The Sixteen Saṃskāras

Most Hindus never study the Gṛhya Sūtras, yet almost every Hindu has lived through their rites. Someone chose your name with care; someone fed you your first rice; someone, one day, will light a lamp for you after you are gone. These moments are the saṃskāras — the rites that take a human life, stage by stage, and make it holy.

What “saṃskāra” means

The word comes from sam- “together, well” and kṛ “to make”: a saṃskāra is a “making well” — a refining, a finishing, as a craftsman polishes a gem or a cook prepares food. Ritual writers of the Mīmāṃsā school define it as that which makes a person or thing fit for some purpose. A saṃskāra, in this sense, prepares a person for the next stage of life and its duties.

The same word has a second meaning in philosophy and yoga: a mental impression, the trace that experience leaves in the mind and that shapes how we act next (see Yoga as Philosophy). The two senses are related. A rite is meant to leave a good impression — on the child, the family and the community — so that a turning point is not merely lived through but marked. On this page, “saṃskāra” always means the rite unless we say otherwise.

Twelve, sixteen or forty?

The rites are set out in the Gṛhya Sūtras — the manuals of the household fire attached to each Vedic school, such as those of Āśvalāyana, Pāraskara and Āpastamba — and later in the Dharmaśāstras and their digests. No two texts give quite the same list. The Gṛhya Sūtras describe a dozen or so domestic rites in detail; the Gautama Dharmasūtra (chapter 8) counts forty, including the great Vedic sacrifices, and then adds that eight virtues of the soul matter more than all of them. The number sixteen (ṣoḍaśa saṃskāra) became standard in later texts and in modern manuals, but even “the sixteen” vary from book to book. Modern reading The Ārya Samāj founder Dayānanda Sarasvatī, in his nineteenth-century Saṃskāra-vidhi, gave his own sixteen, including retirement and renunciation.

What follows is the list most often cited today. Tap each rite to see what it is and how it is kept now:

The sixteen, from conception to death

Seeker’s synthesis A commonly cited sixteen, in life order; other lists differ.

• 1गर्भाधानConceptionGarbhādhāna: prayers for a child at the couple’s union. Today rarely kept as a rite; many simply pray for a healthy child.
• 2पुंसवनQuickeningPuṃsavana, in the third month of pregnancy. Classically a prayer for a son — a preference many families now consciously set aside. Seldom kept separately.
• 3सीमन्तHair-partingSīmantonnayana: the husband parts the mother’s hair, praying for her safety. Survives in South Indian baby showers — Tamil vaḷaikāppu, when bangles are put on the mother-to-be.
• 4जातकर्मBirthJātakarma: the newborn is welcomed with prayers and a touch of honey and ghee. Today often a simple prayer, and noting the exact time of birth for the horoscope.
• 5नामकरणNamingNāmakaraṇa, usually on the 11th, 12th or 16th day, or later. Still very widely kept.
• 6निष्क्रमणFirst outingNiṣkramaṇa: the baby is taken out to see the sun, and often to the temple for the first time.
• 7अन्नप्राशनFirst foodAnnaprāśana, around the sixth month: the first solid food, usually sweet rice. Widely kept.
• 8चूडाकरणFirst haircutCūḍākaraṇa, in the first or third year. Kept by many families, often as a temple vow.
• 9कर्णवेधEar-piercingKarṇavedha: for girls and, in many South Indian families, boys too. Widely kept.
• 10विद्यारम्भFirst lettersVidyārambha: the child writes its first letters, often on Vijayadaśamī. Popular again today.
• 11उपनयनSacred threadUpanayana: initiation into Vedic study. Kept in Brahmin and some other families.
• 12वेदारम्भVeda begunVedārambha: the first formal Veda lesson. Now usually folded into upanayana.
• 13केशान्तFirst shaveKeśānta or godāna: the young man’s first shave. Almost never kept as a separate rite today.
• 14समावर्तनGraduationSamāvartana: the student’s ritual bath and return home. Today sometimes performed just before the wedding.
• 15विवाहMarriageVivāha: the central rite of the householder’s life. Universally kept, in endless regional forms.
• 16अन्त्येष्टिLast ritesAntyeṣṭi: the “last offering,” the funeral. Kept by almost every family.

