DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.636#0365
Twelve Purificatory Rites. 353
without this latter functionary, and though other priests may
be asked to be present and assist at some of the ceremonies
(such as marriage and initiation), the regular village priest
must always take the lead and have his appointed duties and
customary fees. In fact in no country of the world are
domestic religion and sacerdotalism so curiously associated
together and carried to such extremes as in India. There a
complicated religious code has always been as necessary to
the priest as an intricate civil code to the lawyer. It has sup-
plied him with his meat, drink, and whole means of livelihood.
We must, however, be careful not to speak of Brahmanism
and Sacerdotalism in India as if these expressions were con-
vertible terms. Every Brahman is not a priest, though every
priest is a Brahman. The Brahmans are simply a race or order
of men divided, like many other societies, into clergy and laity,
and in ancient times a layman did many religious acts which
in the present day are only performed by the aid of priests.
To begin, then, with the religious life of the family in ancient
times.
Twelve purificatory rites, called Sanskaras, were prescribed
in the ancient collections of domestic rules (Grihya-sutras) and
in the code of Manu ; for the purification of a man's whole
nature—body, soul, and spirit—from the taint transmitted
through the womb of an earthly mother. They were, 1. Im-
pregnation (Garbhadhana or Garbha-lambhana) ; 2. Male-pro-
duction (Pumsavana) ; 3. Hair-parting (Slmantonnayana);
4. Birth-ceremony (Jata-karman); 5. Name-giving (Nama-
karana); 6. Carrying out (Nishkramana); 7. Food-giving
(Anna-prasana); 8 and 9. Tonsure or shaving and cutting off
the hair (Caula or Kshaura and Kesanta)1; 10. Initiation
(Upanayana); 11. Return from the house of the preceptor
(Samavartana) ; iz. Marriage (Vivaha).
1 Manu places 6aula 8th and Kesanta ioth, with Upanayana between,
but the first two may be taken together as kindred ceremonies.
A a
without this latter functionary, and though other priests may
be asked to be present and assist at some of the ceremonies
(such as marriage and initiation), the regular village priest
must always take the lead and have his appointed duties and
customary fees. In fact in no country of the world are
domestic religion and sacerdotalism so curiously associated
together and carried to such extremes as in India. There a
complicated religious code has always been as necessary to
the priest as an intricate civil code to the lawyer. It has sup-
plied him with his meat, drink, and whole means of livelihood.
We must, however, be careful not to speak of Brahmanism
and Sacerdotalism in India as if these expressions were con-
vertible terms. Every Brahman is not a priest, though every
priest is a Brahman. The Brahmans are simply a race or order
of men divided, like many other societies, into clergy and laity,
and in ancient times a layman did many religious acts which
in the present day are only performed by the aid of priests.
To begin, then, with the religious life of the family in ancient
times.
Twelve purificatory rites, called Sanskaras, were prescribed
in the ancient collections of domestic rules (Grihya-sutras) and
in the code of Manu ; for the purification of a man's whole
nature—body, soul, and spirit—from the taint transmitted
through the womb of an earthly mother. They were, 1. Im-
pregnation (Garbhadhana or Garbha-lambhana) ; 2. Male-pro-
duction (Pumsavana) ; 3. Hair-parting (Slmantonnayana);
4. Birth-ceremony (Jata-karman); 5. Name-giving (Nama-
karana); 6. Carrying out (Nishkramana); 7. Food-giving
(Anna-prasana); 8 and 9. Tonsure or shaving and cutting off
the hair (Caula or Kshaura and Kesanta)1; 10. Initiation
(Upanayana); 11. Return from the house of the preceptor
(Samavartana) ; iz. Marriage (Vivaha).
1 Manu places 6aula 8th and Kesanta ioth, with Upanayana between,
but the first two may be taken together as kindred ceremonies.
A a