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[Full title: Thai Studies (2): Brahmins in Thailand]

Though a predominantly Buddhist country now, Thailand has a good deal of Hinduism in it having once come deep under its influence. Religion in Thailand is a queer admixture of animism, Hinduism and Buddhism. Apart from the whole host of Hindu gods and goddesses whom the Thais revere, there is a regular community in it called Brahmin. Though intermarried and speaking only Thai, its members are distinguishable by the particular mode of dress and habits. It appears these people going by the name Brahmin had come long back from India and from there too from South India. Even today they sport a big tuft of hair in the style of South Indian Brahmins and wear Dhoti. Their dress consists of white buttoned up coat, white Dhoti and white canvas shoes. They have their own ritual, their own temples and their own festivals and customs. Even though in Thailand Buddhism is predominant, still the Royal Palace has a priest, a Rajaguru, or in his absense a Huana Phram, Chief of the Brahmins, who is one among the Brahmins. He occupies an important place in the royal palace and has a distinctive role to play in the Coronation ceremony and deciding about the dates of important occasions. The Rajaguru or the Royal Priest is picked up from among the Brahmins by the king. The Royal Secretariat gets into touch with the Brahmins who give their opinion to it in the matter. The few names that come up through this exercise are placed before the king by the In-Charge of the Royal Secretariat. The king picks up one of them and appoints him to the post. Each Brahmin gets

a stipend of Baht 1000 or U.S. dollars 50 per mensem from the King. The amount is too meagre to support a family-almost all the Brahmins have no option but to supplement their income by engaging themselves in other avocations apart from following their traditional vocation of priesthood. For initiating to Brahminhood there is no age limit. Anybody can be initiated a Brahmin any time. The bar is only with regard to taking part in a vidhi, rite. No Brahmin of less than 21 years can participate in it or for that matter conduct it. The vidhis or the rites which the Brahmins help perform are many. The following six, however, are more prominent: 1. The Annual Worship It is of two kinds: One called Triyampavay and the other Tripavay. The Triyampavay is connected with the worship of Isuan, Isvara (=Siva) and the Tripavay with that of Narai, Narayana (= Visnu). Triyampavay The Triyampavay has three stages: First to invoke Isvara to come to the earth. Second, to place the idol of the Lord in a swing with a mug in between the two pillars and make offerings of food like fried rice to Him, with the leftover to be distributed as prasada. Third, to bathe the idol by pouring on it lustral water and to invoke the Lord to sit on the Hamsa (swan) which is to take Him back to heaven . The Triyampavay is performed every year from Pausa 7 to Magha 5, the period approximating to December third week to February third week. On Pausa 6 all Brahmins perform the selfpurification ceremony which entitles them to take part in puja, worship. After this is performed the ceremony of Bhusuddhi, purification of the place (of worship) and the Bhutasuddhi, purification of the beings. After these ceremonies have been performed, the Brahmins take a vow to stay in temple, sleep on the floor and to eat strictly vegetarian food till the duration of

Brahmins in Thailand 17 the ceremony. It is in this duration itself that those wanting to become Brahmins are initiated into Brahminhood by the Rajaguru. After initiation they also have to take the above vows. From Pausa 7 to 10, the full moon night or roughly December 22 to 30 Ganesa, Uma and Siva are worshipped daily from 7 in the evening to about 12 in the midnight or sometimes to 2 or 3 in the early hours. The puja starts with the worship of Navagrahas, the nine planets. It is a belief with the Brahmins that Isvara visits the world once a year for ten days. During this period they have to perform Triyampavay to welcome Him. All gods on the occasion gather on the earth. According to some, Triyampavay is the new year festival of the Brahmins and a ceremony to invite Isvara. From all accounts the Triyampavay seems to have its South Indian origin. The very term Triyampavay is a Thai variant of the Tamil Tiruvempabai. In the Sukhothai period of Thailand's history the ceremony was performed under a different name of Naksatra. People during it would put on festive clothes and decorate their houses. The idol of Isvara was taken out in procession at night. So was that of Narayana. It has been said earlier that one of the stages of the Triyampavay consists of placing the idol of the Lord on the swing. Connected with the swing part there is a very interesting story. It is said that after Brahma had created the world he asked Isvara (=Siva) to protect it. Isvara thought, the earth was not strong enough to support the beings. To test its strength He just set one of His feet on it. He then asked the Nagas to shake the mountains at the ends of the oceans. The Nagas did it, but the earth did not go under. The Lord was pleased at this. The two pillars of the swing are supposed to be the two mountains. A mug put in between the two pillars is supposed to represent the ocean. Tripavay It is a ceremony, as pointed out earlier, connected with Narayana (=Visnu). Like Triyampavay it also has South Indian overtones, the word Tripavay being only a phonetic variant of

