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

26 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch. Education to begin at Proper Time: Ancient Indians were convinced that no good results would follow if education is begun late, in life. A boy who begins his education at 16 is not likely to bring any credit to his teachers¹. During our childhood, mind is pliable, memory keen and intellect receptive; it is only at this period of life, that it is possible to form good habits that may be of life-long use to us. Ancient Indians have therefore insisted that education ought to commence in childhood. One thinker observes that parents themselves would become the greatest enemies of a child, whose education has been neglected during the childhood². It was held that the 5th year and the 8th year would be the proper time for the beginning of the primary and the secondary education respectively. Our educationalists had however recognised that it would be necessary to vary these years in accordance with the cultural traditions of the family.³ Studies not to stop with the Course: Even in modern times, when books are cheap and library facilities fairly good, students forget a good deal of what they learn within a few years after leaving the school or the college. The danger was much greater in ancient times when books were rare, costly and fragile. Our educa- tionalists therefore emphasise that every graduate should recapitulate daily a portion of what he had learnt in the school or the college. At the time of his convocation, the chancellor particularly exhorted him not to neglect his duty of daily revision⁴. To forget what had once been learnt was pronounced to be a sin as grave as the ¹ नातिषोडशवर्षमुपनयीत प्रसृष्टवृषणो ह्येष वृषलीभूतो भवति ॥ J.Gr.S.,I.12 ² माता शत्रुः पिता वैरी बालों येन न पाठितः । Subhāshita. ³ See Appendix I, sections A and B. ⁴ स्वाध्यायप्रवचनाभ्यां न प्रमदितव्यम् । T.U ., I.