History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.t2.952

v4.c63.t2.952

47. 'Resorting to *sannyāsa*'. Vyāsa quoted above (n. 1793) forbade sannyāsa in the Kali age after 4400 years of it had elapsed, but then Devala¹⁸⁷² made an exception to this extent that as long as the division of society into four varṇas existed and as long as the Veda was studied sannyāsa could be resorted to even in Kali. The Nir. S. explains that what is forbidden is the sannyāsa with three daṇḍas and not the sannyāsa with one daṇḍa. Baud. II. 10. 53 (ekadaṇḍī vā) gives an option that a sannyāsin may carry three staffs or one, while Yāj. III. 58 speaks of a *yati* as only tridaṇḍī. Daṇḍa meas a staff and also 'restraint, curbing'. Manu XII. 10 (same as Dakṣa VII. 30) declares that that man is called *tridaṇḍī* who has restraint over his body, speech and mind. Dakṣa¹⁸⁷³ also says that a *yati* is not called *tridaṇḍī* by carrying three bamboo staffs, that he is called tridaṇḍī who has the spiritual restraint in him (v. 29). In I. 12-13 Dakṣa says that just as a girdle, deer skin and a wooden staff are the outward signs of a vedic student, so three staffs are the peculiar sign of a yati. Vide H. of Dh. vol. II. pp. 937-938 for further details. If the Kalivarjya text were meant to forbid sannyāsa altogether, it must be said that it was never honoured and even now thousands become sannyāsins every year. If, as the Nir. S. says, this text only forbids the carrying of three daṇḍas, it is a meaningless prohibition, giving importance only to outward symbols and not to the substance of the matter.