Tamil Tiruppavai, Brahmins believe that when Isvara had left, Narayana came along. It was His turn now to receive worship. On the 6 th of Magha Brahmins gather at the Narayana temple and offer worship to the deity. In the earlier period the Rajaguru in the course of the ceremony used to recite the Veda. The ceremony would conclude at the Vighnesvara temple. The current mode of the ceremony is that on Magha 5 evening nine monks start the worship of the Buddha. They continue with it even the following day. As they finish it, the Brahmins begin the tonsure of the young ones with their own hands. This is only symbolic. They just cut a few hair. The rest of them the barber shaves off. 2. The Ploughing Rite It is performed every year in the month of Vaisakha, the period between mid-April and mid-May. A definite date for this is decided every year by the Rajaguru with reference to the Almanac. The start to it is given by the Buddhist monks in front of the idol of the Emerald Buddha in Wat Phra Kaeo. The following day from 3 A.M. the Brahmin ceremony begins. Obeisance is first offered to Gauri, Dharani (the earth) and Ganga (the river Ganges). After that some quantity each of the different types of foodgrains is put together and is sprinkled with water. Interestingly enough, this part of the rite has a typically Sanskritic name Seka even in Thai. Next, at the auspicious moment the Brahmins carry the besprinkled foodgrains to the sprawling lawns of Sanam Luang near Wat Phra Kaeo (the Temple of the Emerald Buddha). At the appointed hour arrives there the king. For taking active part in the ceremony he deputes a dignitary as his nominee called Phaja Raikna in Thai. The nominee begins the ceremony with the worship of the bulls, the plough and the earth. He is duly helped in this by the Rajaguru. He then holds the ploughshare in his hand and moves forward. Ahead of him move the Brahmins. A few maids carrying some auspicious objects follow him. After the lawns have been ploughed the bulls are taken to a place where the following seven things are kept for them: wine, grass, black

Brahmins in Thailand 19 sesame seeds, water, corn, paddy and pulses. As is natural with them, the bulls seeing these things pounce upon them. Any thing which they start eating first gives an idea of the type of crop the country is likely to have. If the bulls take to water first, the belief is that there would be floods and the crop would be damaged. If the bulls take to grass or sesame seeds first, it is believed that crop would be moderate, neither too much, nor too little. If by chance the bulls take to wine, the belief is that drought conditions would prevail leading to unrest everywhere. After the announcement of the future position of the crop on the basis of the aforesaid indications the ceremony comes to an end. 3. Presenting an Elephant to the King If a white elephant or an elephant with auspicious marks is found anywhere in the kingdom of Thailand it has to be presented to the king, such an animal being deemed to belong to him as a matter of right. But before the formal presentation worship has to be offered to it by a Brahmin according to prescribed rites. 4. Royal ceremonies In all types of royal ceremonies Brahmins are inivited. They play a significant part particularly in the coronation ceremony. 5. Change of Dress of the Buddha Idol in the Temple of Emerald Buddha The dress of the emerald Buddha idol undergoes change thrice a year in keeping with the change in seasons. It is totally uncovered in summer, fully covered in winter and partially covered in the rainy season. The king himself changes the dress of the idol but the ceremony preceding it is conducted by the Brahmins. 6. Ceremonies connected with the General Public These are the ceremonies like the laying of the foundation stone of a building, house warming, marriage and so on. In marriage a Brahmin pours lustral water on the hands of both the C-0. 1 of. Satya Vrat Shastri Collection, New Delhi. Digitized by S 3 Foundation USA

bride and the bridegroom. Both of them wear floral diadems with strings hanging down. The Brahmin conducting the marriage ceremony ties a certain number of strings of one, with the same number of another. In this way is accomplished in Thailand the rite of the tying the skirts of the garments of the couple. The Buddhist monks are no doubt present at the marriage ceremony, but their role is restricted to doing recitations from the Buddhist sacred scriptures. It is the Brahmin whose role is pivotal in the marriage rite. The Brahmins have their own temples where they carry on with their worship and other rituals. One of them is in the city of Bangkok. Situated in its very heart it is called the Brahmin Temple. It is said to be as old as the city of Bangkok, having been built with the founding of the city some 200 years back. The very first shrine on entering that is that of Brahma. Behind that are three shrines with idols of Siva, Ganesa and Visnu, respectively. Earlier the temple had many more idols. These were later removed to the National Museum where they are kept now. The other Brahmin temple in Thailand is at Nakhon Si Thammarat, Sanskrit Nagara Sri Dharmaraja in the southern part. Older than the Bangkok temple, it too has a swing in its vicinity. As said earlier, South India had something to do with the Brahmin community in Thailand. The Brahmins are said to have come from there and landed first at places like Nakhon Si Thammarat, Phuttalung and so on. Tradition has it that the Nakhon Si Thammarat Brahmin temple was set up with the landing of the Brahmins there and consequently is the oldest in Thailand. Brahmins in Thailand, though helping in the ritual as they have come to understand it, have absolutely no knowledge of Sanskrit or the scriptures. Whatever texts they have are all in Thai script and are in highly corrupt Sanskrit or rather a semblance of it. Nominally they even have the Vedas or their portions with them which they recite in certain ceremonies. The family of the Rajaguru does not know as to when its ancestors came from India. CC-0. Prof. Satya Vrat Shastri Collection Nethe late Rajaguru also had no idea

Brahmins in Thailand 21 of it. What he could tell was that there used to be a diary with him which was all eaten up by ants but for a portion of its last page which carried this much of legend that his ancestors had come two thousand years back from Ramanagar in India. Now, it is difficult to say, which place this Ramanagar is. There are two places going by this name, one near Varanasi and the other near Bareilly. Since the members of the Rajaguru family and the other Brahmins retain conspicuously some of their South Indian characteristics, it is reasonable to presume Ramanagar to have been somewhere in South India. There is no place like this at present in South India. One of the South Indian cities Rameswaram, however, has an alternative name of Ramanagar. Whether Ramanagar of the Rajaguru diary is this Rameswaram or some other place is very difficult to say at the present state of our knowldege.