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

88 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch. not intended to be interdicted.¹ Others held that non- Vedic works could be studied on the official holi- days.² It would appear that in later times discretion was given to different institutions as to what holidays should be permitted by them to their students. Holidays allowed to the youngsters were to be more numerous than those to be allowed to advanced students.³ This was certainly a very sound educational principle. In the case of serious students, apart from the four monthly holidays, studies seem to have been suspended since early times only when they themselves or the place they were study- ing was impure.⁴ Organisation of Courses: The modern reader will be surprised to learn that in ancient India there were no central bodies like the senates or boards of studies to prescribe a clear cut course of a definite duration in different subjects. This was a natural consequence of the circumstance that education was mostly imparted by private teachers: they did not belong to any institution, nor were they controlled by any government. There was also another reason for this phenomenon. Ancient Indians regarded knowledge as unlimited and no period that one could spend for its acquisition was regarded as adequate for the purpose.⁵ The duration and contents of the 1 B Dh.S, I, 11, 40:मनसा चानध्याये । A.D.S, I . 3. 11 24 . 2 Manu II. 105. ; cf. also, Kûrmapurāna; नानध्यायोस्ति चांगेषु नेतिहासपुराणयोः । न धर्मशास्त्रेष्वन्येषु पर्वेण्येतानि वर्जयेत् ॥ 3 तत्र सर्वत्र प्राज्ञाप्राज्ञाध्येतृविषयेण गुरुलघुकालानां व्यवस्था ज्ञेया । V. M. S., p. 536. 4 T. A., II, 15 ; Manu, IV. 127. 5 There is an interesting parable in this connection in Tai. Br., III. 10. 11. 3 A Brahmana named Bhāradvāja spent three P. T. O.