Notice how many fall in the first years of life, when infant death was common and every month a child survived was worth a prayer. Notice, too, that the middle of the list is about learning — the rites mark a person’s growth in knowledge as much as in body.

Birth and naming

The nāmakaraṇa is the rite most families still keep, even those who keep nothing else. Classical texts give rules — an even number of syllables for a boy, a pleasant, easily spoken name for a girl — and many families choose a first syllable linked to the baby’s birth-star (nakṣatra), read from the horoscope. The father, or an elder, whispers the name into the baby’s right ear; then it is announced to the family.

Community practice In many Tamil families in India and Malaysia, the naming comes with the cradle ceremony (தொட்டில் toṭṭil): the baby is laid in a new cradle, the name is said three times, and relatives take turns to rock it. A first son is often named after a grandfather, and many children carry a family deity’s name — Murugan, Meenakshi, Muniandy — as a lifelong prayer. Tamil Malaysians usually take the father’s name rather than a surname: Kavitha a/p Murugan, “daughter of Murugan.”

First food, first haircut, ear-piercing

Annaprāśana, the first solid food, comes around the sixth month. A little rice cooked with milk and jaggery is offered to the family deity and then touched to the baby’s lips — often by the maternal uncle or grandfather. Some families lay out a book, a pen, gold and food in front of the child and watch, with much laughter, what the baby grabs first. Community practice In Kerala this is the cōṟūṇu, and many families travel to the Guruvayur temple for it.

Cūḍākaraṇa, the first haircut, removes the hair the baby was born with. The texts set it in the first or third year and prescribe a tuft (śikhā) left on the crown, according to family custom. Community practice For Tamil Hindus this is the மொட்டை moṭṭai, the shaven head, usually offered at a temple in fulfilment of a vow — at Palani, Tirupati or Samayapuram in India, at Batu Caves or the family’s own kula-deivam temple in Malaysia. The child’s head is smeared with cooling sandal paste afterwards; the hair is offered to the deity.

Karṇavedha, ear-piercing, is often done on the same day. Community practice In the Tamil காது குத்து kātu kuttu, the child sits on the lap of the tāy māmaṉ, the mother’s brother, whose gifts and blessing mark his special bond with his sister’s children. Boys as well as girls have their ears pierced in many South Indian families. A big kātu kuttu can be almost as grand as a wedding, with a feast for the whole clan.

Upanayana

The sacred-thread ceremony, upanayana, made the student “twice-born” and began his Vedic study; at its heart he receives the Gāyatrī mantra. It is described on The Four Stages of Life and The Four Vedas. Today it is kept mainly by Brahmin families and some others, often in a single morning rather than the classical years of study.

Vivāha — a Hindu wedding

Marriage is the saṃskāra on which the householder’s whole life rests. Weddings differ enormously by region, community and family — a Tamil Brahmin wedding, a Chettiar wedding and a Punjabi wedding share a core but look very different. Here is the classical core, step by step:

1. Welcome and vows of intentThe groom is received by the bride’s family; Gaṇeśa is worshipped first so that nothing obstructs the day; a saṅkalpa states what is being done, where and when.
2. KanyādānaThe “gift of the maiden”: the bride’s father, often with her mother, places her hand in the groom’s and pours water to seal the gift. Many couples now reinterpret or rename this step.
3. Pāṇigrahaṇa“Taking the hand”: the groom takes the bride’s hand with a Rig Vedic verse (below).
4. Offerings into the fireAgni, the fire, is the witness. The couple make offerings together; in some rites the bride steps on a stone — to be steady as a rock — and the couple circle the fire.
5. SaptapadīThe seven steps, taken together by the fire, each with a blessing — for food, strength, wealth, happiness, children, the seasons and lifelong friendship. In Hindu law, the marriage is complete with the seventh step.
6. BlessingsThe couple may be shown the pole star and the star Arundhatī, the faithful wife of the sage Vasiṣṭha, as models of constancy; elders shower them with rice and flowers.

