Samavartanam

The Samavartana (Sanskrit: समावर्तन, Samāvartana), also known as Snāna, is a rite of passage in the ancient texts of Hinduism performed at the close of the Brahmacharya period and marked the graduation of the student from Gurukul (school). It signifies a person's readiness to enter grihastashrama (householder, married life).

Description

Samavartana or Snana, is the ceremony associated with the end of formal education and the Brahmacharya asrama of life. This rite of passage includes a ceremonial bath. This ceremony marked the end of school, but did not imply immediate start of married life. Typically, significant time elapsed between exiting the Brahmacharya stage of life and the entering of Grihastha stage of life.

Anyone who had complete this rite of passage was considered a Vidya-snataka (literally, bathed in knowledge, or showered with learning), and symbolized as one who had crossed the ocean of learning.

Ceremony

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. Then, after a recitation by the teacher of a graduate's dharma (snataka-dharma) and a fire ritual, the graduate took a ceremonial bath. The ceremony occurred after completion of at least 12 years of school, that is either about age 21 or later.