A STUDENT WHO HAS RETURNED HOME
1. Conduct towards the Teacher
31. Even after he has returned home, the accepted practice is that he should behave towards these individuals exactly the same way
8.
1. as he behaved when he was a student.
2. He may wear a necklace; apply lotions on his face, oil on his hair and beard, collyrium on his eyes, and oil on his body; and wear a turban, a lungi, a jacket, sandals, and shoes.
3. But let him neither do these nor have them done in places where his teacher may see him, 4. or during private activities 5. such as brushing the teeth, massaging the body, and combing the hair.
6. The teacher, for his part, should not speak admiringly of his pupil’s belongings in the hope of getting them.
7. Some, however, maintain that a bath-graduate who is summoned by or visits his teacher is not expected to take off what he had been wearing, in accordance with the rules, at the time of graduation.
8. Let him not sit on a seat that is higher, 9. has more legs 10. or is sturdier than his teacher’s; 11. nor occupy a seat or bed that is normally used by his teacher.
12. When he is so ordered by the teacher during a journey, he may get on to the same vehicle, but after the teacher. 13. The same rule applies to entering an assembly hall or a harrow, and to occupying a mat or a straw bed.
14. Except to give good news, he should not speak to the teacher unless the teacher addresses him first.
15. He should refrain from tapping on, whispering to, laughing in the presence of, calling aloud, using the personal name of, or giving an order to his teacher;
16. - although in an emergency he may report something to him.
17. If they live close by, he should go to see the teacher every morning and evening without being summoned 18. and visit him the very day that he returns from a journey.
19. When his teacher and his teacher’s teacher are together, he should first clasp the feet of his teacher’s teacher and then try to clasp his own teacher’s feet, 20. but the latter should forbid him;
21. in the presence of his teacher’s teacher acts of reverence to his own teacher are suspended.
22. He shall go frequently to visit his teacher at his home, bringing with him whatever personal gift he can afford, even if it is only a few tooth cleaners.
2. Duties of a Teacher
23. Next, the teacher’s conduct towards his pupil:
24. Loving him like a son and totally devoted to him, the teacher should impart knowledge to him without holding anything back with respect to any of the Laws.
25. Except in an emergency, moreover, he should not employ a pupil for his own purposes to the detriment of the pupil’s studies.
26. A pupil ceases to be a pupil when he is inattentive to his teacher and so becomes a dolt. 27. A teacher, likewise, ceases to be a teacher when he neglects teaching.
28. When a pupil does something wrong, the teacher should always correct him.
29. Instilling fear, making him fast or bathe, and banishing him from his presence are the punishments, and he should apply them according to the severity of the offence until the student has completed his studies.
30. When he has completed his studies and finished his period of studentship, the teacher should dismiss him with the words: ‘From now on attend to other duties (dharma).’
9.
3. Vedic Recitation and its Suspension
1. After commencing his annual course of Vedic study on the full moon of July–August, he should not recite the Veda in the evening for a month 2. and should conclude the course of study on the full moon or the lunar mansion Rohiṇī of December–January.
3. According to some, the course of study lasts for 4.5 months.
4. He should refrain from reciting the Veda in a market town–– 5. he may optionally recite it there after smearing an area with the dung of an ox–– 6. or in a cremation ground and the surrounding area up to a distance of a rod’s throw.
7. The recitation is not suspended, however, when a cemetery has been overtaken by a village or agricultural land, 8. but he should not recite the Veda at a spot that he knows to have been a cemetery.
9. The rule pertaining to a cemetery applies also when Śūdras and outcastes are present, 10. although, according to some, it applies only if they are in the same house.
11. He shall suspend his Vedic recitation, however, if he even exchanges glances with a Śūdra woman 12. or any other woman who has violated class boundaries in her sexual relations.
13. If he wants to speak with a menstruating woman when he is about to recite the Veda, he should first speak with a Brahmin and then speak with her.
After he has spoken with her, however, he should speak again with a Brahmin and then recite the Veda. In this way the child she bears will prosper.
14. Vedic recitation is suspended in a village in which there is a corpse 15. or a Chāṇḍāla, 16. or when corpses are being carried within its boundaries; 17. in the wilderness when they are within sight; 18. and for the entire day when outsiders visit the village 19. even if they are respectable people.
20. When it thunders in the evening, Vedic recitation is suspended during the night; 21. and when there is lightning, until he has slept.
22. When there is lightning about the time of dawn or at a time when one can distinguish a black cow from a red one at a distance of a rod’s throw,
- Vedic recitation is suspended for the day until the end of dusk;
23. as also when it thunders at the end of the last watch of the night 24. or, according to some, after midnight; 25. and when cows have to be kept in their pens.
26. When people condemned to death remain in prison, it is suspended until they have been executed.
27. Let him not recite the Veda while he is mounted on an animal.
28. Vedic recitation is suspended for 2 days and nights on new-moon days,
10.
