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

172 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch. commerce was in a primitive condition not requiring any account keeping. Primary education in the sense of the knowledge of the 3 R's was thus impossible. It is significant to note that early times knew of no ritual to mark its commencement.¹ **The Nature of preliminary Training :—**What the boys and girls were taught in their early school stage, was not how to read and write the Vedic Mantras (verses), but how to pronounce them properly. During this period they were trained to realise the difference between short and long vowels, study the varieties of accents and to master the rules about the conjunction and coalescence of vowels and consonants. At a slightly later stage they were enlightened about the changes that took place in original words when they were combined together in Vedic stanzas.² This was the nature of ‘primary education’ imparted to students in the Vedic period. Such education will appear to us in modern times as rather strange, but we should remember that students could, when equipped with it, successfully prosecute their Vedic studies, which then constituted the higher ·1. Appindix I. A. 2. Cf गुरुत्वं लघुता साम्यं ह्रस्वदीर्घप्लुतानि च । लोपागमावकाराश्च प्रकृतिर्विकृतिः क्रमः ॥ ४ ॥ स्वरितोदात्तनीचत्वं श्वासो नादोऽगमेव च । एतत्सर्वं तु विज्ञेयं छंदोभाषामधीयता ॥ ५ ॥ पदक्रमविशेषज्ञो वर्णक्रमविचक्षणः । स्वरमात्राविभागज्ञो गच्छेदाचार्यसंसदम् ॥ ६ ॥ Taittirīya Pratiśākhya, Chap. 24. The view of Sāyaṇa, that the last verse refers to the approach of the Vedic scholar to heaven is untenable. The student's departure to the preceptor's house, and not to heaven, is referred to in the verse.