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

IV] EDUCATIONAL ORGANISATION AND FINANCE 87 heavy showers, frost, dust-storms etc. were also regarded as sufficient causes to suspend studies. Holidays for these causes seem to go back to hoary antiquity, when students and teachers lived in humble cottages and were engaged in agricultural pursuits. It must be further remembered that the teaching and learning of the Vedic hymns in the manner in which it is done traditionally was physically impossible when a storm or lightning was thundering abroad. In later times when teachers were well-to-do men living in towns and villages and not directly concerned with active agricultural pursuits, it is doubtful if studies were suspended when there was a dust-storm or frost. When the howling of jackals, crying of wolfs, screeching of owls, braying of donkeys or barking of dogs was heard, teaching was temporarily stopped, partly, on account of superstitious beliefs and partly due to the notion that the Vedic study was so sacred an affair that it could be prosecuted only under ideally pure circumstances. It was apprehended that gods would become angry if the sanctity of the Vedas was defiled by their being studied on such occasions.¹ Curtailment of Holidays: In course of time most of the holidays mentioned in the last paragraph were abolished. Curriculum was getting heavier and some reasons had to be found for departing from the old tradition. Some authorities, therefore, started the theory that prohibition of studies under abnormal weather condi- tion referred only to loud recitations; silent reading was 1 Cf. छिद्राण्याहुर्द्विजातीनामनध्यायान्मनीषिणः ।' छिद्रेभ्यः स्रवति ब्रह्म ब्राह्मणेन यदर्जितम् ॥ आयुः प्रजां पशून्मेधां कृन्तामि सुकृतं च यत् । अनध्यायेष्वभ्यसतः ब्रह्म व्याहरतस्तथा ॥ Quoted by Aparārka on Yāj. I, 142-151.