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

I] THE CONCEPTION AND IDEALS OF EDUCATION 17 hereditary families naturally heightened the efficiency of trades and professions, and thus contributed to social efflciency. By thus promoting the progress of the different branches of knowledge, arts and professions, and by emphasising civic duties and responsibilities on the mind of the rising generation, the educational system contributed materially to the general efficiency and happiness of society. Preservation and Spread of Culture: The preservation and spread of national heritage and culture was the sixth and one of the most important aims of the Ancient Indian System of Education. It is well recognised that education is the chief means of social and cultural continuity and that it will fail in its purpose if it did not teach the rising generation to accept and maintain the best traditions of thought and action and transmit the heritage of the past to the future generations. Any one who takes even a cursory view of Hindu writings on the subject is impressed by the deep concern that was felt for the preservation and transmission of the entire literary, cultural and professional heritage of the race. Members of the professions were to train their children in their own lines, rendering available to the rising generation at the outset of its career all the skill and processess that were acquired after painful efforts of the bygone generations. The services of the whole Aryan community were conscripted for the purpose of the pre- servation of the Vedic literature. Every Aryan must learn at least a portion of his sacred literary heritage. It was an incumbent duty on the priestly class to commit the whole of the Vedic literature to memory in order to ensure its transmission to unborn generations. It is true that not all the Brahmanas obeyed this injunction, but that was because they had the commonsense to realise that 2