HINDU LIFE-CYCLE RITES AND STAGES: FOR CHILDREN, BOYS AND ADULTS

HINDU LIFE-CYCLE RITES

Nool Kettu: grandfather (baby's father's father) ties a black string around waist of the baby

A detailed series of life-cycle rituals (samskara , or refinements) mark major transitions in the life of the individual. Especially orthodox Hindu families may invite Brahman priests to their homes to officiate at these rituals, complete with sacred fire and recitations of mantras. Most of these rituals, however, do not occur in the presence of such priests, and among many groups who do not revere the Vedas or respect Brahmans, there may be other officiants or variations in the rites. [Source: Library of Congress *]

Vedic rituals of fire-oblation (yajna) and chanting of Vedic hymns are observed on special occasions, such as a Hindu wedding. A wedding is the most extensive personal ritual an adult Hindu undertakes in his or her life. A typical Hindu wedding is solemnized before Vedic fire ritual. Other major life-stage events, such as rituals after death, include the yajña and chanting of Vedic mantras.

The Initiation rite into adolescence for boys is called upanayana, during which young boys receive a sacred thread, worn over the left shoulder, marking them as "twice-born." This ritual signifies their entrance into the religious community. Between 12 and 14 rituals known as samskaras mark major life transitions from conception to death. For a Hindu woman the most important rite of passage is marriage, which is generally arranged by her parents. Each phase of the ceremony, which may last for several days, has religious meaning.

Major life stage milestones are called sanskara ( rites of passage) in Hinduism.The rites of passage are not mandatory and vary in detail according to gender, community, and region. Gautama's Dharmasutras, written around the middle of the 1st millennium B.C., list 48 sanskaras, while the Gryhasutra and other texts written centuries later list between 12 and 16 sanskaras. The list of sanskaras in Hinduism includes both external rituals, such as the celebration of a baby's birth and the naming of a baby, and internal rites of resolution and ethics, such as compassion for all living beings and a positive attitude. The main traditional rites of passage in Hinduism for adults are Vivaha (wedding), Vratas (fasting, spiritual studies) and Antyeshti (cremation for an adult, burial for a child). Today there are regional variations among Hindus as to which of these sanskaras are observed. In in some cases, additional regional transition rites such as sraddha (ritual of feeding people after cremation) are practiced. [Source: Wikipedia]

Websites and Resources on Hinduism: Hinduism Today hinduismtoday.com ; India Divine indiadivine.org ; Wikipedia article Wikipedia ; Oxford center of Hindu Studies ochs.org.uk ; Hindu Website hinduwebsite.com/hinduindex ; Hindu Gallery hindugallery.com ; Encyclopædia Britannica Online article britannica.com ; International Encyclopedia of Philosophy iep.utm.edu/hindu ; The Hindu Religion, Swami Vivekananda (1894), .wikisource.org ; Journal of Hindu Studies, Oxford University Press academic.oup.com/jhs

Hinduism and the Four Stages of Life

Hindus also give great importance to ashrama — the Hindu stages of life. Hindus believe in four stages of life (“ashrama”): 1) “brahmacarin” (life of student); 2) “grhastha” (becoming a householder, which includes marriage, having children and working); 3) “vanaprastha” (retiring to the forest to become a hermit and meditate); and 4) “sannyasi” (becoming a mendicant that renounces worldly possessions and wanders the countryside begging). This system is followed by males belonging to the first three castes, though others also pass through these stages.

