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

12 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch. which students occasionally performed and the prayers which they regularly offered every day were calculated to emphasise upon their mind the fact that the student-life was a consecrated one and that its ideals could be realised only by those who did not swerve from the strict and narrow path of duty. Examples of national heroes and heroines like Hariśchandra, Bhīshma, Rāma, Lakshmaṇa, Hanumān, Sītā Sāvitrī and Draupadī, which were pro- minently placed before students, also served to mould their character in a powerful manner. Character was thus built up partly by the influence of direct injunctions, partly by the effect of continued discipline and partly by the glorification of national heroes, held in the highest reverence by society. Personality not Repressed: There is a general impression that Hindu educationalists suppressed persona- lity by prescribing a uniform course of education and enforcing it with an iron discipline. Such however was not the case. The caste system had not become hidebound down to c. 500 B.C. and till that time a free choice of profession or career was possible both in theory and practice. Later on when the system became rigid; the theory no doubt was that everybody should follow his hereditary profession, but the practice permitted consider- able freedom to enterprising individuals, as will be shown in the following chapter. It is wrong to conclude from some stray passages that the whole of the Brahmana community, if not the whole of the Aryan community, was compelled to devote twelve years to the task of memorising the Vedic texts.¹ Kshatriyas and Vaishyas never took seriously to the Vedic learning; only a section of the Brahmanas dedicated themselves to the Vedic studies, while the rest of the community learnt only ¹ E. g., Manu, III. 1; II. 168.