Sambodhi 1980 Vol 09

Author(s): Dalsukh Malvania, H C Bhayani, Nagin J Shah
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 79

Uttarajjhayana and Socio-Religious Formalism
77
caste-duties than assuming the duties of another caste. In the śānti Parvan of the Mahābhārata, when after considering lots of pros and cons, Yudhisthira was yet inclined to adopt an ascetic's life, Vyāsa gave his final verdict that 'a Ksatriya's duty (in the second stage of life) was to hold the Sceptre, not the alms-bowl'.8
The whole span of life, specially in case of a Brahmana, had to be divided into four stages, each covering approximately one fourth of expected longevity. The first stage had to be devoted to the study of the Vedas and the second to leading a householder's life. The third stage had to be spent in a hermitage as an anchorite. The fourth was the stage of total abandonment of all earthly concerns. The first three stages were common to the first three castes. A ruler and warrior too was expected to enter hermitage and practise asceticism in the third and the fourth stages. But he might as well, after having transferred his responsibilities to his son, choose to die fighting in the battle-field.? There is no emphasis on the tbird caste viz. the agriculturists and traders entering hermitage and practising asceticism: The fourth caste viz. the Śūdras had no right to lay down the yoke and take to the practice of selfdenial, not to talk of the Candālas and the Sopākas.
Among the stages of life, the householder's was regarded as very important for it supported the other three stages and sustained society as a whole. The greatest responsibility of a householder was to pay off the three debts which he respectively owed to gods, ancestors and sages. He had to pay off the debt of gods by performing cermonial sacrifices according to his capacity, that of ancestors by getting married and begetting sons and that of the sages by studying the Vedas. If he took to asceticism without paying off these debts, he was a defaulter and suffered spiritual degeneration'. We are told in the Adiparva of the Mahābhārata that one Jaratkāru had taken to asceticism without begetting a son. Consequently, his ancestors were in a precarious condition - hanging over the abyss with a thin thread, just about to fall into it when the last of their progeny viz. Jaratkāru was wiped out of earthly existence. Supposedly, a son sustained his deceased fore-fathers in heaven with oblations of food and water. Hence, do religious act brought that fulfilment which was due to the father of a son 10
In case of the first three castes certain purificatory rites and ceremonies had to be performed on different occasions They were supposed to consecrate the subject and remove his sins. 11
These formal customs and practices formed the core of the priestly religion. They had certain draw backs : besides involving killing of animals,