Yagyopaveet Samskara administered to young girls
These young girls now entitled to learn Vedas, Karmakanda
VARANASI: Little girls all clad in yellow were chanting the Gayatri Mantra and other Vedic hymns, and performing havan to get inducted in vedic learning at Panini Kanya Mahavidyalaya, a 50-year-old Gurukul ‘only for girls’ in Tulsipur area in the temple town Varanasi.
“The ‘Yagyopaveet Samskara’ (sacred thread ceremony) of 30 young girls were performed today, and now they are entitled to learn vedas and other religious texts,” said Acharya Nandita Shastri Chaturvedi, the head of the college, who administered the girls for vedic learning after the prescribed rituals. This institution only of its kind in the city performs Yagyopaveet Samsara of 25-30 young girls annually to open the doors of vedic learning for them.
This institution not only imparts knowledge of Panini’s Astadhyayi, Sanskrit, Vedas and vedangas, karmakanda along with Indian philosophy and science, but also trains them in traditional warfare for self defecnce without any caste discrimination. After graduating from this college these girls independently opt for vedic karmakanda and other religious activities challenging the laws of Manusmriti.
The students of Panini Kanya Mahavidyalaya are invited by local residents as well as outsiders to perform religious rituals at their homes or functions, as the way they perform rituals is highly appreciating. They perform all the ‘karmakand’ (16 samskaras right from birth to death) in a very methodological way.
(All pics and video by Sanjay Gupta)
