Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c12.41

c12.41

The term *Upanayana* (from *upa* + *nī*) literally means the introduction of the pupil, but it is not the introduction of the pupil to the teacher by his father or any other relation. The texts imply that it is the introduction of the pupil to *brahmacharya* by the teacher himself. The pupil enters upon (*upaiti*) *brahmacharya* or enters with the teacher and he who has thus entered upon studentship is designated *upeta* [*Śāṅkhā.* iv. 8, 1; Pāraskara, iii, 10, 10]. In this sense, the word *Upāyana* is sometimes used for the more usual term Upanayana [*Smṛiti-Chandrikā*, pp. 67, 68]. This sense is anticipated, as we have seen, in the *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa* where [xi, 5, 3, 13] Śaucheya says to Uddālaka Āruṇi: "I will enter as a student with the reverend one (*upāyāmi bhagavantam*)." Āruṇi replies: "Come, enter (with me) (*ehyupehi*)," and "he initiated him" (*taṁ hopaninye*). In another passage [xi, 5, 4, 16], it is stated that, according to some, a teacher who has initiated a Brāhmaṇa as a student (*brāhmaṇaṁ brahmacharyaṁ upanīya*) should abstain from sexual intercourse, because a student who enters upon *brahmacharya* becomes as it were a *garbha* [*SBE.*, xxix, p. 58].