The minimum definition of ritual may be considered as the observable,
though not always openly observed, routine of worship. Such a
routine, perhaps, is essential for any system of religious belief
to survive, since it lays down certain organisational regulations
and procedures to ensure its endurance as a social institution;
once thus structured, ritual can continue in reassuringly familiar
performance while leaving the way clear for consideration of the
more vital issues of religious thought and philosophy. Since,
then, it is the performance of ritual that manifests religion
as a social fact, the routine of ritual will be influenced by
co-existing norms and practice, while, in mutual reinforcement,
the religious beliefs of a society help to determine what is socially
acceptable within it.
It is possible, however, for ritual to acquire a much deeper
relevance than its practical function as a routine of worship
would indicate. In many religions (and Hinduism is one of them),
correct performance of ritual procedures may be regarded as sufficient
in itself to ensure fulfilment of desires, or granting of blessings;
ritual becomes not simply a means of expressing a plea or a devotion,
but a way of certainly securing benefits. Illustrative of this
are the Hindu (post-cremation) Sraddha ceremonies, carried out
to improve the state and welfare of the departed spirit, or the
kissing of the walls of the goddess Kali’s shrine in Calcutta
by Hindu women desiring children, especially sons.
So complex and involved is the ritual of Hindu devotions that
specific Brahmin (priestly) castes are designated as performers
of certain specific ritual acts: witness the priests of Yama,
god of death, funerary specialists, who attend the funeral pyres
at the burning ghats in Benares; or the household priests, who
perform ceremonies at the private altars of those for whom they
officiate; or the temple priests, whose duty is to attend on the
images of the gods housed therein, and perform the set ceremonies
of worship. Such specialist duties are not interchangeable, and
those who perform them are hierarchically ranked according to
their function.
Significant is the extent to which a religion tends to regulate
the social life of believers. All religions have rituals and ceremonies
necessary and vital to the social life of the societies to which
they are endemic, but some go far beyond, and the Indian caste
system is a case in point.
Hinduism is not highly organised ecclesiastically; the Brahmin
priesthood, though hereditary, is not organised into a unified
and identically trained body, and no Brahmin is necessarily a
priest. Hinduism is not a congregational religion, and the most
important rituals are individual, family, or caste group affairs,
which results in the considerable variation of individual expression
in performance.
In contrast to the lack of systematically organised and centralised
ecclesiastical institutions, Hinduism has ordered and ritualised
social life to an extreme degree. Certainly many social practices
now associated with Hinduism were non-religious in origin, but
have been sanctioned and affirmed by religion. The origins of
a particular practice are unimportant for a consideration of its
effect — if Hindus have believed that a certain way of social
behaviour is an expression of religious teaching, then, to them,
it is a part of religion, and therefore must be observed by a
devotee.
Hindu Rites-de-passage
The rituals of Hinduism differ according to type and importance.
Some are of a corporate nature, others individual; some are public,
others private; some are obligatory, others optional; some are
of regular occurrence, others occasional.
The complete range of Hindu ritual observance is so complex and
far-reaching that, for any description to be meaningful, some
selective procedure has to be adopted; therefore I have tried
to describe below a few rituals connected with the rites de passage,
or ceremonies denoting stages of life, common among the three
upper (twice-born) divisions of Hindu society. (1) Obviously,
in a country of sub-continental size, like India, there are innumerable
regional, sectarian, or community variations in these rituals,
so that details of ceremonies vary even when their significance
does not.
The rites de passage of all societies represent the ritually-performed
socially-recognised passing of an individual or a group of individuals
from one stage of life to the next; such rituals, secular or religious,
mark the abandonment of certain duties or activities appropriate
to one stage of existence, following this by a period of transition,
training or adjustment before the assumption of new responsibilities
and actions consonant with the new status achieved, into which
an individual may be said then to be fully initiated.
