Education in Ancient India c14.s3.5

c14.s3.5

Upakarma or Sravani; its Significance :—The statement that Śrāvaṇī denotes a ritual performed at the beginning of the college session may appear fanciful to the modern Hindu, who is accustomed to associate it with the annual replacement of the sacred thread, but there is ample and clear evidence to justify it. Our authorities declare that the ritual was to be performed only by the teacher along with his students when they had reassembled at the beginning of the session¹. It was believed that the presiding teacher would get in the course of time as many students as was the number of sesasums offered as oblations in this ritual²; some texts lay down special formulas to be performed by teachers ambitious to have a large number of scholars¹. In some places there was the custom requiring the teacher to give a feast to his students on the day of Śrāvaṇī². It would thus be clear that the ritual of Śrāvaṇī was originally confined only to teachers and students and was performed on the opening day of the annual session.