प्राचीन भारत में शिक्षा (डॉ. ए.एस. अल्तेकर - गुरुकुल एवं बौद्ध विहार शिक्षण इतिहास)

I, B] UPANAYANA RITUAL 271
Who were eligible for it ? Brahmanas, Kshatriyas
and Vaishyas were eligible for the Upanayana and Vedic
study. They are collectively called Dvijas, because
they were all believed to get a second birth, a spiritual
one, at the time of the Upanayana. When the ritual
became obligatory, it seems to have been regularly
performed by all these castes for several centuries.
Smritis give detailed rules about the different kinds
of girdles, staffs, sacred threads, etc. which were
prescribed for the members of the various castes.
Details about these minor variations would not have been
evolved if the ritual had not been a general one among
the Kshatriyas and the Vaishyas. In the course of
time, however, Vedic studies fell into background, partly
owing to the setback which the Vedic religion received
by the rise of the Upanishadic, Jain and Buddhist
movements, and partly by the development of other
branches of knowledge in the Hindu community itself.
Upanayana then began to fall into disuetitude among
the Kshatriyas and the Vaishyas, with whose professions
in subsequent life Vedic studies were but remotely
connected. This happened at about the beginning of
the Christian era, when the theory that only the
Brahmanas and Shudras exist in the Kali age seems to
have gained ascendancy¹. Kshatriyas and Vaishyas

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1. Bhāsa (3rd century A. D.) and Daṇḍin (7th century A. D.)
   regarded the sacred thread as an insignia of a Brahmana and not of a
   Dvija. Cf :—
   यज्ञोपवीतेन ब्राह्मणश्चीवरेण रक्तपटः । Avimāraka, Act V.
   भवदंसोपनीतं यज्ञोपवीतं भूसुरभावं द्योतयति ।
   Daśakumāracharit, 2nd Chap.
   Cf also Raghuvamśa, XI, 64.
   An inscription however shows that the Upanayana of the Hoysala
   King Narasimha III, who was a Kshatriya, took place in his 9th year
   on 25-2-1255. It appears that even when the ritual had gone out of .
   vogue among the Kshatriyas in general, it continued among the royal
   families.