Position, Replacement and a Long Argument

The thread carries information by where it sits. Worn over the left shoulder and under the right arm it is upavita, the normal position for rites addressed to the gods. Hung round the neck like a garland it is nivita. Worn over the right shoulder and under the left arm it is prachinavita, and that is the position for rites addressed to the ancestors, including the offerings for the dead. A man performing a shraddha shifts the thread before he begins, and the shift is part of the rite rather than an adjustment of dress.

It is replaced whole rather than mended. The annual replacement takes place at Upakarma, known in the south as Avani Avittam, when the old thread is discarded and a new one put on with the recitation of the appropriate verses, and it is also replaced after a death in the family and on other occasions of impurity.

Who may receive it has been argued about for a very long time. The classical texts confine the upanayana to men of the three upper varnas, and passages in the ritual and legal literature have been read as evidence that women underwent it in some earlier period. Nineteenth and twentieth century reform movements, the Arya Samaj among them, conferred the thread across caste lines and on women; other communities hold to the older restriction; and both positions are held today by people who consider themselves Hindus in good standing.