1. as well as on the full-moon days that open a four-month season;
2. for 3 days after the conclusion of the annual course of Vedic study, the death of an elder, an ancestral offering made on the 8th day after the full moon, the commencement of the annual course of Vedic study, 3. and the death of a close relative;
4. and for 12 days after the death of one’s mother, father, or teacher.
5. At their death one should also bathe daily for the same period of time; 6. in addition, the mourners should shave themselves completely.
7. Some maintain that students who have returned home should not shave except when they are consecrated for a sacrifice.
8. A Brāhmaṇa, moreover, declares:
‘Empty and uncovered, indeed, is he who is shaven-headed; the topknot is his cover.’
9. At sacrificial sessions, on the other hand, the topknot is shaved because it is explicitly enjoined.
10. According to some, Vedic recitation is suspended for 3 days and nights after the death of one’s teacher.
11. It is suspended for 1 day upon receiving news of the death of a Vedic scholar within one year of his death, 12. but, according to some, only if he was a fellow student.
13-14. If he wishes to recite or teach or if he is actually engaged in reciting or teaching the Veda during the visit of a Vedic scholar, he may do so only after receiving his permission.
15-16. In the presence of his teacher, moreover, he may recite or teach the Veda only after the teacher has said: ‘Ho, recite!’ 17. Both when he intends to recite and when he has completed his recitation, he should clasp his teacher’s feet.
18. Likewise, when someone comes in during Vedic recitation, he may continue the recitation only after that person utters the same words.
19. Vedic recitation is suspended when dogs are barking, donkeys are braying, a wolf or a solitary jackal is howling, or an owl is hooting, and whenever the sound of music, weeping, singing, or Sāman chants is heard.
20. Likewise, when texts of another Vedic branch are being recited, the recitation of Sāman chants is suspended.
21. Vedic recitation is suspended also:
when there is any other noise that may blend with the recitation;
22. after vomiting until he has slept 23. or consumed some ghee;
24. when there is a foul smell;
25. and when he has indigestion.
26. He should not recite the Veda after the evening meal 27. or when his hands are wet.
28. After eating food presented during a rite for a newly deceased person, Vedic recitation is suspended for a full day and an evening, 29. or until the food is digested; 30. in addition, however, he should eat some food that has not been so offered.
11.
1. This provision applies also after eating food given by a motherless man on the day that a person starts a fresh Vedic book; 2. after eating the food given by a fatherless man on the day that he completes the recitation of a Vedic book; 3. and, according to some, after eating at a sacrifice for gods who were originally humans.
4. Vedic recitation is not suspended, however, after eating the following items given at such occasions: uncooked rice given the previous day and raw meat, 5. as well as roots and fruits of plants and trees.
6. On the day that he performs the ceremony for commencing the recitation of a Vedic book and on the day that he formally commences its recitation, he should not recite that book.
7. On the day he performs the ceremony for commencing or ending the recitation of an entire Veda, moreover, he should not recite that Veda.
8. Vedic recitation is suspended in a place where the wind howls, swirls up grass on the ground, or drives the rain; 9. at the boundary between a village and the wilderness; 10. and on a highway.
11. When a fellow student is away, collective recitation is suspended for that day.
12. During personal activities 13. such as washing the feet, massaging, and applying oil, 14. he should neither recite nor teach the Veda as long as he is so occupied.
15. Vedic recitation is suspended at dawn and dusk; 16. while sitting on a tree 17. or standing in water; 18. at night when the doors are open; 19. and during the day when the doors are shut.
20. During the spring and summer festivals the recitation of an entire Vedic chapter is forbidden, 21. as also the recitation of the daily Vedic lesson if it is performed without following the proper procedure.
22. This is its procedure:
23. he should go near the water before breakfast, purify himself, and, leaving out the chapter he has already finished, do his recitation at a clean spot aloud 24. or, if it is a time for suspending recitation, mentally.
25. They forbid mental recitation when there is unremitting lightning or thunder, when one is impure or has eaten food offered to a newly deceased person, and when there is frost;
26. some forbid it only when one has eaten at an ancestral offering.
27. When lightning, thunder, and rain occur together out of season, Vedic recitation is suspended for 3 days 28. or, according to some, until the ground becomes dry; 29. if only one or two of these occur, the suspension lasts until the same time the following day.
30. Any time there is a solar or lunar eclipse, an earth- quake, or a whirlwind, and any time a meteor falls or a fire erupts, the recitation of all sacred texts is suspended until the same time the following day.
31. When a cloud appears out of season, when a halo appears around the sun or the moon, when a rainbow, a parhelion, or a comet is seen, and when there is a wind, a foul smell, or frost––
- Vedic recitation is suspended for the duration of all these events, 32. and in the case of wind, for an ‘hour’ after it has ceased.
33. Vedic recitation is suspended until after he has slept when he hears a wolf or a solitary jackal howling, 34. and at night in the wilderness if there is no fire or gold.
35. A section of the Veda that has not been previously studied should not be recited outside the proper time 36. or in the evening. 37. What has already been studied may be recited at any time.
38. With respect to particulars not given here, one should follow the directives of legal assemblies.