Brahmacharya represents the stage of life before marriage when one is a student. Grihastha refers to the stage of life when one is married and has the duties of maintaining a household, raising a family, educating one's children, and leading a family-centered and dharmic social life. The Grihastha stage begins with a Hindu wedding and is considered the most important stage in a sociological context. Hindus in this stage not only pursue a virtuous life but also produce food and wealth that sustain people in other stages of life, as well as the offspring that continue mankind. [Source: Wikipedia]

The Vanaprastha stage is the retirement stage, where a person hands over household responsibilities to the next generation, takes an advisory role, and gradually withdraws from the world. The Sannyasa stage signifies renunciation and detachment from material life. It is generally characterized by a lack of property or home and a focus on achieving Moksha, peace, and a simple spiritual life. This stage is marked by disinterest in material possessions. [Source: Wikipedia]

The Ashramas system is a part of the dharma concept in Hinduism. It is combined with the four proper goals of human life (Purusartha). The Ashramas system aims to provide a fulfilling life and spiritual liberation to Hindus. Although these stages are usually sequential, anyone can become an Ascetic and enter the Sannyasa (ascetic) stage at any time after the Brahmacharya stage. In Hinduism, Sannyasa is not a religious obligation. Elderly individuals have the freedom to reside with their families.

Hindu Life Cycle Rituals for Pregnant Women and Infants

The main traditional rites of passage in Hinduism for pregnant women and infants include Garbhadhana (pregnancy), Pumsavana (rite before the fetus begins moving and kicking in womb), Simantonnayana (parting of pregnant woman's hair, baby shower), Jatakarman (rite celebrating the new born baby), Namakarana (naming the child), Nishkramana (baby's first outing from home into the world), Annaprashana (baby's first feeding of solid food) and Chudakarana (baby's first haircut, tonsure). [Source: Wikipedia, “World Religions” by Casey Howard]

Ceremonies may be performed during pregnancy to ensure the health of the mother and growing child. The father may part the hair of the mother. A number of ceremonies are prescribed for newborn babies. Immediately on birth, before the cutting of the umbilical chord, a short birth ceremony is performed. Ten days later a name-giving ceremony is held. The ten days in between the child and mother are regarded as ritually impure. After the name-giving ceremony they no longer are.

Three rites (sanskars) are held before birth to: 1) promote conception, 2) increase the likelihood of a boy, and 3) safeguard the fetus. According to the BBC: “Hindus believe that it is the responsibility of each individual to continue the Hindu race and therefore soon after a couple are married, a prayer called Garbhadana (conception) is recited for fulfillment of one's parental obligations. Although Hindu scriptures explain the rituals, it is possible that Hindu rituals and rites will differ according to particular castes and regions. [Source: BBC |::|]

“During the third month of pregnancy the ceremony of Punsavana (foetus protection) is performed. This is done for the strong physical growth of the foetus. The Simantonnyana is performed during the seventh month. This is the equivalent of a baby shower and means 'satisfying the craving of the pregnant mother'. Prayers are offered for the mother and child with emphasis on healthy mental development of the unborn child. Hindus believe that mental state of a pregnant woman affects the unborn child. Once the child enters the world, Jatakarma is performed to welcome the child into the family, by putting some honey in the child's mouth and whispering the name of God in the child's ear.” |::|

The naming ceremony (Namakarna) is important, There are Hindu ceremonies for a child's first trip outside the house (Nishkarmana) and the first sight of the sun, usually the fourth month after birth; the first feeding with solid food (Annaprashan) and the first pierced ear. Boys have their head shaved in a ceremony that leaves them with one slender lock of hair.

In the naming ceremony the grandmother (baby's father's mother) whispers the baby's name three times in the baby’s ear while closing the other ear with a beetle leafthree times upward from the front to the back, to assure the ripening of the embryo. Charms may serve to ward off the evil eye and witches or demons. At birth, before the umbilical cord is severed, the father may touch the baby's lips with a gold spoon or ring dipped in honey, curds, and ghee. The word vak (speech) is whispered three times into the right ear, and mantras are chanted to ensure a long life. A number of rituals for the infant include the first visit outside to a temple, the first feeding with solid food (usually cooked rice), an ear-piercing ceremony, and the first haircut (shaving the head) that often occurs at a temple or during a festival when the hair is offered to a deity. *

Hindu Rites for Children

The main traditional rites of passage in Hinduism for children and adolescents include Karnavedha (ear piercing), Vidyarambha (child's start with knowledge), Upanayana (entry into a school rite), Keshanta and Ritusuddhi (first shave for boys, menarche for girls) and Samavartana (graduation ceremony). [Source: Wikipedia, “World Religions” by Casey Howard]