The major Hindu rites de passage concern the three main events
of existence — birth, marriage, and death:
Birth rituals celebrate the arrival of a new member of the temporal
family, and publicly announce membership of it, and acceptance
by it;
Marriage rituals publicly acknowledge that the new bride is now
part of her husband and his family, and that any offspring of
the union are legitimate and have rights within the family;
Death rituals mark the departure of a member of the temporal
family into another existence, and are a time for members of the
family to mark their relationship to the deceased and pay their
respects, and for those related to the dead person in the male
line to make their offerings for the benefit of the spirit.
Ceremonies connected with these three events are marked by physical
gathering-together of family members, thus emphasising the corporateness
of the group and its unity of action. The parts played by family
members in the rituals show the relative importance at different
times of males and females, maternal and paternal kin, and so
on.
Birth rituals actually begin during pregnancy, and take the form
of rites calculated to ward off the evil eye, protect the foetus
and expectant mother, promote good health and, above all, to encourage
the birth of a son.
In the fifth month the rite of Binding the Protective Thread
takes place in some parts of India. This is a women’s ceremony,
attended by women relatives of husband and wife, though a propitious
day is chosen by the family’s astrologer. The expectant mother
is anointed with turmeric and rice, then a bangle is tied around
her wrist by her husband’s sister. Sometimes this guard takes
different forms: it may be a piece of cloth containing iron, cowrie
shell and dust from a cross-roads mixed with the film from an
image of Hanuman, a god particularly noted for his triumphs over
demons.
Sometimes a ritual worship of the Mimosa Suma tree is carried
out by the expectant mother in the seventh month. In the fourth
or sixth month the old Vedic rite of Simanta, or Hair-parting,
should be performed: its purpose, again, being to bless and protect
mother and child. This involves worship of Ranna Devi, the wife
of the sun, represented by two brass jars with coconuts (two,
since even numbers favour Sons, odd numbers daughters). For each
jar seven lucky women (2) are invited to the ceremony, making
fourteen (again an even number). The expectant mother takes a
ritual bath in a house chosen by the astrologer; during the walk
back to her mother-in-law’s house she is ritually protected on
all sides from the evil eye, contact with a barren woman, or witchcraft.
Back in the house, to which she is welcomed by a priest intoning
sacred mantras, she undergoes the main part of the ceremony: the
combing and parting of her hair and its oiling, done by her sister
or sister-in-law. Her parents bring gifts, and another protective
guard in the form of a gold/silver bangle, may be put on her wrist
by the sister-in-law. This ceremony continues among Hindus in
Britain, though in modified form, taking place in one home only.
At birth and during the immediately succeeding days, only women
have contact with mother and child, and, as women may not recite
the Vedic mantras, the traditional ceremony at the cutting of
the umbilical cord has been dispensed with. In village India the
Sudra midwife performs certain minor rituals associated with lessening
of birth-pains and easing labour. On the sixth day after birth
an important ceremony takes place. For the first time since birth
the auspicious turmeric mark is made on the foreheads of mother
and child by an unwidowed woman who has never lost a child, and
the father’s sister makes a symbolic offering and takes the baby’s
troubles to herself by making a circular movement with her arms
towards it and cracking her knuckles against her temples. The
offerings made at this ceremony are given to the family priest,
and the midwife is also given generous gifts of food.
From the tenth day the mother begins the steps back to ritual
purity, and the baby, too, begins to figure in family life.
On the eleventh or twelfth day, the Naming Ceremony, or Namakarana,
is performed, (3) when both maternal and paternal relatives gather
together, thus making a corporate gesture of acceptance and welcome
for the new family member. The father’s sister again has a prominent
role; she ties scarlet threads to the baby’s cradle and the baby
itself, as protection against the Evil Eye, and gives the child
small pieces of gold for good fortune. She it is who ritually
names the baby, after advice from the family priest, and the mother
is expected to do reverence to her, and present her with a few
small coins.
A few other family rituals mark a child’s early years: piercing
of the ears; the first hair-cutting, which is begun by the family
priest and completed by the family barber — an interesting combination
of ritual specialists taken from the highest and lowest castes;
and, particularly among Brahmins, the start of education, or going
to school.
Perhaps the most important initiatory ritual for boys of the
three twice-born social divisions is the Thread Ceremony (Upanayana),
and great emphasis is placed on its correct performance. In the
case of a Brahmin, it takes place at about eight years of age;
a Kshatriya should be about eleven, a Vaishya twelve-thirteen.
