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RISABHA DEVA Bharata is said to have laid down what are known as the fifty-three Kriyâs (rites) for the followers of the Path. These were described at the time when he brought the Brāhmaṇa narna into being. He invested the Brāhmaṇas with distinctive sacred threads, comprising one or more strings, according to the number of the pratimā (stage on the householder's path) the wearer had attained. Thus a man who wore a thread of seven strings was a brahmachari (celibate) on the seventh pratimā, and he who wore one with eleven strings was on the eleventh, or the last, stage of the householder's path, and only one step removed from sannyāsa which he would enter as soon as he is able to discard the small strip of the loin cloth that marks the boundary between the householder's and the saint's careers.
The ideals originally set before the Brāhmaņas included, amongst others, the following: (1) they must devote themselves to wor
ship, both regular and special ; (2) they might earn their living by the
sword, the pen, agriculture, or trade, but not by handicrafts or such other professions as music and singing ;
