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

34 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch. kula, but from his early childhood; ancient Indians therefore attached great importance to the family in their scheme of education. They held that the child begins to receive influences that mould its character and determine its efficiency right from the time of its conception. If Prahlāda became a deep devotee and Abhimanyu a skilful warrior, the reason was the influence indirectly exercised upon them by Nārada and Kṛishṇa respectively, when they were still to be heralded in this world. It was believed that the impressions, which would be conveyed on the mind of the expectant mother, would be automati- cally transmitted to the mind of the child to be born. The mother therefore was advised to devote herself to the study and contemplation of the achievements and biogra- phies of great national heroes and heroines, so that she may herself get a child that may be a worthy successor of theirs. Family and the Pre-School Period: We have seen already that the preservation of the national culture was one of the important aims of education and the family was expected to cooperate with the school in its realisation. The ambition of the child was first fired and its imagina- tion set aglow not by the lessons it received in the school but by the stories it heard from its mother and grand- mother. Well known is the part which the home influence played in shaping the career and firing the imagination of heroes and saints like Shivājī and Rāmadāsa. Multiplica- tion tables, noun declensions and some metrical rules about grammar were taught at home to the child during its early childhood in all cultured families. The home thus not only prepared the child for the school, but also supplemented its work. The Role of the Family in the Pre-Historic Times: In pre-historic times, i. e. before about 1000 B. C., the