Pupil's Return

Twelve days to a month after comes the samavartan or pupil's return. On a lucky day the boy is bathed and an earthen altar or sthandil is raised in the booth. in front of the altar are set two low wooden stools. Near the stools are laid shami or Mimosa suma leaves, a razor, rice, wheat, sesamum,and pulse, curds, and bullock's dung. The priest kindles a sacred fire and feeds it with butter. The boy sits on one of the stools and his parents stand behind him with two cups in their hands, one with cold water the other with hot water. The priest holds a metal plate at a little distance from the boy's head, and the boy's father, with a cup in each hand, presses the boy's head with the middle part of both his hands and pours the water from the two cups in one spout into the plate held by the priest without letting a drop of water fall on the boy's head. The priest pours curds into the plate, and the father, taking some curds in the four fingers of his right, hand, rubs them in a line on the boy's head.

He begins from the boy's left ear, then goes to his left cheek down to the chin, then across the right cheek and ear, and then passes behind the head to the left ear where he began. This he repeats three times. Then the priest holds in both hands blades of sacred grass with some hairs of the boy's topknot and the father sheers them into two with a razor and gives them into the boy's hands. The priest drops a pinch of sesamum, wheat, rice, udid, and shami leaves over the cut hair in the boy's hands, and the boy gives the whole into his mother's hands who throws it in the bullock's dung. This is repeated seven times, four times beginning with the right ear and three times beginning with the left ear. Then, as if to sharpen the razor, its edge is touched with a blade of sacred gmss and the razor is made over to the barber with the water from the plate. The barber shaves the boy's head, and passes the razor over his cheeks and chin, and is presented with a new handkerchief. The sesamum seed, wheat, and rice, and about 1s. (8 as.) in cash are given to the Brahman priest.

Karanj Pongamia glabra seeds are ground and rubbed on the boy's body, and he is bathed and seated on a low stool near the sacred fire. Sandal paste and redpowder are rubbed on his brow, redpowder on his right cheek, and lampblack on his left cheek and on both his eyes. He is dressed in a waistcloth and two sacred threads are thrown round his shoulders in addition to the thread he already has on. The deer skin loincloth, the palas staff, the munj' grass rope and the old sacred thread are taken off, and he is dressed in a coat, shoes, and turban; flower garlands are hung from his head and round his neck, an umbrella is placed in his left hand, and a bamboo stick in his right. A waistcloth is thrown over his shoulders and the priest advises him never to bathe in the evening, never to look at naked women, to commit no adultery, never to run, never to climb a tree, never to go into a well, never to swim in a river. He ends, " Up to this time you have been a Brahmachari, now you are a snatak or householder. The boy bows before the priest and the priest blesses him. A cocoanut is placed in the boy's hand and he bows before the house gods and before his parents and elders. The boy then ties wheat flour and sweetmeats in a waistcloth or pancha, and starts for Benares accompanied by relations, friends, and music. He goes to a temple and lays the cocoanut before the god. The priest or the boy's maternal uncle or some other relation asks him where he is going; he says, To Benares. They advise him not to go to Benares and promise that if he will go home they will find him a wife. He takes their advice, goes home, and the thread-girding ends with a feast.