The marriage hymn, Ṛg Veda 10.85, tells of the wedding of Sūryā, daughter of the Sun, and is still the source of many wedding mantras (see The Four Vedas).

Antyeṣṭi — the last rites

The last saṃskāra is the “final offering”: the body itself, given to the fire. The rites are meant both to send the departed safely onward and to carry the family through grief. The Gītā’s image is the one most often recalled at a Hindu funeral:

In outline — and every family and community differs:

• Cremation, usually within a day. The body is bathed, dressed and laid with its head to the south. The chief mourner — traditionally the eldest son — circles the pyre and lights it. Infants, and saṃnyāsins who have already “died” to the world, are usually buried, and some communities bury all their dead.
• The days of impurity (āśauca), usually ten to thirteen days, when the family stays home from temples and festivals and offers daily rice balls (piṇḍa) that, in the traditional understanding, build the departed a new subtle body for the journey.
• The closing rite on the 13th day in much of India, or the 16th day in many Tamil families, ending formal mourning with a feast and gifts.
• Śrāddha, the annual rite on the lunar anniversary of death, and tarpaṇa, offerings of water and sesame to the ancestors, especially on new-moon days.

Community practice In Malaysia, most Hindu funerals begin at the family home, with the body laid out, a lamp at its head and relatives singing tēvāram or reciting prayers through the night. Cremation is now usually at a municipal or temple crematorium. In many Tamil families the son carries a clay pot of water around the body, pierced so that it trickles, and breaks it — a sign that the bond of this life is released. Ashes are often cast into the sea or a river. The karumāti on the 16th day ends formal mourning; many families do not celebrate Deepavali or other festivals in the year that follows, and visitors bring no sweets. Customs about whether women go to the crematorium vary from family to family. Āṭi and Tai Amāvāsai, the new moons of those Tamil months, draw many to the seashore to offer tarpaṇam. If you are going to a funeral and are unsure what to do, simply come in quiet, plain clothes (white is common) and follow the family’s lead.

Who received which rites

The classical texts were written for families of the three “twice-born” varṇas, and they say plainly that the rites were not the same for everyone. Upanayana and the Vedic study that followed were for boys of those varṇas; Śūdras and, by the time of the law books, women were excluded. The Manusmṛti says that for girls the childhood rites are done without Vedic mantras, and that marriage takes the place of upanayana for a woman. Some earlier texts recall women who studied the Veda, and modern movements such as the Ārya Samāj have given the thread ceremony to girls and to families of every caste. These exclusions are discussed on Varna & Jati. In practice, the rites most Hindus keep today — naming, first food, mottai, kātu kuttu, wedding, funeral — are kept by families of every community, in their own way.

Check what you’ve learned:

Questions people often ask

Key terms on this page

Sources & further reading

• Rajbali Pandey, Hindu Saṃskāras: Socio-Religious Study of the Hindu Sacraments (2nd ed., Motilal Banarsidass, 1969).
• P. V. Kane, History of Dharmaśāstra, vol. II (Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute) — the saṃskāras in detail.
• Hermann Oldenberg (trans.), The Gṛihya-Sūtras, Sacred Books of the East 29–30 (Oxford, 1886–1892).
• Patrick Olivelle (trans.), Dharmasūtras: The Law Codes of Ancient India (Oxford World’s Classics, 1999) — Gautama ch. 8 on the forty saṃskāras.
• Ṛg Veda 10.85 — Stephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton, The Rigveda: The Earliest Religious Poetry of India (Oxford University Press, 2014).
• Axel Michaels, Hinduism: Past and Present (Princeton University Press, 2004) — on the life-cycle rites as practised.