प्राचीन भारत में शिक्षा (डॉ. ए.एस. अल्तेकर - गुरुकुल एवं बौद्ध विहार शिक्षण इतिहास)

162 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch. rising of the Vedic texts to one section of Brahmanas and their exposition to another. It had become humanly impossible to expect both the tasks to be done by the same individual. The Place of Exposition in Teaching : It is no doubt true that some Sūtra works like those on grammar and philosophy, which were committed to memory, are so cryptic as to be mostly unintelligible by themselves. They were written in that style merely to lighten the burden on the student's memory. Their teaching was accompanied by extensive lectures, some of which used to be later embodied in com- mentaries. The teaching of the important works on philosophy, logic and poetics was hardly possible without exhaustive discussions pertaining to the views expounded and controverted. In these discussions there was an unravelling of the subject matter, distinctions and contra-distinctions were drawn, and an effort was made to show the reasonableness of one's position and the errors of the opponent¹. The students of the various schools of orthodox and heterodox systems of religion and philosophy reading under Divākarasena used to listen to the exposition of their respective systems, deliberate on their natures, discuss their features, raise doubts on obscure themes, determine for themselves the main outlines and enter into discussion with the opponents². The same procedure must have been followed in other colleges of philosophy. Reasoning and analysis formed the crux of the method of study and teaching. The medium of instruction in higher studies was naturally

1. Mil. Pan. Vol. I, p. 46.
2. Harshacharit, Chap. VIII.