Vidyarambha (विद्यारम्भः)

Vidyarambha (Samskrit: विद्यारम्भः) also described as Aksharasvikarana, was performed, as the name suggests at the commencement of the primary education. Fifth year after birth is regarded as suitable for the beginning of the primary education. It is a rite to make the child familiar with the basics of learning or education or even the language. Introduction to the alphabet was the primary entry point to learning and Vidyarambha marked the first cognitive development stage in the child's life.

परिचयः ॥ Introduction

After marking the different developmental stages in a child's life we now come to the cognitive development stage. Vidyarambha marks the intellectual progress of a child. Dr. A. S. Altekar opines that Vidyāraṁbha is the earliest Saṁskāra in the students’s educative life but unlike the Upanayana, it does not go back to hoary antiquity. The authorities which prescribe and describe this ritual are much later to the Vedic and Itihasa times. We do not find any details of Vidyarambha mentioned in the Grhyasutras or Dharmasutras, which have so elaborately laid out the rituals for relatively smaller samksaras such as Nishkramana and Chaulam.