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.