प्राचीन भारत में शिक्षा (डॉ. ए.एस. अल्तेकर - गुरुकुल एवं बौद्ध विहार शिक्षण इतिहास)

I, D] SAMĀVARTANA RITUAL 287 The procedure was more or less the same as that on the opening day. Respectful homage was once more paid to the Vedic deities, mental and intellectual powers and the literary giants of the past before the students dispersed home from their schools or colleges. SECTION D. SAMĀVARTANA¹ OR CONVOCATION RITUAL Who were eligible? Samāvartana or Snāna² ceremony was performed at the end of the Brahma- charya period to mark the termination of the education course³. When however in the course of time, the origi- nal nature and purport of the ritual were forgotten and the Upanayana began to be regarded as an obligatory and bodily Sanskāra, 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)

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.
2. This term refers to the bath given to the student on the occasion.
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.
4. In northern India, the custom was introduced to perform it immediately after Upanayana.