The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c31.s5.26

v2.c31.s5.26

As in the case of the wedding ceremony, it is easy to find parallels for many of the rites of the Vedic domestic life, nor is it in the slightest degree doubtful that the formulae, which are used in the Vedic texts, were in the main invented or transferred, very often very badly, from other rites for use with practices which came into being and developed without any assistance from priestly influence. In many cases, of course, the formulae are merely redactions of the actual words which often must have accompanied these rites in the first instance: in others, as in the wedding service, much new matter was introduced. But in these cases the essential point of interest is rather the alteration by the Brahmans than the primitive rites, which are common to civilized Indians and much more savage tribes, and some of which persist among the highest civilizations of the earth. The case of the initiation of the boys of the people is the most striking instance of the peculiar character given to a rite by the influence of the priests. It is clear that, already by the period of Indo-Iranian unity, the ceremony has assumed a good deal of its present shape, and that a spirit of civilization had been introduced into barbaric rites. The conception of Vedic India saw in the initiation a species of second birth: by it the boy became fully a twice-born person, and failure to undergo initiation as we have seen might lead to inconvenient results for the person so failing. Certain taboos applied to the youth, but most of them had been reduced to reasonable limits, and could be supported by primitive ideas of what foods were suitable, as for example in the case of the interdiction of the use of flesh and honey for a growing boy who was in his studentship. Moreover, the relation of pupil and teacher has clearly been in some degree remodelled on the analogy of human marriage, in order to make it an expression of spiritual union.