Page:The Autobiography of Maharshi Devendranath Tagore.djvu/78

 30 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF

principles, have also been retained; with such modifications as are warranted by the exigencies of modern life. In the Upanayan, or the thread ceremony, for instance, the investiture with the thread, the begging of alms, the Brahmachari, or student, receiving instructions from the guru these and such other rites as are the essential part of the ceremony, have all been retained. After the investiture, the student is initiated into the holy Gayatri, a Vedic mantra handed down to us from hoary antiquity; and the duties of student-life are duly impressed upon him.

As regards marriage, the only important departure from the existing practice which distinguishes the new Ritual from the old, is the omission of the Shaligram and the Homa ceremony, which constitute a marked feature in ordinary Hindu marriages. The ceremony of Kanyadan or giving away the bride, the rite of Saptapadi or walking of seven steps together by the married couple, have all been left intact in the reformed Ritual, nor does it contravene any of the provisions of the Hindu law as to the rules of consanguinity, the prohibition of Sagotra (inter-clan) and inter-caste marriages. The Brahmas of the Adi Samaj had for some time been endeavouring to procure a formal act of legisla-