History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c24.s1.81

v2.c24.s1.81

The number of yajñopavītas to be worn differed according to circumstances. A brahmacārī was to wear only one yajñopavīta and saṁnyāsins, when they kept yajñopavīta at all, also wore only one. A snātaka⁶⁸⁹ (i. e. one who has returned from the teacher's house after brahmacarya) and a house-holder were to wear two while one who desired long life may wear more than two. Vas. Dh. S. XII. 14 says 'snātakas should always wear a lower garment and an upper one, two yajñopavītas, should have a stick and a pot filled with water'. Kaśyapa allowed a householder to wear any number up to ten. Whether yajñopavīta as worn in modern times was worn from the most ancient times or not, it is certain that long before the Christian era it had come to be so worn and it had become an inflexible rule that a brāhmaṇa must always wear a yajñopavīta and have his top-knot (of hair) always tied up; if he did any act without observing this rule, it was inefficacious.⁶⁹⁰ Vas.⁶⁹¹ and Baud. Dh. S. (II. 2. 1) both say that a man must always wear yajñopavīta. If a brāhmaṇa took his meals without wearing yajñopavīta, he had to undergo prāyaścitta viz. to bathe, to mutter prayers and fast; vide Laghu-Hārīta verse 23 quoted by Aparārka pp. 1171, 1173. The Mit. on Yāj. III. 292 prescribes prāyaścitta for answering calls of nature without having the yajñopavīta placed on the right ear (as Yāj. I. 16 prescribes). Manu IV. 66 forbids the wearing of another's yajñopavīta along with several other things (such as shoes, ornament, garland and kamaṇḍalu). In Yāj. (I. 16 and 133) and other smṛtis the yajñopavīta is called brahmasūtra.