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

VIII] PROFESSIONAL AND USEFUL EDUCATION 197 few centuries later, commercial classes did not feel it necessary to copy their example. By this time the caste system had become hereditary and the training in different trades and industries was usually imparted in the family itself by the elders. Where there were no elders in the family to train its children, they were usually attached as apprentices to some neighbouring trader or artisan. This apprenticeship system, which will be soon described, rendered any regular schools of the modern type unnecessary. TRAINING IN ARTS AND CRAFTS. **Introduction :—**We shall now consider the pro- blems connected with the training of students in arts and handicrafts like sculpture, artchitecture, painting, carpentry, smithy, agriculture, etc. Our sources of information are scanty, because neither Smṛitis, which have written about education, nor foreign pilgrims like Yuan Chwang and I-tsing who often throw consider- able light on educational conditions, were interested in the problems connected with the training in arts and handicrafts. Attitude towards Arts and Crafts : Early Period :— It will be convenient at the outset to consider the general attitude of society towards arts and crafts. In the early period they were held in high esteem. Agriculture was the general profession for the average Aryan. There are prayers both in the Ṛigveda and the Atharvaveda for success in various agricultural processes and operations. It was not therefore a profession held in low esteem as in later times. The carpenter was so impor- tant a member of the Vedic society that the chief of his guild was included among the twelve courtiers to whose houses the king had to repair in person for offering oblations at the time of his coronation. Ṛibhus,