r's life was
regarded as a series of rites, such as the daily offering of milk, the
new and full moon ceremonies, seasonal sacrifices every four months and
the Soma sacrifice once a year, besides oblations to ancestors and other
domestic observances. The third stage of life should begin when a
householder sees that his hair is turning grey and a grandson has been
born. He should then abandon his home and live in the forest. The
tradition that it is justifiable and even commendable for men and women
to abandon their families and take to the religious life has at all
times been strong in India and public opinion has never considered that
the deserted party had a grievance. No doubt comfortable householders
were in no hurry to take to the woods and many must always have shirked
the duty. But on the other hand, the very pious, of whom India has
always produced a superabundance, were not willing to bear the cares of
domestic life and renounced the world before the prescribed time. On the
whole Brahmanic (as opposed to Buddhist) literature is occupied in
insisting not so much that the devout should abandon the world as that
they must perform the ritual observances prescribed for householders
before doing so.

The Brahman's existence as drawn in the law-books is a description of
what the writers thought ought to be done rather than of the general
practice. Still it cannot be dismissed as imaginary, for the
Nambutiri[213] Brahmans of Travancore have not yet abandoned a mode of
life which is in essentials that prescribed by Manu and probably that
led by Brahmans in the seventh century B.C. or earlier[214].

They are for the most part landowners dwelling in large houses built to
accommodate a patriarchal family and erected in spacious compounds. In
youth they spend about eight years in learning the Veda, and in mature
life religious ceremonies, including such observances as bathing and the
preparation of meals, occupy about six hours of the day. As a
profession, the performance of religious rites for others is most
esteemed. In food, drink and pleasures, the Nambutiris are almost
ascetics: their rectitude, punctiliousness and dignity still command
exaggerated respect. But they seem unproductive and petrified, even in
such matters as literature and scholarship, and their inability to adapt
themselves to changing conditions threatens them with impoverishment and
deterioration.

Yet the ideal Brahmanic life, which by no means exc