What is the sacred thread ceremony (upanayana)?

Grihya Sutras of the Rigveda (Ashvalayana)

Ashvalayana's household manual gives the age: the eighth year (or the eighth from conception) for a Brahmin, the eleventh for a Kshatriya, the twelfth for a Vaishya. The time "has not passed" until the sixteenth, twenty-second and twenty-fourth year. The boy comes with his hair cut, in a new garment, with a girdle (of munja grass for a Brahmin) and a staff.

At the fire, the teacher pours water from his joined hands into the boy's, takes his hand and gives him in charge to the god Savitr. The boy asks, "Recite, sir! The Savitri, sir, recite!" The teacher teaches the verse first quarter by quarter, then half by half, then whole. He lays his hand on the boy's heart and asks that the boy's mind follow his. Then he ties the girdle, gives the staff, and sets the student's rules: serve, study, do not sleep by day. The student begs food morning and evening, first from a man or a woman who will not refuse.

Sources for this reading

• Ashvalayana Grihya Sutra 1.19.1–7 and 1.19.10–12, in Hermann Oldenberg (tr.), The Grihya-Sutras, Part I (Sacred Books of the East, vol. 29, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1886): the ages, the later limits, garment, girdle. Oldenberg died 1920: public domain. Summarised in our words; checked on the page image. (p. 187 (leaf n198))
• Ashvalayana Grihya Sutra 1.20.4–1.22.7, in Oldenberg (tr.), SBE 29 (1886): the water and the hand-taking; “Recite, sir! The Savitri, sir, recite!”; the Savitri taught “Pada by Pada, (then) hemistich by hemistich, (and finally) the whole”; the hand on the heart; girdle, staff, the student's rules and begging. Public domain. Page 190 checked on the page image; pp. 188–189 and 191 read in the archive.org OCR at the same leaf offset. (pp. 188–191 (leaves n199–n202; p. 190 is leaf n201))

Dharmashastra (Manu)

The Laws of Manu give the same ages, eighth, eleventh and twelfth from conception, and allow an earlier year when the father has a special wish: the fifth for a Brahmin boy meant for sacred learning. Manu describes the thread itself: for a Brahmin, cotton, twisted to the right, of three threads; for a Kshatriya, hemp; for a Vaishya, wool. Manu calls the rite a birth "for the sake of the Veda", in which "the Savitri (verse) is his mother and the teacher his father". Manu also says that family custom may decide some details, such as the knots of the girdle.

Sources for this reading

• Manu 2.36–37, in Georg Bühler (tr.), The Laws of Manu (Sacred Books of the East, vol. 25, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1886): the ages, and the fifth year for a Brahmin “who desires proficiency in sacred learning” (Bühler's note: the wish is the father's). Bühler died 1898: public domain. Checked on the page image. (p. 36 (leaf n181))
• Manu 2.43–44, in Bühler (tr.), SBE 25 (1886): the girdle's knots “according to the custom of the family”; the sacrificial string of cotton, twisted to the right, of three threads, and of hemp and wool for the other two classes. Public domain. Checked on the page image. (p. 38 (leaf n183))
• Manu 2.169–171, in Bühler (tr.), SBE 25 (1886): the birth by the girdle of munja grass is the birth for the sake of the Veda, in which “the Savitri (verse) is his mother and the teacher his father”. Public domain. Checked on the page image. (p. 61 (leaf n206))

Girls, women and the thread (texts and commentators)

The sources do not agree, and this page takes no side. Manu says the series of rites is done for girls too, "but without (the recitation of) sacred texts", and that for women the wedding is the Vedic sacrament "equal to the initiation". Bühler's note gives the commentators' glosses on "Vedic sacrament" and then concludes that women are not to be initiated. In Gobhila's manual the bride is led to the wedding fire wearing the sacrificial cord over her left shoulder; the commentary reads this as her upper garment worn like the cord.

Margaret Stevenson, writing in Gujarat about 1920, records that a Brahmin girl was not usually given the thread in her day, that in one ruling family in Kathiawar girls did receive it, and that Brahmins told her girls once wore it, naming Gargi. She also records that a married Brahmin wears two threads, his own and his wife's.

Sources for this reading

• Manu 2.66–67, in Bühler (tr.), SBE 25 (1886), with Bühler's note: the rites for females “without (the recitation of) sacred texts”; “The nuptial ceremony is stated to be the Vedic sacrament for women (and to be equal to the initiation)”; note, after the commentators' glosses: “Hence women must not be initiated”. Public domain. Checked on the page image. (p. 42 (leaf n187))
• Gobhila Grihya Sutra 2.1.19, in Hermann Oldenberg (tr.), The Grihya-Sutras, Part II (Sacred Books of the East, vol. 30, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1892): the bride “wears the sacrificial cord over her left shoulder”; Oldenberg's note gives the commentary's reading (her outer garment arranged like the cord). Public domain. Checked on the page image. (p. 44 (leaf n87))
• Margaret Stevenson (Mrs Sinclair Stevenson), The Rites of the Twice-Born (London: Oxford University Press, 1920), chapter 2, “The sacred thread”: a Brahmin girl not usually given the thread in her day, with the footnote on a ruling family in Kathiawar; Gargi; and the married man's two threads. Stevenson died in 1957 (Library of Congress name authority n86817364): the book is public domain in the US and India, but in copyright in the UK, the EU and Australia until December 31, 2027. Cited only: facts restated in our own words, nothing quoted; the author's own judgements are not repeated. Pp. 28–29 checked on the page images; p. 32 read in the OCR. (pp. 28–29 (leaves n55–n56) and p. 32 (leaf n59))

