Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 03.djvu/462

* BBAHMANISM. 408 BRAHMANISM. ancient times with certain stages and incidents in the life of the Aryan Hindu, such as the rites connected with conception, birth, name-giving, the first taking out of a cliild to see the sun, the first feeding with boiled rice, the rites of tonsure, the youth's investiture with the sacrificial thread, and his return home on completing his studies, with the ceremonies of marriages, fune- rals, etc. The most important of these family observ- ances was the rite of conducting the boy to a spiritual teacher, with which is connected the investiture with the sacred cord, ordinarily worn oer the left shoulder and under the right arm, and varying in material according to the class of the wearer. This ceremony is supposed to constitute the second or spiritual birth of the Arya, and is the preliminary act to the youtli's initiation into the study of the Veda, the man- agement of the consecrated fire, and the knowl- edge of the rites of purification, including the solemn invocation to Sacitar (the sun), which has to be repeated every morning and evening before the rising and setting of that luminary. It is from their participation in this rit« that the three upper classes are called the 'twice born.' The ceremony is enjoined to take place some time between the eighth and sixteenth year in case of a Brahman ; for a Ivshatriya between the elev- enth and twenty-second; and for a Vaisya be- tween the twelfth and twenty-fourth. He who has not been invested with the mark of his class within the prescribed time is forever excluded from uttering the prayer to the sun, and becomes an outcast, unless absolved from his sin by a council of Brahmans, when, after due purifica- tion, he resumes the badge of his caste. With one who is not duly initiated no righteous man is allowed to associate or to enter into connections of affinity. The duty of the Sudra (the lowest caste) is to serve the twice-born classes, particu- larly the Brahmans. One of this caste is ex- cluded from all sacred knowledge, and if he perform sacrificial ceremonies he must do so without using holy utensils. It is expressly charged that no Brahman may recite a holy text where a man of the servile caste might overhear him, nor may he teach them the laws of expiating sin. The occupations of the Vaisya are connected with trade, agriculture, and the raising of cattle, while those of the Kshatriya consist in ruling and defending the people, ad- ministering justice, etc. Both these castes share with tile Brahman the privilege of reading the Veda, but only so far as it is taught and ex- plained to them by their spiritual preceptors. To the Brahman belongs the right of teaching and expounding the sacred texts, and also that of interpreting and determining the laws and rules of caste. Yet, in .spite of those formidable barriers between the several orders, the practice of intermarrying appears to liave been loo prev- alent in early times to have admitted of .suppres- sion. To marry a woman of a higher caste, and especiallj' of a caste not immediately above one's own, is positively prohiliited, the offspring of such a unicm being excluded from performing obsequies to his ancestors, and incapable of in- heriting the parent's property. But, according to Manu, a man may marry a girl of any or each of the castes below his own, provided he has already a wife of his own class, since she only should perform the duties of personal attendance and religious obsenance devolving upon a mar- ried woman. Probably geographical diflferences must be taken into account in considering how far the Brahman's code obtained in fact as well as in theory. It was strongest in the Doab and about (modern) Delhi, weaker in the east, about Benares, and in the south probably had little hold upon the people, till religious persecutions drove the Brahmans southward in large numbers. The devoted Brahman who desired to obtain the utmost good upon the dissolution of his body was enjoined to pass successively through four orders or stages of life, viz. : ( 1 )" That of relig- ious student; (2) that of householder ; (3) that of anchorite; (4) that of religious mendicant. Theoretically, this course was open and recom- mended to every twice-born man, his distinctive occupations being in that ease restricted to the second condition, or that of married life. Prac- tically, however, persons of the second and third castes were doubtless, in general, content to go through a term of studentship in order to obtain a certain amount of religious instruction before entering into the married state and performing their professional duties. It is true that in the case of the sacer- dotal class the practice was probably all l)ut universal in early times; but gradually a more and more linuted proportion seem to liave carried their religious zeal to the length of self- mortification involved in the two final stages. When the youth had been invested with the sign of his caste, he was to reside for some time in the Innise of some religious teacher, well read in the Veda, to be instructed in the knowledge of the scriptures and the scientific treatises at- tached to them, in the social duties of his caste, and in the complicated system of purificatory and sacrificial rites. According to the number of Vedas he inUuided to stiuly, the duration of the period of instruction was said to be — prob- ably in the ease of Brahmanical students chiefly — from twelve to forty-eight years, during which time the virtues of modesty, duty, temperance, and self-control were to be firmly implanted in his mind by unremitting observance of the most minute rules of ccmduct. Probably twelve years was the usual limit of a student's life, during which time he had to subsist entirely on food obtained by begging from house to house; and his behavior toward the preceptor and his family was to be that ]irompted by respectful attjieh- ment and implicit obedience. In the case of girls no investiture takes place, the nuptial ceremony being considered an equivalent for that rite. On quitting the teacher's abode, the young man re- turns to his family and takes a wife. To die without leaving legitimate ofTsjiring. and esj)e- cially a son to perform the periodical rite of obsequies to his father, is considered by the true Hindu a very great misfortune. There are three sacred debts which a man has to discharge in life: that which is due to the gods, of which he acquits himself by daily worship and sacrificial rites; that due to the ancient and inspired .seers of the Vedic texts, discharged by the daily study of the scriptures; and the final debt which he owes to his manes, and of which he i-elieves him- self by leaving a son. Some authorities add a fourth — the debt owing to human kind, which demands the practice of kindness and hospital- ity; hence the necessity of entering into the married state. When the husband leads the