The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c28.s3.8

v1.c28.s3.8

The case of the hair is analogous to, and closely connected with, that of the washing or refraining from washing the body. The Vedic domestic ritual lays stress on the cutting of the child’s hair once in early childhood, and then later for the youth when he has grown up: the hair is carefully cut, and after that was arranged in the characteristic manner in which the family wore its hair, this being a marked sign of differentiation among the Vedic families and one already recorded to us in the Ṛgveda; the beard of the youth was also shorn.⁵ The aim of the performance is expressly stated in the formulae accompanying it to be the production of long life, and the giving of health and purity, and obviously it served also to mark the family connexion of the child or youth. That in the ceremony there was any idea of an offering whether to gods, or to demons, or to the Fathers⁶ is not indicated by anything in the ritual texts nor in the formulae used, and, if any such idea was ever present, it was not felt in Vedic times. There is indeed no obvious reason for distinguishing the action in these cases from the action in the cases of sacrifices. The sacrificer before the new- and full-moon offerings has his hair cut, except the family knot, and his beard shaven, and even his nails pared: so the sacrificer in the case of the Dīkṣā, and at the four-monthly offerings, and the motive expressed in these cases is the removal of the dead skin to make the body pure.⁷ The same principle of shaving was observed by the living after the death of a member of the family,⁸ at the same time as the putting on of new garments, the renewal of the domestic fire, and the washing of their bodies. The same performances were applied as in all lands to the dead:⁹ perhaps we can say nothing more than that the feeling of impurity from contact with the dead was very strong, and required to be removed as vehemently as possible.