Annaprashan

Annaprashan — also known as annaprasana, annaprashan vidhi, annaprasan, or Anna-prasanam — is a Hindu sanskar ritual that marks an infant's first intake of food other than milk. Commonly referred to in English as First Rice, the ceremony is usually carried out when the child is about 6 months of age and is usually arranged in consultation with a priest, who arranges an auspicious date on which to conduct the ceremony. The term annaprashan literally means "food feeding" or "eating of food". [Source: Wikimedia Commons +++]

Annaprashan is an occasion for celebration, and extended family, friends and neighbours will be invited to attend. The mother or grandmother will prepare a small bowl of payesh (boiled rice, milk & sugar) which is blessed in a brief puja. The child will generally be held in the mother's lap, and a senior male family member (grandfather or uncle) will feed it a small spoonful of the payesh, to general celebration. Other members of the family then take turns to give the child a taste. The feeding ceremony is often followed with a game, in which the child is presented with a tray containing a number of objects. These will include a bangle or jewel (symbolising wealth), a book (symbolising learning), a pen (symbolising career) and a clay pot or container of earth/soil (symbolising property). The child's future direction and prospects in life are indicated by the object which it prefers to hold and play with. +++

The ear-piercing ceremony (Karnavedha) and first haircut (Mundan) ceremonies are also considered highly significant. These sacraments are performed on both the sexes. Hindus believe that the piercing of a hole in the lower lobes of the ear have benefits of acupuncture. Head shaving is connected to the removal of impurities. When the child reaches school-going age, the Upanayana (sacred thread) ceremony is performed. The three strands of the sacred thread represent the three vows (to respect the knowledge, the parents and the society) taken before the start of formal education.” |::|

Hindu Initiation

Upanayana, the "sacred thread ceremony, a rite-of-passage ritual in which the sacred thread is received by young boys

Hindus are also into initiations. Induction into a Hindu sect, marriage and death are all seen as initiations and rites of passage. A crucial event in the life of the orthodox, upper-caste Hindu male is an initiation (upanayana ) ceremony, which takes place for some young males between the ages of six and twelve to mark the transition to awareness and adult religious responsibilities. At the ceremony itself, the family priest invests the boy with a sacred thread to be worn always over the left shoulder, and the parents instruct him in pronouncing the Gayatri Mantra. The initiation ceremony is seen as a new birth; those groups entitled to wear the sacred thread are called the twice-born . In the ancient categorization of society associated with the Vedas, only the three highest groups — Brahman, warrior (Kshatriya), and commoner or merchant (Vaishya) — were allowed to wear the thread, to make them distinct from the fourth group of servants (Shudra). Many individuals and groups who are only hazily associated with the old "twice-born" elites perform the upanayana ceremony and claim the higher status it bestows. For young Hindu women in South India, a different ritual and celebration occurs at the first menses. *

The puberty initiation for a boy takes place between the ages of eight and 12. The boy is dressed like a holy man and put under the tutelage of a guru. The study period can last anywhere from a few months to a dozen years. When it is over the initiate takes a ritual bath and is expected to get married. Hindus are not circumcised. Muslim are.

The puberty initiation corresponds with the confirmation of Christians. Marking the matriculation of a child to adulthood, it has traditionally only been performed for boys in upper castes and now is mostly performed only for for boys in conservative Brahmin families.

In the initiation ceremony the boy recites a special verse from the “Rig Veda” and is given the sacred thread which is hung over left shoulder and under the right arm, and must be worn the rest of his life and not defiled or polluted in any way. In the old days only boys who went through this ritual were allowed to read the Vedas. It also marked the beginning of student stage in the boy’s life.

