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

66 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch. permitted, Smṛitis have allowed students to take their food in the house of their preceptors.¹ Well-to-do students at Taxila were generally living and boarding at their teachers' houses. In richly endowed colleges like those at Nālandā, Salotgi and Ennāyiram, arrangements were made by the college administration for the free boarding of students from generous endowments received for the purpose; begging food was not necessary at these places. Sometimes, as at Benares for instance, such arrangements were independently made by rich citizens of the locality.² Begging food was not necessary at such places. The Chinese pilgrim Yuan Chwang attributes the fame of Indian scholars for deep scholarship to the circumstance that students in India have not to worry about their food, clothing and medicines.³ It will be thus seen that begging was elevated into a duty for the student, primarily for the purpose of bringing education within the reach of the poorest, and secondarily for removing the superiority complex from the mind of rich students; he was the ideal student who lived by begging and not he who lived on his family's support. The rule was not intended to be literally followed by all students every day. Rules of Discipline: Let us now survey and com- ment upon the rules of discipline prescribed for students.⁴ It was felt that student's life should be characterised by dignity, decorum and self-discipline and should be devoted to acquire a grounding not only in learning but also in the 1 भैक्षाचार्यवृत्तिः स्यात् । M. Gr. S., 1 1. 3; see also Manu, II. 142. 2 Losaka Jātaka, No. 41 (C. 500 B. C.) and Bernier p. 335, (17th century A. D.) both refer to the arrangements made by the rich citizens of Benares for distributing khichdī to poor students. 3 Beal, Life of Yuan Chwang, p. 113. 4 For the rules of the student life, see Manu, II, 175ff. ; Yāj. I. 28 ff.; Gau. Dh. S. I. 2; As. Gr. S. I. 22; Dr. Gr. S. II. 5 etc.