social order as a divine institution. Its
stability was, however, rendered still more secure by the elaboration of
a system of conventional precepts, partly forming the basis of Manu's
Code, which clearly defined the relative position and the duties of the
several castes, and determined the penalties to be inflicted on any
transgressions of the limits assigned to each of them. These laws are
conceived with no sentimental scruples on the part of their authors. On
the contrary, the offences committed by Brahmans against other castes
are treated with remarkable clemency, whilst the punishments inflicted
for trespasses on the rights of higher classes are the more severe and
inhuman the lower the offender stands in the social scale.

The three first castes, however unequal to each other in privilege and
social standing, are yet united by a common bond of sacramental rites
(_samskaras_), traditionally connected from ancient times with certain
incidents and stages in the life of the Aryan Hindu, as conception,
birth, name-giving, the first taking out of the child to see the sun,
the first feeding with boiled rice, the rites of tonsure and
hair-cutting, the youth's investiture with the sacrificial thread, and
his return home on completing his studies, marriage, funeral, &c. The
modes of observing these family rites are laid down in a class of
writings called _Grihya-sutras_, or domestic rules. The most important
of these observances is the _upanayana_, or rite of conducting the boy
to a spiritual teacher. Connected with this act is the investiture with
the sacred cord, ordinarily worn over the left shoulder and under the
right arm, and varying in material according to the class of the wearer.
This ceremony being the preliminary act to the youth's initiation into
the study of the Veda, the management of the consecrated fire and the
knowledge of the rites of purification, including the _savitri_, a
solemn invocation to _Savitri_, the sun (probl. Saturnus),--as a rule
the verse _Rigv_. iii. 62. 10, also called _gayatri_ from the metre in
which it is composed--which has to be repeated every morning and evening
before the rise and after the setting of that luminary, is supposed to
constitute the second or spiritual birth of the Arya. It is from their
participation in this rite that the three upper classes are called the
twice-born. The ceremony is enjoined to take place some time between the
eighth and sixteenth year of age in the c