Diksha, a Hindu Initiation Ritual

The Romanian religious scholar Eliade Page wrote: “The Diksha must be performed by anyone who is preparing the soma sacrifice. The Rig-Veda seems to know nothing of the diksha, but it is documented in the Atharva-Veda. Here the brahmacarin- that is, the novice undergoing the initiatory puberty rite-is called the dikshita, 'he who practices the diksha.' Herman Lommel has rightly emphasized the importance of this passage (Atharva-Veda, XI, 5, 6); the novice is homologized with one in the course of being reborn to make himself worthy to perform the soma sacrifice. For this sacrifice implies a preliminary sanctification of the sacrificer-and to obtain it be undergoes a return to the womb. The texts are perfectly clear. [Source: M. Eliade, “Birth and Rebirth” (New York: Harper & Row, 1958), pp. 54-5, Eliade Page website ^*^]

Diksha

According to the Aitareya Brahmana (1,3; 'Him to whom they give the diksha, the priests make into an embryo again. They sprinkle him with water; the water is man's sperm. . . . They conduct him to the special shed; the special shed is the womb of the dikshita; thus they make him enter the womb that befits him. . . . They cover him with a garment; the garment is the caul. . . . Above that they put the black antelope skin; verily the placenta is above the caul. . . . He closes his hands; verily the embryo has its hands closed so long as it is within, the child is born with closed hands. . . . He casts off the black antelope skin to enter the final bath; therefore embryos come into the world with the placenta cast off. He keeps on his garment to enter it and therefore a child is born with a caul upon it.' ^*^

The parallel texts emphasize the embryological and obstetrical character of the rite with plentiful imagery. 'The dikshita is an embryo, his garment is the caul,' and so on, says the Taittiriya Samhita (1, 3, 2.). The same work (VI,2, 5, 5) also repeats the image of the dikshita-embryo, completed by that of the hut assimilated to the womb-an extremely ancient and widespread image; when the dikshita comes out of the hut, he is like the embryo emerging from the womb. The Maitraiyatni- Samhita (III, 6,Ii) says that initiate leaves this world and 'is born into the world of the Gods'; the cabin is the womb for the dikshita, the antelope skin the placenta. The reason for this return to the womb is emphasized more than once. 'In truth man is unborn. It is through sacrifice that he is born' (III, 6, 7). And it is stressed that man's true birth is spiritual: 'The dikshita is semen,' the Maitrarayanit-Samhita adds (III, 6, l) that is, in order to reach the spiritual state that will enable him to be reborn among the Gods, the dikshita must symbolically become what he has been from the beginning. He abolishes his biological existence, the years of his human life that have already passed, in order to return to a situation that is at once embryonic and primordial; be 'goes back' to the state of semen, that is, of pure virtuality. ^*^

Hindu Life Cycle Rituals for Marriage

In India there is no greater event in a family than a wedding, dramatically evoking every possible social obligation, kinship bond, traditional value, impassioned sentiment, and economic resource. In the arranging and conducting of weddings, the complex permutations of Indian social systems best display themselves. [Source: Library of Congress, 1995*]

In Hindu India, marriage is considered a sacred duty. Hindu women are often seen as fulfilling their spiritual destiny through marriage. They are assigned the role of guardian of tradition, and their domestic and ritual activities are believed to facilitate their husband's salvation. Marriages are usually arranged, and it is rare for Hindu women to remain unmarried. [Source: Leona Anderson, “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices”, Thomson Gale, 2006]

For most people in India, the betrothal of the young couple and the exact date and time of the wedding are matters decided by the parents in consultation with astrologers. At Hindu weddings, the bride and bridegroom represent the god and the goddess, although there is a parallel tradition that sees the groom as a prince coming to wed his princess. The groom, decked in all his finery, often travels to the wedding site on a caparisoned white horse or in an open limousine, accompanied by a procession of relatives, musicians, and bearers of ornate electrified lamps. The actual ceremonies in many cases become extremely elaborate, but orthodox Hindu marriages typically have at their center the recitation of mantras by priests. In a crucial rite, the new couple take seven steps northward from a sacred household fire, turn, and make offerings into the flames. Independent traditions in regional languages and among different caste groups support wide variations in ritual. [Source: Library of Congress]

