History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c46.51

v3.c46.51

begins his description of the 4th stage with the words ‘a brāhmaṇa should leave his house and go into the world as a wanderer’ and winds up the chapter (VI. 97) by saying ‘I have declared this fourfold procedure in relation to brāhmaṇas’. Laghu-Viṣṇu V. 13 emphatically states that the ascetic order is meant only for brāhmaṇas and the other three āśramas are meant for all dvijas. Those who assert that all the regenerate classes can resort to sannyāsa hold that the word ‘brāhmaṇa’ in the upaniṣads is used only as illustrative (*upalakṣaṇa*) and not in an exclusive sense and that a Sūtrakāra (Kātyāyana) expressly says²¹⁵⁹ ‘the three varṇas after studying the Veda can pass through four āśramas’. The Jābālopaniṣad (4) ordains ‘whether a man has fulfilled his *vratas* or not, whether he has performed samāvartana (the ceremonial bath after studying Veda) or not, whether his fires (Vedic) have ceased or not he should resort to the wandering ascetic's life the very day on which he feels disgust with mundane affairs’.²¹⁶⁰ It thus allows even a brahmacārī to become an ascetic; a kṣatriya and vaiśya could be a brahmacārī. Yāj. III. 32 states that sannyāsa is a means of purification (of the mind) in the case of twice-born classes. Besides the only condition precedent mentioned by the Jābālopaniṣad for resorting to pravrajyā (ascetic life) is *vairāgya* and whoever feels the latter is authorized to betake himself to that stage. Yāj. III. 61 while laying down the observances of ascetics employs the word ‘dvijaḥ’ and not ‘brāhmaṇaḥ’. The Kūrma-purāṇa also says (Uttarārdha 28. 2) that a dvija should become an ascetic.