Family practice in Gujarat (about 1920)

Stevenson describes the rite among Gujarati Brahmin families, worked through with a learned shastri. The family first worships Ganesha. On the morning of the rite the boy's head is shaved and he eats one last meal from the same plate as his mother. A girdle of munja grass is tied round his waist, with one knot for each pravara (rishi ancestor) of his line. The boy puts the thread over his own head while the guru says a mantra; its three strands are linked to the three gunas. He receives a staff and a piece of deerskin, and walks round the fire. Under a shawl that covers both their heads, the guru whispers the Gayatri into his right ear. The father has the first right to teach it. The boy begs sweets from his mother and other women for his guru, and that evening he says his first sandhya.

Then he bathes and is called a snataka, ready for married life. In a play called the journey to Kashi, he sets out as if to study in Benares, and his maternal uncle brings him home. Stevenson reads this as the old samavartana, the student's return home. She notes that the three days were often kept in one, and that in Gujarat and Kathiawar, in her day, the thread was given mainly to Brahmins, Lohanas and Bhatias. In other parts of India the play is done differently.

Sources for this reading

• Margaret Stevenson, The Rites of the Twice-Born (London: Oxford University Press, 1920), chapter 2, “The sacred thread”: Ganesha worship (p. 29); the shaving and the last meal with the mother (p. 30); the girdle knotted for the pravaras and the threefold thread (pp. 31–32); the boy puts the thread on himself (p. 33); staff, deerskin, circumambulation (pp. 33–35); the Gayatri whispered under a shawl, the father's first right to teach it (p. 36); begging from the women and the first sandhya, the three days often kept in one (p. 38); snataka (p. 39); the mock journey to Kashi, the maternal uncle, and samavartana (pp. 41–42); the thread in Gujarat and Kathiawar (p. 28). Stevenson died in 1957 (Library of Congress name authority n86817364): in copyright in the UK, the EU and Australia until December 31, 2027, public domain in the US and India. Cited only: facts restated in our own words, nothing quoted; the author's own judgements are not repeated. Pp. 28, 29 and 36 checked on the page images; the rest read in the archive.org OCR at the same leaf offset (p. N = leaf n(N+27)). (pp. 28–42 (leaves n55–n69))

Family practice in Mysore (Kannada country, 1928)

A 1928 account of Brahman families in the Mysore State, in the Kannada country, gives the age as the eighth year from conception, the seventh from birth, and describes a rite of four days with the father as the teacher (acharya). The family first worships Ganesha. The boy eats with his mother, often from her own dishes, for the last time as a small child, and his head is shaved, leaving the tuft. He puts on the sacred thread, stands on a stone, and receives the girdle of grass, a piece of deerskin and a staff. Then, with both their heads under a silk cloth, the father whispers the Gayatri, with the three great words (vyahritis), into the boy's ear. The boy begs rice from his mother, who puts a handful in his vessel three times, and then from the other women of the family. For three days he keeps the fire offerings and eats no salt. On the fourth day he bathes and is taken in procession to the temple. He may go on learning from his father or choose his own teacher.

Sources for this reading

• H. V. Nanjundayya and L. K. Ananthakrishna Iyer, The Mysore Tribes and Castes, vol. II (Mysore, 1928), “Brahman”, Upanayana: the eighth year from conception; four days; the father as acharya; the last meal with the mother and the shaving; the thread, the stone, the girdle, deerskin and staff; the Savitri whispered with the Vyahritis “when both of them are under the cover of a silk cloth”; alms from the mother three times, then the other ladies; three days without salt; the procession on the fourth day. Public domain. Summarised in our words; the planetary rules for the day are left out (the family priest chooses the day). (pp. 385–391 (leaves n479–n485), checked on the page images)

Sources

• Ashvalayana Grihya Sutra 1.19–22, in Hermann Oldenberg (tr.), The Grihya-Sutras, Part I (SBE 29, Oxford, 1886). Public domain. (pp. 187–192 (leaves n198–n203))
• Manu 2.36–44, 2.66–67 and 2.169–171, in Georg Bühler (tr.), The Laws of Manu (SBE 25, Oxford, 1886). Public domain. (pp. 36–38, 42 and 61 (leaves n181–n183, n187, n206))
• Margaret Stevenson, The Rites of the Twice-Born (London: Oxford University Press, 1920), chapter 2, “The sacred thread”. Cited only (the author died in 1957); facts restated in our own words. (pp. 27–45 (leaves n54–n72))
• Pujadeep calendar: this page gives no date. A muhurat for the rite is chosen by the family priest; any date Pujadeep shows comes only from its calendar.

Samskaras and family rites

Muhurat rules for this rite, and windows for your city. Every date is computed by our calendar, with its rule and source named. The family priest’s choice comes first.

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