Convocation: Legacy Of An Oxbridge Term

Are we inflicting an alien concept on ourselves by calling our graduation ceremonies as ‘convocations’? For, the word has a variety of connotations.  Can’t we use a more accurate term for them from any of the Indian languages? 

Of late, I have been invited to several convocation ceremonies.  At the risk of annoying those who might invite me to convocation ceremonies in the future, I dislike the term.  Etymologically, convocation means a gathering or assembly and is not a term used only for academia. When used for academia, a convocation is a decision-making process followed in a university.

It doesn’t necessarily mean a graduation ceremony where students who have passed out obtain degrees. However, through much of South Asia, and India is no exception, we have adopted the equation of graduation ceremonies with convocations and regardless of climate, we have ghastly sights of students and faculty wandering around in robes/gowns, hoods and caps.

(In passing, should institutions that aren’t universities or deemed universities have convocations?) Sure, it is a free country and we can do what we want.  But since all such stuff ultimately originates in the Oxbridge, shouldn’t there be some norms for academic attire?  For instance, I do generally find black robes for graduates (under-graduates who have passed out), red robes for heads of institutions and crimson/purple robes for chancellors/chief guests.

But for everything else (other students, faculty) it seems to be a multi-coloured free-for-all.  There is also confusion about the order of academic procession.  Don’t get me wrong.  The older universities do possess norms for attire and order and scrupulously follow them.  But not all higher educational institutions do.

 This is a question that has been asked by others too.  Why must we inflict an alien concept on ourselves?  At a recent convocation, I asked a graduating student what would be an appropriate term for convocation in any Indian language?  I was fishing for समावर्तन (samavartana), but drew a blank.  I asked her friend, now that he had become a graduate, what would he be called in any Indian language?  

Somewhat unexpectedly, I got स्नातक (snataka).  Probing what snataka means would have been pointless.  The two words, samavartana and snataka, have slightly different etymological and operational significance.

Samavartana simply means returning from the household of the guru or preceptor.  Having completed the brahmacharya stage, the student returns, satisfies the guru that he/she has indeed passed the threshold level of learning, pays the guru dakshina, and moves on to the next stage of life, which may also be a continuation of a life of studying and brahmacharya.  

Snataka is based on the ritual bath (snana) after studies are complete.  The sacred texts have discussions on whether samavartana and snana are the same or not.  If they are different, they explain how they are different. In other words, the sacred texts don’t always agree and I don’t want to get into those details.  Among others, P. V. Kane’s “History of the Dharmashastras” has an excellent discussion.

Samavartana is one of the samskaras (संस्कार). Samskara is often translated as sacrament, or rite of passage.  I guess sacrament is fine, I don’t quite like rite of passage.  That misses out on a sense of purification that samskaras have, required for transiting from one stage of life to another, stage defined both physically and mentally.

The listing (and names) of samskaras varies, but 16 is the most commonly cited number and samavartana figures in the list of sixteen.  Often, when they are observed, samskaras are observed mechanically, as rituals, without comprehending the rationale.  That’s a pity.  Not only have we forgotten the rationale behind something like samavartana, we don’t fully comprehend the rationale behind something like a convocation ceremony.  That’s a double tragedy.