Sanscara, or Sanskara

Sanscara, Or Sanskara (Sanscrit, completing),The name of one of the ten essential rites or ceremonies of the Hindus of the first three castes. They are the ceremonies to be performed before and at the birth of a child; of naming the child on the tenth, eleventh, or one hundred first day; of carrying the child out to see the moon on the third lunar day of the third light fortnight, or to see the sun in the third or fourth month; of feeding him in the sixth or eighth month (or at other stated periods); the ceremony of the tonsure in the second or third year; of investiture with the string in the fifth, eighth, or sixteenth year, when he is handed to a guru to become a religious student; and the ceremony of marriage, after he has completed his studies and is fit to perform the sacrifices ordained by the sacred writings.