explain the concept of ashram syatem and discuss its socilogical importance
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The āśrama system is a religious prescription concerning the way a man should live his life, and is an important component of orthodox Hindu dharma. It divides the total life span of a man into four phases and prescribes different ways of life suitable for the different stages. The first phase is called Brahmacharya (the phase of celibacy). In this stage of life an individual has to devote himself to the acquisition of knowledge. He is to be admitted to Gurukul, the place of learning where he gains knowledge fit for his caste.
Having crossed this stage with a diploma from Gurukul, he enters another phase that is called Grahasthya Ashram (the phase of establishing household). In this phase one should devote oneself to various earthly duties such as marriage, propagation and looking after the disabled or the weaker members of the society. In addition, one has to raise material wealth needed for the worship of gods and ancestral spirits.
Then comes the third phase called Vanaprastha Ashram. In this stage, one is supposed to turn towards the meditation turning away slowly from almost all the worldly duties. This process culminates in Sanyas Ashram (the stage of a sage) when one has to abstain completely from all the worldly pleasures and comforts (including, crucially, the use of fire) in order to attain liberation (mokṣa).
The āśrama system is mainly discussed in two groups of texts. The earlier, prose dharmasūtras seem to present the different āśramas as different lifestyle options available to men. It is only in the later, verse dharmaśāstras that the āśrama system reaches what one might call its canonical form, where the different āśramas are arranged in a series one must pass through. Interestingly, the Law of Manu (one of the most important dharmaśāstras) argues that before one may pursue liberation in the final stage of one's life, one must have fulfilled the duties of the previous stages.
These texts describe it as very beneficial system because it prescribes duties suitable for various phases of physiological development of human body, it helps build a logical social order, it helps to develop a spotless personality, it consolidates the relationship between various elements of the society, it makes the life practical and finally it makes a man fit for the salvation.
Earlier scholarship on the āśrama system tended to focus on the way in which it was put into practice. Recent scholarship by Patrick Olivelle, however, has argued that the āśrama system is more a textual phenomenon than a social institution.