upanayana

upanayana, Hindu ritual of initiation, restricted to the three upper varnas, or social classes, that marks the male child’s entrance upon the life of a student (brahmacharin) and his acceptance as a full member of his religious community. The ceremony is performed between the ages of 5 and 24, the wide variance reflecting the different educational requirements of the three upper classes—Brahmans (priests and teachers), Kshatriyas (warriors and rulers), and Vaishyas (merchants and tradesmen).

After a ritual bath, the boy is dressed as an ascetic and brought before his guru (personal spiritual guide), who invests him with a deerskin to use as an upper garment, a staff, and the sacred thread (upavita, or yajnopavita). The thread, consisting of a loop made of three symbolically knotted and twisted strands of cotton cord, is replaced regularly so that it is worn throughout the lifetime of the owner, normally over the left shoulder and diagonally across the chest to the right hip. It identifies the wearer as dvija, or “twice-born,” the second birth understood as having taken place when the guru imparted to the student the “Gayatri” mantra, a sacred verse of the Rigveda. The initiation ceremony concludes when the student kindles the sacrificial fire and begs for alms, symbolic of his dependence on others during his brahmacharin period.

The actual observance of upanayana is increasingly confined to more orthodox Hindus, particularly those of the Brahman caste. As a prerequisite to marriage, it is sometimes replaced by a simpler ceremony, which takes place on the day of marriage; often both initiation ceremonies are omitted altogether.

A corresponding rite among Parsis (whose ancient homeland was Iran) is called nowzād (Persian: “new birth”). It invests both six-year-old boys and girls with a thread worn around the waist. Some scholars suggest that this indicates a common and ancient Indo-Iranian origin of the two ceremonies.