The ceremony, originally lasting three days, marks the boy out
as belonging to one of the three high divisions of society; it
also indicates the end of his childhood, since he and his mother
now formally eat together from the same plate for the last time;
and through it he enters the Brahmacarya, or student, stage of
life, being put under the authority and guidance of a guru. Until
the ceremony has been performed a boy cannot marry, since, of
course, he has not been acknowledged as a man. The thread is usually
of cotton, and must always be worn once it has been ritually donned
to the accompaniment of sacred mantras intoned by the priest.
The thread is renewed annually.
The boy undergoes some instruction from his new guru, especially
learning the all-important gayatri mantra, essential to daily
worship. He makes offerings to Agni, the sacred fire, and anoints
his body with some of the ashes. He is now ceremonially pure,
and has become a full member of his twice-born caste. He can now
perform the evening worship, Sandhya, for his family.
The end of the ceremony marks the boy as being now marriageable;
he takes a ritual bath, eats a ritual meal, then dons new clothes
provided by his mother ‘s brother. He symbolically begins a pilgrimage
to Benares, but is prevented from leaving home by his maternal
uncle, who may even carry him physically back home, or bribe him
to return with offerings of money or gold. In Maharashtra he is
tempted to return by the offer of marriage to his maternal uncle’s
daughter, for in the Deccan Brahmins may marry their maternal
cousins, which would be a relationship smacking of incest elsewhere.
The final entry to manhood takes place with the first shave.
The family barber is called to do this, for which he should get
a turban. Traditionally, also, a cow should be presented to a
Brahmin, but this is rarely done nowadays.
Hindu marriage rituals are traditionally lengthy, and take several
days to complete, but in modern urban India, and even more so
in Britain, the ceremony is often abbreviated to only one day,
so that minor rituals have to be excluded, and attention is focused
on the essential parts of the prescribed ceremonial. Formerly
it was considered desirable for the bride and groom not to see
each other before the wedding, and during the early stages of
the ceremony a veil, or curtain, was held between them by priests;
this was lowered, however, before the formal giving away of the
bride by her parents. This giving of a daughter always had to
be performed jointly by her parents, and unless the bride’s mother,
as well as her father, indicates assent in public, the marriage
cannot go forward.
The family genealogy, or gotra, of both bride and groom, is quoted
by the officiating priest, to prove publicly that they do not
come from the prohibited degree of relationship, i.e., there is
no kinship link for up to five generations on the mother’s side,
and up to seven on the father’s.
During the ceremony the betrothed pair are linked symbolically
by the tying of a corner of the bride’s sari to the groom’s scarf
or shawl. Jointly they make their offering of ghee (clarified
butter), to Agni, the sacred fire, while the officiating priest
intones the established Sanskrit mantras, or prayers. The couple
should circumambulate the sacred fire, and meanwhile the groom
should speak a text both religiously and socially significant:
“This am I, that art thou; that art thou, this am I; I
the heavens, thou the earth. Come, let us marry, let us beget
offspring. Loving, bright, genial, may we live a hundred autumns.”
Not only does this text state the indissoluble union that is
ideal Hindu marriage, it also stresses its primary purpose, the
establishment of a family, the securing of the survival of the
patrilineal inheritance and welfare unit. It urges, too, the peaceful,
happy, fulfilling relationship that should be sought by the couple;
maybe not one designed to experience the troughs and peaks of
emotion and passion, but nevertheless one based on security, certainty,
faithfulness. Such permanence is reinforced by the bride’s standing
on a grinding-stone, during which the groom should say: ‘Ascend
this stone. Be firm as a rock.’ Implicit in this part of the ceremony,
which is not demanded of the bridegroom, is a recognition that
break-up of a family unit springs most often from disagreements
among married-in daughters-in-law, not brothers.
The most significant part of Hindu marriage ritual is represented
by the seven steps taken by the couple before the sacred fire,
in the presence of all. Unless these are taken, the marriage is
not complete; each of the seven steps has a special significance:
“Take one step for securing food. Take two steps for strength,
three steps for increase in wealth. Take four steps for happiness.
