Fw: UPANAYANAM

[Guest guest]

- M P Bhattathiry

Sadagopan ; Ram Anbil

Sunday, August 24, 2003 3:58 AM

UPANAYANAM

Upanayana : When to Perform It ? from Hindu Dharma

A Brahmin child's upanayana must be performed when he is eight years

old from conception, that is when he is seven years and two months

old from birth. A Ksatriya's is to be performed at the age of twelve.

Krsna Paramatman who belonged to the clan of Yadus (Yadavas) was

invested with the sacred thread at that age. The corresponding age

for a Vaisya is sixteen.

According to the sastras, the lower limit of Brahmin youngsters is

eight years and the upper limit is sixteen which means a grace of

eight years. It is sinful in the not to have performed upanaya of a

Brahmin boy before his passing the upper age limit.

Uttarayana is the right period to perform upanayana- from the Tamil

month Tai to Ani. when the sun journeys northwards. While this is the

right time for marriages also, the season of spring(Chittirai to

Vaikasi)is considered particularly auspicious. For upanayana the

month specially favoured is Masi. Upanayana and marriage are not

favoured during Daksinayana(from the Tamil month Adi to the end of

Margazhi).

Nowadays, for various reasons, the upanayana and marriage ceremonies

are delayed for as long as possible and celebrated in any month other

than Margazhi. The results are there for you to see. But one must be

happy perhaps that a function called marriage is still performed

somehow. So long as people perform it, let them perform it at any

time. If we take this attitude, marriages may be permitted in any

season as a desperate step. But upanayana is a different matter. It

should never be permitted in Daksinayana. If it is for some reason

celeberated during this period, I would ask for its performance again

in Uttarayana. Money is the main problem in conducting an upanayana or

a marriage. Parents postpone the upanayana because they want to

perform it at the same time as the marriage of their daughter so as

to minimise the expenses.

The upanayana is sometimes performed when the boy is only five years

old. This is called "kamyopanayana", "Kamya" meaning in persuance of

desire. Such early upanayana is all right if you want the child to

develop inwardly at an early age. But seven years is the proper age

for the child to be invested with sacred thread because by now he

would have learned enough Sanskrit to chant the mantras clearly.

Nowadays, the "thread ceremony" is conducted together with the

marriage, that is when the "boy" is 30 or 35 years old. So to suggest

that the upanayana needs to be performed only when the child is seven

years old - and not at five - would be taken as a joke. Joke or no

joke, it [the delay in performing the upanayana] should make you

uneasy deep within if you have some concern for the vedic dharma.

Adi Sankara's upanayana, it is believed, was performed when he was

five years old. If the child is extraordinarily intelligent and can

articulate words properly, his upanayana may be performed at five

years.