Bratabandha or Upanayana is the basic ritual in Hindu religion. It is a gateway for a boy to manhood. It is performed by Brahmin, Chhetri and Vaishya. Every boy should go through the process of Bratabandha who born in Hindu family.
It is a belief that without this ritual a boy is considered as an incomplete being and everything he will do in the future can’t be succeed. After doing Bratabandha then only a boy is allowed to marry in the Hindu culture.
If someone marry without fulfilling this ritual ‘Bratabandha or Upanayana’ then he will have to face negative consequence in his marriage life.
Bratabandha is the most important and compulsory ritual for the boy who born in Hindu religion family. It takes a whole day to complete this ritual but if you follow the whole process including every details it takes up to 2-3 days to complete.
On this modern day people don’t follow the whole process and finish the ritual in one day. You can complete this ritual even in 6-7 hours if you ignore tiny ritual process and only follow the main ritual process but people usually take a whole day to complete this ritual properly because of its importance and their belief on this ritual.
According to Dharma shastra, the best age for Bratabanda are the odd years, like 1st year, 3rd year, 5th years and the following years. These ages are believe to be the perfect age for Bratabandha but it is not compulsory to fulfill this ritual only in odd years.
Basically this ritual is fulfill before 25 years and some of them fulfill this ritual before marriage. Previously people are so cultural that they complete this ritual on the perfect age according to the Dharma Shastra.
They believe that the perfect age for Brahmins is 8th year, for Chhetri is 11th year and for Vaisya is 12th year.
In ancient times, males used to go for further study to abroad or Banaras after their Bratabhanda or Upanayana to get more knowledge.
That’s why Bratabandha was done when a boy is able to visit alone to a new place for his education. It signify that a boy is entering to manhood from a boyhood.
Another reason for doing Bratabandha on specific age was that a child should be matured enough to read and grasp the knowledge of Vedas and ancient scriptures on Sanskrit. Therefore, Bratabhanda was done when a boy is mature enough for education and be able to travel alone far from his home.
By Sanam Gurung