Take five steps for children. Take six steps for the seasonal
pleasures. Take seven steps as a friend. Be faithfully devoted
to me. May we attain many sons. May we attain to a good old
age.”
Other marriage rituals, such as a symbolic sharing of food by
bride and groom, re-emphasise the new unity of the couple, to
the exclusion of all others. Among Hindus, only those in the closest
degrees of relationships, mother and child, for example, eat from
the same plate; this sharing of food at marriage is a clear demonstration
of the new union. For a modern young Hindu couple, who have known
each other before marriage, many of the minor rituals will have
lost much of their significance, but traditionally, when a couple
would not see each other until the ceremony itself, and not clearly
even then, owing to deliberately concealing costume, and shyness,
such seemingly innocent rituals, necessitating the close proximity
of an unrelated person of the opposite sex in public, and with
family approval, would have had a meaning and decisiveness missed
today.
Traditionally in India the marriage ceremony takes place at the
bride’s home, but in Britain few houses are large enough to accommodate
all the friends and relatives who must be invited, and the uncertainties
of the weather preclude large outside functions. Halls are hired
for the occasion, often from local churches or schools; sometimes,
if available, two separate rooms are used, one for older guests,
who can gossip and chat while eating the lavish food provided,
the other for a disco for the young couple and their friends,
where the strains of amplified pop music prove that East and West
can meet, stridently and (to some) harmoniously! The religious
ceremony is still regarded as the effective act of marriage; the
obligatory visit to the Register Office is a ritual imposed by
an external legal system which has to be conformed with before
the socially and culturally meaningful religious rite and community
gathering validate the union not only of two individuals, but
of two families.
In a strongly family-oriented society such as the Hindu we might
expect funeral ceremonies, which commemorate the earthly departure
of a member of the kinship group, to be significantly marked,
and indeed this is so. Care must be taken over the proper performance
of these rituals, so that nothing may hinder the propitious re-birth
of the atman, or soul. The funeral ceremony, like the others described,
is essentially a family concern, a family responsibility, and
during the rituals the privileged and vital position of the son
is re-emphasised. He it is who, after the corpse has been bathed,
shaved, and dressed in new clothes, and when sandal paste has
been put on the forehead of the deceased, and a leaf of the holy
tulsi plant, together with a coin, placed in the mouth, whispers
the sacred syllable ‘Om’ in the ear of the corpse. This syllable
is said to attune the individual soul to the Infinite; and no-one
who has heard a Hindu priest resonantly intone the word at the
commencement of a religious ceremony can deny the thrill of awe
and expectation that comes of the experience. It is the son, then,
who is the mediator between dead parent and Brahman, the Supreme
— through the son the individual soul is attuned to a new sphere
preparatory to entering it. It is the son, too. who ignites the
funeral pyre, and sees that the ritual offerings of ghee (melted
butter) are poured upon it.
To Hindus, the all-important need for a son is not merely to
ensure the continuance of the family and to secure inheritance
of land and moveable property in this world; from a son comes
the certainty of a properly-conducted passage into the after-life,
and an assurance of reincarnation or moksha (release). Responsibilities
do not cease with death, nor with cremation; there is a requisite
period of mourning with its attendant rituals, its offerings of
food to ensure the safe passage of the spirit in the world of
the dead. The performance of these ceremonies is also a safeguard
for the living, for a displeased, neglected spirit can being misfortune
on its living relatives. After twelve days, the pollution arising
from close association with the dead is removed ceremonially by
bathing, by being shaved and cutting the nails, and a feast is
provided for relatives and friends. On the anniversary of the
death it is generally expected that a ~raddha, or memorial, ceremony
be performed, at which food offerings are made for the soul of
the dead person, and a feast is prepared for relatives, close
friends, and specially invited Brahmins; in the case of a wealthy
family these last may number hundreds, as there is spiritual merit
in feeding Brahmins, which will rebound to the good of the soul.
The sraddha ceremony, however, is not a Vedic one; rites for the
dead, according to the Vedas, cease on the third day after cremation
when relatives should return to the cremation ground and collect
any remains of the dead person from the ashes of the pyre, for
separate disposal.
