Dvija
Sign in to saveAlso known as Twice-born Hindu male
Dvija (Sanskrit: द्विज) means "twice-born". The concept is premised on the belief that a person is first born physically and at a later date is born for a second time spiritually, usually when he undergoes the rite of passage that initiates him into a school for Vedic studies. The term also refers to members of the three varnas in the traditional Hindu social system, or social classes — the Brahmins (priests and teachers), Kshatriyas (rulers and warriors ), and Vaishyas (farmers, herders and merchants) — whose samskara of the Upanayana initiation was regarded as a second or spiritual birth.
~6 min read
Article
7 sectionsContents
- The meaning of the two births
- Literature
- Implications
- See also
- Notes
- References
- External links
Dvija (Sanskrit: द्विज) means "twice-born". The concept is premised on the belief that a person is first born physically and at a later date is born for a second time spiritually, usually when he undergoes the rite of passage that initiates him into a school for Vedic studies. The term also refers to members of the three varnas in the traditional Hindu social system, or social classes — the Brahmins (priests and teachers), Kshatriyas (rulers and warriors ), and Vaishyas (farmers, herders and merchants) — whose samskara of the Upanayana initiation was regarded as a second or spiritual birth.
The word Dvija is neither found in any Vedas and Upanishads, nor is it found in any Vedanga literature such as the Shrauta-sutras or Grihya-sutras. The word scarcely appears in Dharmasutras literature. Increasing mentions of it appear in Dharmasastras text of mid to late 1st-millennium CE texts. The presence of the word Dvija is a marker that the text is likely a medieval era Indian text.