उपनयन

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Sanskrit

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Alternative scripts

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Pronunciation

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Noun

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उपनयन (upanayana) stemn

  1. the act of leading to or near, bringing
  2. employment, application
  3. introduction (into any science)
  4. leading or drawing towards oneself
  5. that ceremony in which a Guru draws a boy towards himself and initiates him into one of the three twice-born classes (one of the twelve संस्कारs or purificatory rites [prescribed in the धर्म- सूत्रs and explained in the गृह्य- सूत्रs] in which the boy is invested with the sacred thread [different for the three castes] and thus endowed with second or spiritual birth and qualified to learn the वेद by heart ; a Brahman is initiated in the eighth year [or seventh according to हिरण्यकेशिन् ; or eighth from conception, according to शाङ्खायन etc.], a क्षत्रिय in the eleventh, a वैश्य in the twelfth ; but the term could be delayed)