After the ritual cleansing ceremony on the twelfth day after
a death, life for family members begins to return to normal; no
longer need they wear exclusively the white of mourning, and they
can return to their usual work. For widows, however, mourning
should never cease: many will wear only white saris until their
own death; they should never again wear jewellery or perfumes,
or the red kum-kum spot on the forehead and (as is the practice
in some areas) the red-stained hair-parting which denotes a married
woman whose husband is alive. The glass bangles so commonly worn
by Indian women of all classes should be ritually smashed at a
husband’s death by the widow, thus symbolising the end of her
role as a wife, and her endeavour to appear attractive and pleasing,
as a wife should. (4)
It is clear that, for Hindus in Britain, the traditional cremation
ceremony, with its incineration of the body on a pyre supplied
by relatives, lit by a son, to which are added offerings of sandalwood,
camphor, ghee, agar, musk and saffron, is impossible of performance.
Cremation, however, is easily obtainable, and is probably the
most favoured method of disposal of the dead in modern Western
society. Hindus in Britain have adapted quickly to the use of
the crematorium, and the non-sectarian chapels provided there
pose no problems for Brahmin priests who may be asked to officiate
by intoning the sacred mantras from the appropriate Vedic texts.
After cremation, Hindus may choose to send the ashes back to India,
where they may be scattered in the Ganges or any other sacred
river; some decide to bury the ashes in the British manner, a
memorial tablet being erected at the spot. A mourning period may
be observed, as well as the sraddha ceremony in due course, for
which relatives and close friends will be invited, and which they
will feel it their duty to attend.
Since the major Hindu rituals are home- and family- based, their
performance, especially in an urban environment, affects the surrounding
community little. The strength of Hinduism, like that of the poplar
tree, lies in its capacity to bend and adapt without breaking
or, ultimately, altering its basic form. For the Hindu, the Truth
is always One, though it be expressed in numerous different ways,
and this theory has influenced the practical attitudes and adaptability
of Hindus wherever they find themselves.
“He who sees the One Spirit in all, and all in the One
Spirit, henceforth cannot look with contempt on any creature.”
Notes
1. The ‘twice-born’ are members of the three
upper varna, Brahmins, Kshatriyas, and Vaishyas, called ‘twice-born’
since males of these groups are ritually ‘re-born’ as men into
society at the time of the Thread Ceremony (Upanayana).
2. ‘Lucky’ women are those whose husbands are
still living and who have never lost a child. Widows and barren
women are essentially unlucky, and may pass their ill-luck to
others.
3. This is still an important ceremony among
Hindus in Britain, although it is usually held much later. Until
a child is thus publicly and formally named, the chosen name should
not be used, as evil spirits may hear it and call the child away
to its death before it has received the ceremonial protection.
Even after the naming ceremony a nickname (usually an uncomplimentary
one, to deceive the evil spirits) may be commonly used, again
to protect the child.
4. Such strict observances of widowhood are
no longer obligatory, even in India. Nevertheless, many widows
choose to wear white or dark and plain saris, avoiding jewellery,
make-up and perfume. To gain social approval a widow should do
nothing, and wear nothing, to attract attention or admiration;
her reason for appearing desirable, beautiful, and joyful, namely,
her husband, has gone. There is nothing left for her to do but
mourn, and her appearance should reflect this.
Bibliography
- Burghart, R. (Ed.). Hinduism in Great Britain.
London, Tavistock, 1987.
- Kanitkar, V. P. (Hemant). Hindu Festivals
and Sacraments. Barnet, The Author, 1984. (Available from the
author, 83 Bulwer Road, New Barnet, Herts. ENS 5EU. £5.00 post
free.)
- Kanitkar, V. P. (Hemant). We Are Hindus.
Edin- burgh, St. Andrews Press, 1987.
- Knott, Kim. Hinduism in Leeds: A Study of
Religious Practice in the Indian Hindu Community and in Hindu-related
Groups. Leeds, Department of Theology and Religious Studies,
University of Leeds, 1986.
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