Page:The Autobiography of Maharshi Devendranath Tagore.djvu/77

 DEVENDRANATH TAGORE 29

enthusiasm and rejoicing on the part of the Brahma community.

These reformed practices, however, were confined to one or two Brahma families, and it was necessary to do something to bring them into use among the general Brahma community. Accordingly my father set to work to prepare a complete Ritual embodying all the Hindu domestic ceremonies in the original Vedic, non-idolatrous form. Every important phase of Hindu social life has its own sacraments. Of the twelve Sanskars or sacramental rites enjoined by Grihya Sutras, Manu, and other authorities, beginning with Garbhadhan or the ceremony of conception, and ending in Vivaha or marriage, the most important are Upanayan, or investiture with the sacred thread, and Marriage. The investiture is looked upon, like the Christian rite of baptism, as a spiritual second birth or regeneration. Marriage is the twelfth and the last Sanskar. When the Brahmachari, or the student, has finished his studies, he passes on to the second life-stage (Asrama), marries, and becomes a householder (Grihasta). Marriage is a religious duty incumbent upon all. Besides these Sanskars, there is the Antyeshti or funeral ceremony, and Shraddha, consisting of homage paid to, and prayers for, the dead. In the Book of Brahmic Ritual, it will be observed that such of the non-Vedic portions of the orthodox ritual as can be kept consistently with theistic