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

18 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch. the services of their entire class were not necessary for the task. A section of the Brahmana community, however, was always available to sacrifice its life and talents in order to ensure the preservation of the sacred texts. Theirs was a life-long and almost a tragic devotion to the cause of learning. For, they consented to spend their life in committing to memory what others and not they could interpret. Secular benefits that they could expect were few and not at all commensurate with the labour involved. Remaining sections of the Brahmana commu- nity were fostering the studies of the different branches of liberal education, like grammar, literature, poetics, law, philosophy and logic. They were not only preserving the knowledge of the ancients in these branches, but constantly increasing its boundaries by their own contri- butions, which were being made down to the medieval times. Specialisation became a natural consequence of this tendency and it tended to make education deep rather than broad. The Theory of Three Debts : The interesting theory of three debts, which has been advocated since the Vedic age, has effectively served the purpose of inducing the rising generation to accept and maintain the best traditions of thought and action of the past generations The theory maintains that the moment an individual is born in this world, he incurs three debts, which he can discharge only by performing certain duties. First of all, he owes a debt to gods, and he can liquidate it only by learning how to perform proper sacrifices and by regularly offering them. Religious traditions of the race were thus preserved. Secondly, he owes a debt to the rishis or savants of the bygone ages and can discharge it only by studying their works and continuing their literary and professional traditions. The rising generation was