Graduation ceremony

 

A traditional “Graduation Cap”

My Son graduated in his Masters (2023) had his graduation ceremony at Aachen, Germany in September 2024. He had done his Undergrad earlier and was in the class of 2020 and that being a COVID year, there was no such an event at Purdue University that year. 

We have had the privilege of watching the graduation ceremonies of our daughter, one from Christ university and later another from Azim Premji University as a part of her undergrad and masters study completion. 

The traditional tossing of the cap

Each of these, were a moment to cherish for them as they “Walked, wore the cap, tossed in tradition”. The ceremony at Premji university, however was more ethnic with a shawl and not a sash and without that famous head gear to toss.

Graduation ceremony at Azim Premji University with a shawl and without a cap

Rite of Passage

All cultures and societies have the “Rite of passage”. In hunting tribes, it could have been to hunt a lion or make their first independent kill or show some act to prove that they have learnt the skills to survive and more importantly, prove to the tribe that they are now “Adult” and can contribute to the tribe and the society. This was more true in the tribes where the “men hunted” and the “women cooked” (In these days of wokism, I’ll be roasted for this statement - but that was true at that point in time).

As man evolved and became more agrarian,  tribal knowledge had to be passed on both in terms of vocational knowledge and skills, it probably morphed beyond just hunting and a show of Machoism.

Later evolution of mankind meant thinking of beyond vocational knowledge and became more abstract (God, Philosophy, rule and administration of law, trade, commerce, warfare etc.) which meant that the knowledge being imparted was now “institutionalised” or the formation of a formal education system and a distinct phase of learning and studying in one's life. 

This lead to me think if there was some sort of an Indian tradition of “Graduation” in our schools which were called the Gurukulas and I was not surprised that it did exist in our tradition and culture too. A Google search revealed that we did have a tradition.

Gurukula tradition

A traditional Gurukula (PC Google)

It was called Samavartana (समावर्तन, Samāvartana), also known as Snāna, and is a "rite of passage" prescribed in the ancient texts performed at the close of the student life or the Bramhacharya period and marked the graduation of the student from Gurukul. It signifies a person's readiness to enter grihastashrama (householder, married life). 

Anyone who had completed this rite of passage was considered a “Vidya-snataka”. Meaning, bathed in knowledge, or showered with learning and symbolized as one who had completed his studies. 

A person studying beyond this “Undergrad” level would mean he would be pursuing his “Snatakottara” (beyond his snataka qualification). Even today, in Kannada we mention post graduation studies (Masters etc.) as "Snatakottara padavi".

The ceremony occurred after completion of at least 12 years of school (our 10+2 + graduation time today) that would roughly  be about age 19 or a bit later.

The ceremony was conducted with a gathering of students, teacher, parents and guests as it is done today in the universities. Some students would exhibit the talents and education that they received at the Gurukul to the assembled audience

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 (We have these narrations in the context of Mahabharatha). 

In these days of donation seat and upfront fees taken by the college and the universities, there can be no further dakshina beyond the fees paid upfront, I guess!

 This guru dakshina was followed by the teacher imparting graduate's dharma (snataka-dharma).  Taittirĩya Upanishad, a part of the Yajurveda prescribes this.

The snataka-dharma verses were recited and emphasized by the teacher to a graduate at this rite of passage. 

The verses ask the graduate to take care of themselves and pursue Dharma (Pursuit of righteousness), Artha (Pursuit of economic prosperity) and Kaama (Pursuits of worldly pleasures) to the best of their abilities. Parts of the verses for example, state. 

Speak the truth

Do your duty

Never swerve from the study of Vedas 

Do not cut off the line of descendants in your family

After giving the desired gurudakshina to the guru,

Never err from truth, never fail performing  your duty, never overlook your own welfare, never neglect prosperity, never neglect to continue studying and the propagation of the vedas. 

It has many other such verses which some of us know. Example:

Maathru devobhava

Pitru devobhava

Aachaarya devobhava

Athithi devobhava 

Click here to listen to a part of the chants

Isn’t this a wonderful tradition and this “Graduation speech” was also noble in its instructions to talk about the way of life at the end of a formal education?

We see now on YouTube, WhatsApp & such social media about graduation speeches given by the guests at the ceremony, wherein these guests extol about the way one needs to move ahead. Very similar isn’t it?

I learnt something out of this exercise of understanding the “Graduation ceremony” of our days that dates back to the evolution of mankind and society. The structured education system, which evolved from tribal knowledge to institutionalised knowledge is a continued tradition of “Rites of passage” to celebrate the completion of formal education and the readiness to join the society and contribute as an individual member of this society that we live in. 

While I enjoyed these Graduation ceremonies of my daughter and my son, I realised that they have now moved on to the next phase of life and felt immensely proud of their achievement in completing their formal education. 

To end, I would like to quote the importance of knowledge and education ..

विद्या ददाति विनयं विनयाद् याति पात्रताम् ।

पात्रत्वात् धनमाप्नोति धनात् धर्मं ततः सुखम् ॥

vidyā dadāti vinayaṃ vinayād yāti pātratām .

pātratvāt dhanamāpnoti dhanāt dharmaṃ tataḥ sukham ..

⁃ Hitopadesha by Narayana Pandita.

Knowledge makes one humble, 

humility begets worthiness, 

worthiness creates wealth and enrichment, enrichment leads to right conduct, 

right conduct brings contentment.