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

238 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch. the traders and colonisers, who were familiar with Babylon, Arabia. Ceylon, Java, Sumatra, Burma and Borneo. Arts and Crafts become plebian Professions : Skill in manual training and industrial arts was highly appreciated in early times. Liberal and useful education was usually combined among high class workers. Brahmanas used to be skilled in mining and metallurgy, medical and military sciences. Weavers were often amateur students of literature, folk lore, astronomy and the art of war. This combination of liberal and useful education began to become progressively rare after the Gupta age. The status of the Vaishya became assimilated to that of the Śūdra as early as the 1st century A.D. and talented persons among the intellectual classes began to think it below their dignity to follow useful and industrial arts. Like European classical scholars of the Renaissance period, Indian scholars became fascinated by the charms of the classical literature. Absorbed in the beauty of words and ideas, they neglected the world of Nature. Mathematics and astronomy, sculpture and architecture ceased to attract them. The level of intelligence among the industrial classes therefore became lowered down when their education became rigidly confined to the technique and processes of their own professions from about the 9th century A. D. As a natural consequence of such a state of affairs, the growth and development of the fine, useful and industrial arts became arrested in India from about the 8th century A.D. No advance is to be seen after that date in the realms of sculpture, painting, mining, surgery, etc. The old type of learning became stereotyped and it soon began to degenerate. It is true that India continued to retain her dominating position in the weaving industry down to the beginning of the last century; but