Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c12.s2.7

c12.s2.7

**The first observance of Brahmacharya: Sāvitrī Vrata.** The Brahmachārī now starts on his career by taking on the *Sāvītrī Vrata* as a part of the Upanayana ceremony. Brahmacharya literally means “attendance on *Brahma* or Veda” and involves the observances which the student has to keep through certain periods of time before the different Vedic texts which he has to learn can be taught him. Thus the study of the Veda is opened by the Sāvitrī [cf. *Śatap. Br.*, xi, 5, 4, 6 f.]. The Brāhmaṇa student is to be taught the Gāyatrī which belongs to Viśvāmitra [*Ṛv.*, iii, 62, 10]; the Kshatriya is to be taught the Trishṭubh which is a verse ascribed to Hiraṇyastūpa [*Ṛv.*, i, 35, 2]¹; the Vaiśya is to be taught the Jagatī which is a verse ascribed to Vāmadeva [*Ṛv.*, iv, 40, 5] or to Hiraṇyastūpa [*Ṛv.*, i, 35, 9].² The Sāvitrī Vrata which the student observes as a preparation for that instruction might last for one year or three days or the Sāvitrī can be taught immediately after the initiation [*Śāṅkh.*, ii, 5, 1-6; 7, 11]. According to Pāraskara [ii, 4, 3, 6], the Sāvitrī Vrata may last for one year, six months, twenty-four days, twelve days, six days, or three days. [For teaching the Sāvitrī, cf. Gobhila, ii, 10, 39; *Hiraṇya.*, i, 2, 6, 11; *Āp. Gr.*, iv, 11, 9 f.; *Kh.*, ii, 4, 20; *Āśv.*, i, 21, 5 f.; 22, 29.] The normal period set for this, the first of the Brahmacharin's *vratas* or special observances, seems to have been three days. During this time, the student had to live on special food, which was not to be either pungent or saline, or milk, according to Khādira [ii, 4, 32], and to beg that food, firstly, of his mother, and "of two other women friends or of as many as there are in the neighbourhood" [Gobhila, ii, 10, 43] or "other houses where they are kindly disposed towards him" [*Hiraṇya.*, i, 2, 7, 17], or of "a woman who won't refuse" [*Śāṅkh.*, ii, 6, 6; *Āśval.*, i, 22, 7], or "from three women who will not refuse or from six, twelve, or an indefinite number" [*Pārask.*, ii, 5, 5, 6]. Manu [ii, 50] makes the pupil beg food first of his mother, then of his sister, then of his own maternal aunt and then of a female who will not disgrace him by a refusal. The alms were to be collected in a bowl given to the pupil by his teacher [*Hiraṇya.*, i, 2, 7, 14].