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

II] SOME EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES AND POSTULATES 23 practically non-existent; the educational system therefore took particular care to train and develop memory in order to ensure that what students had learnt during their college days should stand them in good stead throughout their life. Personal attention to each student was insisted upon to ensure a high degree of proficiency. In pro- fessional education the necessity of practical training was emphasised for the same reason. Education for all: Since education was regarded as the best agency for improving society, it was naturally insisted that it should be available to all those who were qualified to receive it. It was not regarded, as was the case in Ancient Greece, as the priviledge of those lucky few who had the necessary leisure to devote to its acquisition. To ensure literary education to the largest possible number, Upanayana ritual, which marked the beginning of religious and literary education, was made obligatory for all the Aryans, both males and females. It was further declared that a man can discharge his debt to ancestors not merely by procreating sons but by pro- viding for their proper education.¹ Every Aryan, i. e. every Brahmana, Kshatriya and Vaishya, thus received at least the rudiments of literary and religious education. Things however changed for the worse during the first millennium of the Christian era, when Kshatriyas and Vaishyas gradually ceased to perform Upanayana and sank to the level of the Shudras. This gave a great set- back to their literary education. As far as the professional education was concerned, it was ensured to almost all persons anxious to receive it, when the caste system became hereditary; every family was expected to train its children and bring them up in the traditions of its profession. ¹ तस्मात्पुत्रमनुशिष्टं लोक्यमाहुस्तस्मादेनमनुशास्ति । B. Up., 1.5.7.