Page 128 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

ORION AND ms BELT 113
But the sacred thread is not the only trace of Orion's dress
that we have retained. A reference to the Upanayafia.ceremonial
will show that we have preserved belt, staff, skin, and all. Every
boy, who is the subject of this ceremony, has to wear a mekhala
or grass cord round his waist, and we still put three knots to this
cord just over the navel, as it were, to represent the three stars
in the belt of Orion. • In the Vajasaneyi Sa:tp.hita 4. 10, we are told
that the knot of the mekhala, when it is worn for sacrificial
purposes, is to be tied with the mantra, " you are the knot of
Soma, "t which Mahtdhara explains as " a knot dear to Soma";
but which remembering that we have a similar verse in the Haoma
Y asht, may be naturally interpreted to mean the knot of Soma,
the presiding deity over the constellation of Orion. Then every
boy whose upanayana, or the thread ceremony as it is popularly
understood, is performed, must carry with him a stick of the
palasha or the fig-tree and the same passage in the Vajasaneyi
Sa~phita says that for sacrificial purposes the stick ( dantJa) is to
be taken in hand by the Mantra, " 0 wood ! be erect and protect
me from sin till the end of this yajna. " Here again Mahidhara
interprets yajna to mean sacrifice for which the staff is taken up.
But I think here also w~ may trace a reference to Prajapati alias
Yajna. The third accompanimen.t of a newly initiated boy is
the deer-skin. Theoretically it is necessary that be should be fully
clothed in a deer-skin, but practically we now attach· a small piece
of deer-skin to a silk thread and wear this thread along with the
yajnopav£ta. Mekhala, a}ina, dantja ( the girdle, the skin and the
staff) are thus the three distinguishing marks of a newly initiated
boy; and what could they mean, except that the boy is made to
assume the dress of Prajapati as far a11 possible, the first of the.
Brahmaps. Prajapati assumed the form of a deer, so the boy is clo-

• In the Prayoga works we have (and we still do so) :-
~~~~~~~~~
l'n the Slnkhylyana Grihya SCatr.1 ii . z. z, we are to1d that the
knots of the melena/; may be one, three or five, and the commentatdr
adds that the knots should be equal in number to one's fravaras. The
author of the Sansklra kaustubha quotes -J smriti to the same effect.
But the explanation is unsuited to the first 'case, yiz., or one knot, and
I am inclined· to take it to be a later sugge>tion.
tm~ili~'
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