प्राचीन भारत में शिक्षा (डॉ. ए.एस. अल्तेकर - गुरुकुल एवं बौद्ध विहार शिक्षण इतिहास)

II] YAJÑOPAVĪTA, THE SACRED THREAD 295 or svādhyāya.¹ Yajñopavīta denoted the upper garment when it was worn in the proper manner prescribed for sacred occasions. Taittirīya Saṁhitā is explicit on the point; it says that Yajñopavīta means wearing the garment in a particular manner; when the garment is passed under the right and over the left shoulder, it becomes Yajñopavīta according to the authority of Brāhmaṇa works.² The same garment was called Prāchīnāvīta when it was worn exactly in the reverse way, and Nivīta when it was allowed to hang down like a garland. **Its prehistoric Form :—**The upper garment that was thus used was normally a piece of cloth. But in prehistoric times when the art of spinning and weaving was not known, it was a piece of deer-skin. Taittirīya Āraṇyaka states that it should be a piece of deer-skin, rather than a piece of cloth.³ In the course of time when clothes became common, the upper garment also became a cotton product, but earlier tradition of the deer-skin was in a way preserved by continuing the use of a small patch of deer-skin on such occasions. In later times when Yajñopavīta as a piece of cloth was replaced by Yajñopavīta in the form of the thread, this piece of deer-skin was strung into it. This custom still obtains at the time of Upanayana.

1. उत्तरं वासः कर्तव्यं पञ्चस्वेतेषु कर्मसु । स्वाध्यायोत्सर्गदानेषु भुक्ताचमनयोस्तथा ॥ Baudhāyana in SCS, p. 299.
2. वासो विन्यासविशेषो यज्ञोपवीतम् । दक्षिणं बाहुमुद्धरतेऽवधत्ते सव्यमिति यज्ञोपवीतमिति ब्राह्मणम् ।
3. अजिनं वासो वा दक्षिणत उपवीय । I. II.