Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

Education in Ancient India c14.s4: Section D. Samāvartana or Convocation Ritual

Education in Ancient India c14.s4

Language
English

Section D. Samāvartana or Convocation Ritual

c14.s4.2

¹ Samāvartana literally means ‘returning’; it refers to the return of the student to his home after finishing the course at the teacher’s home.

c14.s4.3

Who were eligible? Samāvartana or Snāna² ceremony was performed at the end of the Brahmacarya period to mark the termination of the education course³. When however in the course of time, the original nature and purport of the ritual were forgotten and the Upanayana began to be regarded as an obligatory and bodily Saṃskāra, this ritual also came to be performed in all cases, irrespective of the consideration as to whether any educational course was followed by the youth or not. In early times it was performed when the education of the youth was over; marriage usually followed, but by no means immediately. In later times the ritual came to be performed as a kind of necessary formality just before the marriage, when it was settled.⁴ (VMS. p. 575)

c14.s4.4

² This term refers to the bath given to the student on the occasion.

c14.s4.5

³ Some held that it should not be performed in the case of those who were not able to interpret the Vedic texts committed to memory by them; Cf. अन्यो वेदपाठी । न तस्य ज्ञानम् । M. Gr. S., I. 2. 8.

c14.s4.6

⁴ In northern India, the custom was introduced to perform it immediately after Upanayana.

c14.s4.7

This of course was not the original idea. The ritual was intended to correspond in a very great degree to the modern convocation function. Only those who have passed their examination are at present admitted to the convocation; only those who had finished their education were in the beginning honoured with the privilege of Samāvartana. Our authorities prescribe no definite age for this ritual. The duration of the student-life varied with different courses and students, as has been already shown in Chapter IV; and so no fixed age could be prescribed for this ritual.

c14.s4.8

An interesting Preliminary: Samāvartana ceremony is as simple as it is significant. An auspicious day was selected and the student was required to shut himself up in a room throughout the morning. This appears to be a queer procedure, but it was due to the desire to save the sun the humiliation of being confronted with a superior lustre. The belief was that the sun can shine only with the lustre he borrows from the Snātakas (graduates), who have completed their education¹. What better compliment can be conceived for edudation?

c14.s4.9

¹ Cf. एतदहःस्नातानां ह वा एष एतत्तेजसा तपति तस्मादेनमेतदहर्नाभितपेत् । Bh. G. S., II. 1. 8.

c14.s4.10

The Procedure. The student came out of his room at the midday, cleansed his mouth and shaved his head and beard. He then relinquished his girdle (mekhalā), deer-skin (ajina) etc., which were the insignia of the student's order. The period of strict discipline was now over and the teacher himself, who had sternly refused him the use of a number of luxuries, now came forward to offer them to him. He himself gave him a bath in fragrant water. It was followed by an offer of new clothes. Ornaments, garland, collyrium, turban, umbrella and shoes, the use of which was taboo to him in the Brahmacharya period, were now to be formally and officially offered to him by his teacher with the recitation of proper Mantras. It was expected that the guardians, who were well off, would furnish a double set of the above articles, one for the teacher and the other for the ward.¹ A Homa followed and the hope was expressed that the young graduate would get plenty of students to teach.² The teacher then offered him Madhuparka,³ an honour reserved for the very select few like the king, Guru, and son-in-law.

c14.s4.11

¹ Āś. Gr. S. III, 8.

c14.s4.12

² Bau. Gr. S., II, 6.

c14.s4.13

³ Madhuparka denotes an offering of ghee, honey, etc. presented by the householder to a respectable guest on his arrival home.

c14.s4.14

Presentation to the Assembly : Dressed in his new dress, the student would proceed to the assembly of the learned men of the locality in a chariot or on an elephant.⁴ He was there formally introduced as a competent scholar by his teacher. Returning home he would bid farewell to his teacher after paying him such honorarium (gurudakshiṇā) as he could afford. A critical survey of the Samāvartana ritual will show how high was the respect in which scholars who had completed their education were held by society. One authority asserts that they were the greatest force in society.⁵

c14.s4.15

⁴ Dr. Gr. S., III, 1, 26; Āp. Gr. S. I, 11, 5.

c14.s4.16

⁵ Cf. महद्वै एतद् भूतं यः स्नातकः ।

Linked texts (6)