its position and locks) is a sign to indicate the gotra and quotes Ṛg. VI. 75. 17 (yatra bāṇāḥ &c. cited above in note 598). Vasiṣṭha (II. 21) prescribes that members of all varṇas (including the śūdra) should arrange their hair according to the fixed usage (of their family) or should shave the whole head except the śikhā. A Vedic passage⁶¹⁰ is 'the head that has no śikhā on it is unholy'. For rules about the śikhā of students vide later on under upanayana. During recent times men, particularly those receiving English education in towns and cities, are forsaking the ancient practice of keeping a śikhā and follow the western method of allowing the hair to grow on the whole head.