Hindu Feasts, Fasts and Ceremonies/Chapter 2
2. Avani Avittam
UPAKARMA, or Avani Avittam, as it is called in Tamil, is a holy day with the twice-born castes, especially the Brahmans. It always falls on the day when the moon is in the asterism of Sravishtha in the fifth lunar month of Avani—July and August. It is the day of the annual renewal of the sacred thread of the twice-born castes,—Brahmans, Kshatriyas and Vaisyas. ‘The daily rites of a Brahman are several and every Brahman must, properly speaking, go through every one of these rites, though the rule now is more honoured in the breach than in the observance. The rites are as follows:—
A Brahman, as soon as he rises from his bed, must clean his teeth with the twig of the Ficus Racemosa (fig tree) or mango leaf. He must then rinse his mouth twelve times with water. He must then proceed to bathe in a river or in other water and pray before bathing. After bathing the Brahman has put on his clean apparel. He must then wash his hands and feet and sip water thrice in the name of Maha Vishnu. He must perform his morning worship—pratah sandhya—with arghya—oblations of water—and gayatri—meditation on the Sun-god. After this-the Brahman must proceed to study the Vedas under his preceptor—guru. A portion of this sacred lore is got up by heart every day. The guru—teacher—sits facing the east and recites the text and the student sits facing the west and repeats the same. This practice must be gone through daily till the whole of the Vedas is learnt by heart. This continues till midday. The Vedas, Upanishads, codes of law and other branches of sacred literature must be gone through thus and acquired by the Brahman.
Then the midday bathing and prayers succeed, followed by the worship of the Manes. Water with sesamum seeds is offered as an oblation to the Manes, from the hollow of both hands joined. After the propitiation of the Manes, the propitiation of the deities commences, which consists of oblations of fire with prayers addressed to several gods. After finishing this the Brahman goes to his midday meal. Before, however, sitting down for his dinner he is ordained to see whether any guests are waiting at his door; and if so, he must receive them, present them with planks to sit on, give them water for ablution, and offer them honey mixed with other food for refreshment. He must then take them into his house and feed them sumptuously. The evening closes with bath and prayers as in the morning. These, then, form the daily routine of a Brahman. But few observe them regularly, and those too are to be found in remote villages. Even they become liable to lapses from the daily routine.
Upakarma or Avani Avittam was instituted at a very distant epoch of time for those that had not attended regularly to the performance of these rites and for those who, though regular, had deviated on certain occasions during the year. Thus the day of Upakarma is the annual renewal day of the sacred thread—the symbol of the obligations of the twice-born—of the Brahmans and other twice-born castes. Early in the morning of this day every Brahman who is invested with the holy thread bathes and offers his usual morning prayers. After these are over, and as a preparatory rite to the Avani Avittam or Sravani ceremony, he repeats the Kamokarshit prayer. This prayer affirms that for each individual who recites it, all his sins of omission, commission and deviation originated from anger or passion, and that his. soul which is by nature pure is not responsible: for them. This prayer he repeats a hundred and eight times. This is the morning ceremony on the Sravani day. The ceremony proper commences at about midday. At that time all the Brahmans assemble and go in a body to the river or sacred tank of the village or town in which they live. The priest dictates to them a Sankalpa praying that the effect of all the sins that they have committed either consciously or unconsciously may perish with their plunge in the holy water; and consecrating the water each performs his bathing. This ceremony takes from an hour to an hour and a half. After bath the new sacred thread is worn and the old one is removed and cast away. This means that the Brahman commences his religious life anew from the Sravani day. All the ceremonies connected with the investiture of the sacred thread—upanayana—are performed on a small scale on this day. A commencement is made of the study of the Vedas, Upanishads, codes of law and other departments of knowledge. Each lore is in turn taken up and finished. The first sentence and the last sentence of an Upanishad are repeated, and this act performed on the Sravani day means that the subject to which the sentences refer has been commenced and finished. The propitiation of the Manes by the offerings of water and sesamum and of the gods by oblations of ghee in the fire finish the Sravani ceremony. A good and sumptuous afternoon dinner follows and closes the ceremonies of the day.
Thus with the renewal of his sacred thread, the Brahman renews his sacred studies also. All his deviations from established rules having been rightly traced to either passion or anger, he confesses in a general way his sins, promises to cast them off from the Sravani day, recommences all the various departments of the study of Sanskrit lore, commences and finishes the Vedas themselves and becomes in every sehse, as the ceremony at least declares him to be, a pure Brahman again. On this special account the Sravani is also termed the Upakarma—the commencement of the study of the Vedas. This Sravani ceremony is a most ancient one and is coeval with the civilisation of the Brahmans. The Rigveda Brahmans perhaps instituted it and the Yajurveda Brahmans followed it. It is not a Puranic rite but a rite sanctioned by the Vedas themselves. It is therefore one of the oldest rites of the Brahmans.
The gayatri day is a day of prayer performed on the day next to the Sravani day. The Gayatri is a sacred verse repeated by every Brahman at his morning, midday and evening devotions and on other occasions also. Great sins are believed to be expiated by a pious repetition of this verse. The general meaning of the verse is as follows:—"Let us contemplate the divine splendour of the Sun-God, the donor of bliss to all, that he may give us all kinds of happiness in all the worlds.”’
Every Brahman is required to repeat the gayatri at least thirty-two times each time—morning, midday and evening. This makes it obligatory on every religious Brahman to meditate on the gayatri at least ninety-six times every day. But there might have been days in the year on which a Brahman was not able to observe this. To make amends for all the shortcomings, the gayatri is repeated 1,008 times on the day succeeding the Sravani day, and hence the day next to the Sravani is called the day of the gayatri japa. It takes generally four to five hours to pronounce the incantation 1,008 times and this number must be reached before midday.
The Brahmans, as a class, attach the greatest importance to these two—the Sravani and the Gayatri—days.
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