SOAS Research Online

Abstract

The thesis falls into four parts. I. The Maharastra Brahmans. Firstly, their subdivisions and in what parts of Maharastra they are to be found; and secondly, their theological background - their Vedic Sakhas and Caranas, and the mass of Vedic and Samskrta literature which the various Caranas have in their keeping. 2. The ritual practice of the orthodox Brahman of Maharastra. The Snana-Sandhya, the Pancamahayajna, the ritual of the morning meal. A chapter on the Hindu Calendar, and its bearing on ritual and observances. The Karma toward gods and toward ancestors, and the sixteen bodily Samskaras, the chief of which are the Sacred Thread Ceremony, and the Rite of Marriage, involving the horoscope calculations, and the rites and propitiations incidental to the wedding ceremony, and the carrying of the Grhyagni (the domestic fire) from the wedding altar to the house of the bridegroom. Then a description of the Brahman home, and the Brahman woman as bride, wife, and mother. The last (sixteenth) Samskara, the obsequial rite, ends this section. 3. The major deities - the Vedic gods, then the Puranic Triad, and Visnu's incarnations, and gods other than the Triad. Vaissava and Saiva Holy places in Maharastra. Then a description of the Attendant Celestial powers, beneficent, and demon, in air, earth, and the nether regions. Modern Maharastra. The decline in ritual practice, curtailment of the main rites to suit the speed of modern life, the critical outlook toward antiquity, the decline in Samskrta studies and the recommendations of the Samskrta Commission, the Tenancy Act, and effect on country Brahman landowners, the revival of Vedic sacrifice for national motives, the removal of untouchability, and the new aim of cultivating the 'inner values and social service'.