Viewing page 106 of 197

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

BRAHMINS.

its present form, and in this respect the sect is now absolutely silent and without movement. It could, in fact, only refer to the precepts of ancient fathers, and follow a course in which every element of originality of thought has long been exhausted. Brahminism is, therefore, unprogressive; and were it not that the system of caste forms in a great measure its moral support, it might have sunk low in the Mahomedan dominion, and might, even in our own, have received severe blows. There are many who believe its influence is declining, and this may, to some extent, be the case among the educated people of India, that is, those educated in modern principles; but these are, as yet, so very small a fraction in the millions of the people, that the Brahmins of this, and possibly many generations to come, have little to fear from them, while to the Hindoo masses in general they are altogether incomprehensible. Nor, indeed, even among these classes has any  movement, like that of the Sikhs under Nanuk, or the Lingayets under Chun Bussappa, yet arisen, nor does any appear possible. Educated classes are still proud of caste distinctions, and cannot dispense with them, for there is no refuge from loss of caste; and, while their minds revolt perhaps against the ignorance and pruriency of the Purans, they dally with those doctrines and the Vedas, and remain as their fathers were, Hindoos, and thus Brahminical dominance continues to flourish.

In the text attached to No. 160, the ceremonies of a Brahmin's "pooja," or worship, are sketched; but many other essential rites of his life are worthy of notice. The first, perhaps, is his second birth, or investitude with the sacred cord, which is the greatest ritual event of his life. Before he was born, in the fourth month of his mother's pregnancy, she had offered up prayers for her safe deliverance. In the eighth month these were repeated under a different form; and at the birth, the solemn burnt sacrifice and other ceremonies usher the Brahmin infant into life, with prayers for his well being. When it is six days old the infant is named. At six months the first rice is put into its mouth, at a pretty household ceremony, at which all relations assist. At two years old, or according to the mother's vow, the infant's first hair is shaved off, and offered to the tutelary household divinity; its nails are cut, and, if a girl, its ears are bored. The next ceremony with male children is the "Oopanayan," or new birth, and it may occur at any time from ten to fifteen years of age, according to the occurrence of lucky or unlucky days, or the ability of the parents to incur the expense. Up to this time the Brahmin lad is never impure; he is not susceptible of impurity. He may associate with whom he will, and, for the most part, eat what he will, without offence. After the second birth he must abjure all this, and become a professed ritualist.

The ceremony is an interesting one. The boy is at first secluded for several days, bathed, and purified, till the friends and acquaintances of the parents, male