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

286 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [App. paid to the intellectual giants of the past, who have enriched the national literature. It was a very happy idea indeed to remind the students of the deep debt of gratitude they all owed to the literary celebrities of the past on the very opening day of the session. When they paid tribute to them, their ambition was naturally fired into imitating their glorious example. They thus commenced their annual studies with zest, vigour and ambition, hoping one day to equal the ancients in their achievements. When the ritual was extended to householders in later times, it reminded them of their duty to be up-to-date in their own branches of learning. It is a pity indeed that the modern educational system has not got a ceremony of similar import. Sravani and the Sacred Thread :—The critical reader may now naturally enquire as to the causes that have led to the close association of Śrāvaṇī with the change of the sacred thread. The renewal of the sacred thread was a minor element in the ritual ; most of our authorities do not even refer to it. At the time of most of the Vratas (vows) and Sanskāras, a new sacred thread, staff, girdle, etc., were to be worn by students. Śrāvaṇī was no exception ; on this occasion also they discarded their old sacred threads, staffs, girdles, etc., and substituted them by new ones,—a pro- cedure somewhat similar to that of the modern student, who usually gets new clothes prepared when he leaves home for joining his college. By a strange irony of fate, the most insignificant element in this ritual has now assumed an altogether disproportionate importance and its real nature and significance have been forgotten altogether. Utsarjana Ritual : This was performed at the end of the college term sometime in February or March.