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

264 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA advantages. It was able to develop character and personality, to inculcate civic virtues, and to turn out citizens well qualified to follow their professions and discharge their duties in life. It introduced a high standard of culture and emphasised the necessity of self-imposed discipline and stern regard for duty. It was not only able to preserve the heritage of the past, but also to enrich it from generation to generation. It produced a galaxy of able scholars and thinkers from age to age, who made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the spheres of philosophy, logic, mathematics, astronomy, medicine and chemistry. It enabled India to achieve high material prosperity by the excellent arrangements it made for training young men in commerce, industry and fine and useful arts. The general principles, which underlay the system,—e. g. intellectual freedom, individual attention to students, the monitorial system, gurukula ideal, plain living and high thinking, mass education, combination of useful and liberal education, the locating of educational institutions away from the din and dust of the city-life, etc.—are inherently sound and capable of yielding excellent results even in modern times, if applied with due regard to changed circumtances