Marriage is deemed essential for virtually everyone in India. For the individual, marriage is the great watershed in life, marking the transition to adulthood. Generally, this transition, like everything else in India, depends little upon individual volition but instead occurs as a result of the efforts of many people. Even as one is born into a particular family without the exercise of any personal choice, so is one given a spouse without any personal preference involved. Arranging a marriage is a critical responsibility for parents and other relatives of both bride and groom. Marriage alliances entail some redistribution of wealth as well as building and restructuring social realignments, and, of course, result in the biological reproduction of families.*

Hindu Wedding Ceremony

Hindu marriage blessing

A traditional Hindu wedding and ceremony is presided over by a Brahmin priest. The bride is shaded by a tent-like saffron canopy decorated with flowers and surrounded by wedding guests. The formal ceremony often begins with the couple standing on a platform and the curtain between them is removed and sandalwood chips are placed around their necks.

The ceremony is held before a sacred fire lit inside a metal vessel. The sacred fire is a symbol of purification and a representation of Agni, the fire god. It burns underneath the saffron canopy and is made with specific kinds of wood, often mango wood, and is kindled by rubbing sticks together in a proscribed fashion. Before the fire the priest recites sacred Sanskrit texts to drive off darkness while the couple throws offerings of puffed rice and clarified butter. In Aryan times the fire was never allowed to go out and into it daily offering were made to the gods. Seven Steps Around the Sacred Fire

The central ritual of a Hindu wedding is the sapta-pad, the seven steps taken by the couple together around the sacred fire. The rituals begins when the priest starts chanting and the bride and groom approach each other in an area purified with piles of rice. Holding right hands-the bride has to reach across her body to grab the groom’s right hand — the couple take seven steps together around the holy fire (or more precisely circle the fire seven times), place garlands of rose pedals and marigolds around each other’s neck and daub sandalwood paste on each other’s foreheads. These acts are the equivalent of exchanging rings in a Christian wedding ceremony. The seven steps symbolize eternal friendship and the couple’s journey through life together.

Hindu Life Cycle Rituals for Death

Most Hindus cremate their dead, and the eldest son traditionally lights the funeral pyre. Afterwards the ashes are collected and immersed in a holy river, preferably the Ganges. After-death rituals (shraddhas) are performed for several days thereafter and on the first anniversary of the death. [Source: Leona Anderson, “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices”, Thomson Gale, 2006]

After the death of a family member, the relatives become involved in ceremonies for preparation of the body and a procession to the burning or burial ground. For most Hindus, cremation is the ideal method for dealing with the dead, although many groups practice burial instead; infants are buried rather than cremated. At the funeral site, in the presence of the male mourners, the closest relative of the deceased (usually the eldest son) takes charge of the final rite and, if it is cremation, lights the funeral pyre. After a cremation, ashes and fragments of bone are collected and eventually immersed in a holy river.

After a funeral, everyone undergoes a purifying bath. The immediate family remains in a state of intense pollution for a set number of days (sometimes ten, eleven, or thirteen). At the end of that period, close family members meet for a ceremonial meal and often give gifts to the poor or to charities. A particular feature of the Hindu ritual is the preparation of rice balls (pinda ) offered to the spirit of the dead person during memorial services. In part these ceremonies are seen as contributing to the merit of the deceased, but they also pacify the soul so that it will not linger in this world as a ghost but will pass through the realm of Yama, the god of death. *

Text Sources: “World Religions” edited by Geoffrey Parrinder (Facts on File Publications, New York); “Encyclopedia of the World’s Religions” edited by R.C. Zaehner (Barnes & Noble Books, 1959); “Encyclopedia of the World Cultures: Volume 3 South Asia “ edited by David Levinson (G.K. Hall & Company, New York, 1994); Wikipedia, BBC, National Geographic, the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, The New Yorker, Reuters, AP, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, Compton’s Encyclopedia and various books and other publications.

Last updated March 2024