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

266 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [App. one, requiring the young boy to worship Sarasvatī, the goddess of learning, Vināyaka, the god of learning, and the tutelary deities of his family. Some authorities prescribe a sacrifice, but probably it was not performed everywhere. The worship of the deities was followed by that of the primary teacher and the boy was then handed over to him. The teacher used to make the boy write on rice all the alphabets with the help of a specially prepared golden or silver pen. Suitable presents made to the teacher and the Brahmanas invited for the ceremony marked the termination of the ritual. The Ritual non-existent in early Times : Why : Vidyārambha is thus the earliest Sanskāra in the student's life, but is does not, like Upanayana, go back to hoary antiquity. The authorities, which prescribe and des- cribe this ritual, are as late as the second millenium of of the Christian era.¹ It appears indeed very strange that the earlier works like the Grihya-sūtras and the Dharma-sūtras, which have laid down rituals for such relatively insignificant occasions like Grihya-nishkramaṇa (when the child is first taken out from the house), and anna-prāśana (when it is first given food), should have failed to associate the commencement of the primary education with any religious ceremony. The reason, however, is not far to seek. Upanayana Sanskāra, which existed even in the Vedic age, marked the begin- ning of education in pre-historic times. There was thus no necessity to prescribe a different Sanskāra like aksharasvīkaraṇa (learning of the alphabet) for the simple reason that the alphabet was then probably unknown.²

1. Viśvāmitra, Bṛhaspati, Mārkaṇḍeya, etc., who are quoted by these authorities, cannot be much earlier, as would be clear from the astronomical details mentioned by them. Such details make their appearance only after the 7th or the 8th century A.D.
2. The view of Dr. Bühler and others that alphabet was un- known in India before c. 800 B.C. has now to be abandoned in view of P. T. O.