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

IV] EDUCATIONAL ORGANISATION AND FINANCE 89 course were therefore largely determined by the will, capacity and convenience of the student. Some students who wanted to get an all-round mastery used to read for as many as 25 or 30 years. Others who were home sick or were content with a superficial knowledge, used to return home in six or even three years. Intelligent stu- dents, who could master the course in a shorter time, were allowed to return as soon as their studies were over. Normal Duration of the Course: The course of higher education usually began with Upanayana at about the age of ten and extended over about 12 years. The tra- dition is quite definite about the Vedic course extending over that period. This period was necessary for the study of one Veda along with its subsidiary branches. The duration of the courses of non-Vedic studies like philology, logic, philosophy, poetics, Dharmaśāstra, etc. is not definitely known. The students of these subjects had to study a few Vedic hymns, necessary for their religious duties, and a good deal of grammar in order to get the facility for understanding works in advanced Sanskrit prescribed for their courses. The full grammar course extended over ten years in the 7th century A. D.; but the students of poetics, philosophy or sacred law (Continued from the last page) successive lives in attempting to master all the Vedas. On learning that he proposed to spend his fourth life also for the same purpose, Indra appeared before him, shewed him three hillocks of corn, and taking a handful from each, told him that the three Vedas were infinite and what he had learnt of them in three lives bore the same proportion to what remained to be mastered as his three handfuls bore to the hills of corn lying in front. Sanskrit literature is full of sayings to the effect that knowledge is infinite and cannot be mastered in one's life:— अनन्तपारं खलु शब्दशास्त्रं स्वल्पं तथायुर्विपुलाश्च विद्याः।