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

90 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch. (Dharmaśāstra), may have finished their grammar course in five or six years and devoted about ten years for getting a mastery in the subject of their choice. A person who wanted to be regarded as cultured and well educated had thus to spend about 15 or 16 years for his education, subsequent to the time of his Upanayana at about the age of eight or nine.¹ Usually he could finish his education and become an expert in one particular branch at about the age of 24, which was regarded as the ideal age for marriage. It is interesting to note that in medieval Europe also, the complete course of Latin education covered a period of about 15 years (Raymond, Principles, p. 193). Longer course for special experts : Those however who wanted to become special experts² or get the mastery of several Vedas or wanted to specialise in more than one branch of knowledge had to devote a much longer period for their studies. They had to spend another 10 or 12 years and their studentship continued to the age of 35 or 40. Megasthenes³ and Colebrooke⁴ refer to such students, when they both refer to scholars prosecuting their studies even at the age of 37. Society however did not approve of the devotion of so great a part of life to the cause of studies, if the person eventually intended to marry. One authority states that a person ought to be married in the prime of his life; to postpone marriage to the age of 35 or 40 would be a

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1 I-tsing, pp. 170-77 2 Twenty years were required for mastering the Krishna Yajurveda and the enormous number of sacrifices and rituals connected with it. Education Commission Report, Madras Prov. Committee, 1882, p. 6. 3 Fragment No. 41, 4 Nadia Gazetteer p, 182,