Note 63 — D.

2. “The entire ceremony of diksha lasts some eight or nine days. Throughout those days the boy is put upon a very strict diet, and undergoes a vigorous course of ablutions. He is bathed regularly at certain hours; after the bath mustard and oil are rubbed all over his body, and he then undergoes a second bath to wash them all off again. All this time he should wear nothing, day or night, but a string of the sacred grass called kusa, which is tied round his waist and to which a narrow cloth, called langoti, is attached, fastened between the legs before and behind. Meanwhile the usual homa offerings are thrown on the sacred fire by priests of the Hotri class, who have been summoned for this purpose. When the last and the greatest of the homa offerings has been made, the sacred thread (upavîta, janeû) is thrown over the left shoulder of the boy by the Dikshit, and the first act of the initiation is completed. The Dikshit then throws a cloth over his own and the boy’s head, and under cover of this cloth he instils into his ear (in the undertone so that no profane ears may catch what he says) the Gâyatri and all the other sacred verses which a Hindu should utter on stated occasions every day of his life. The repetition of all these verses, and especially the Gâyatri, which is repeated first, constitutes the closing ceremony by which the boy is formally initiated into the rites of Hinduism. The boy must have heard and seen something of these rites beforehand through living with his parents; but until he has been formally initiated, and this by a Brâhman competent to discharge the office, he is a mere heathen. For some weeks after the conclusion of the ceremony the Dikshit remains with the novitiate so as to help him to perform the several daily rites and make him sufficiently perfect to be left to himself; and after leaving him he continues to be his spiritual adviser for the rest of his life whenever such advice may be required.”63 The rite is obviously analogous to the similar initiatory ceremonies which prevail among various primitive races.64