Dvivedi

By Swami Harshananda

Dvivedi literally means ‘one who has studied two Vedas’.

It started as the academic title of a person who has studied two Vedas, it gradually became the family title of persons born as his descendants. Similarly the evolution of the two other titles trivedī and caturvedī, for those who are the scions of the persons who had mastered three or four Vedas. Study of one Veda was the minimum expected of every dvija or the twice-born.

References

• The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore