TheSamavartana (Sanskrit:समावर्तन,Samāvartana), also known asSnāna, is a rite of passage in the ancient texts ofHinduism. Performed at the close of theBrahmacharya period, it marks the graduation of a student fromGurukul (school).[1] It signifies a person's readiness to entergrihastashrama (householder, married life).
Samavartana, orSnana, is the ceremony associated with the end of formal education and theBrahmacharyaasrama of life. This rite of passage includes a ceremonial bath.[2] The ceremony marked the end of school, but did not imply immediate start of married life. Typically, significant time elapsed between exiting Brahmacharya and entering theGrihastha stage of life.[3]
Anyone who had completed this rite of passage was considered aVidya-snataka (literally, bathed in knowledge, or showered with learning), and symbolized as one who had crossed the ocean of learning.[4]
The ceremony was a gathering of students, teacher and guests. The student asked the teacher for any gift (guru-dakshina) he desired, which if specified was the student's responsibility to deliver over his lifetime.[5] Then, after a recitation by the teacher of a graduate'sdharma (snataka-dharma)[6] and a fire ritual, the graduate took a ceremonial bath. The ceremony occurred after completion of at least 12 years of school, that is at about age 21 or later.
TheTaittiriya Upanishad describes, in the eleventh anuvaka of Shiksha Valli, thesnataka-dharma recitation emphasized by the teacher to a graduate at this rite of passage.[7][8] The verses ask the graduate to take care of themselves and pursueDharma,Artha andKama to the best of their abilities. Parts of the verses in section 1.11.1, for example, state:[7]
Never err from Truth,
Never err from Dharma,
Never neglect your well-being,
Never neglect your health,
Never neglect your prosperity,
Never neglectSvādhyāya (study of oneself) andPravacana (exposition of Vedas).
The eleventh anuvaka ofShiksha Valli lists behavioral guidelines for the graduating students from agurukul:[9][10]
Be one to whom a mother is as god, be one to whom a father is as god,
Be one to whom anAcharya (spiritual guide, scholars you learn from) is as god,
Be one to whom a guest is as god.[9]
Let your actions be uncensurable, none else.
Those acts that you consider good when done to you, do those to others, none else.
The third section of the eleventh anuvaka lists charity and giving, with faith, sympathy, modesty and cheerfulness, as ethical precepts for the graduating students at theSamavartana rite of passage.[8]
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