Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c12.27

c12.27

**Vidyārambha.** The pupil's first introduction to education was made by his performance of a ceremony called *Vidyārambha* (also called *Akshara-svīkaraṇam*) at which he was to commence the learning of the alphabets for the first time. The ceremony was to be performed when the child attained his fifth year (*prāpte tu pañchame varshe*) and was open to children of all the castes. It consisted in the child offering worship to the deities (1) Hari, (2) Lakshmī, and (3) Sarasvatī (the goddess of learning), and also to (1) the *Vidyā* cultivated by his family, or ancestral learning (*sva-vidyā*), (2) the *Sūtra-kāras* of that particular *Vidyā* or subject, the sages who have promulgated that learning and in particular (3) the *Vidyā* or subject of his choice [*Smṛiti-Chandrikā*, Mysore ed., pp. 66–67].