Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c9.37

c9.37

The greatest interest attaches to the system of apprenticeship and instruction found Apprentice- amongst the Kandyan craftsmen. From the social and guild point of view, the same ship method may be said to be characteristic of all the craftsmen, both of the artificers’ caste *Apprentice-ship* and also potters and weavers, etc. That is, the trade was hereditary, and the sons are brought up to it as a matter of course,* and trained in the actual workshop, being given easy or monotonous work at first (as grinding colours) and little by little picking up a knowledge of the craft by precept, example, and practice; and so the tradition was perpetuated. Thus from the very beginning, the disciple absorbed together, technique, tradition and metaphysic. No technical education of the future can replace the workshop training of the old craftsmen; for technical education supplies only technique, and that inferior; the imagination it takes no account at all! When the son married and set up for himself, he would be given tools, but would still very probably continue to work with and for his father. We see here the working of the joint family system. Very often also the craftsman trained up with his own sons those of other men of the same caste. In either case the relation between master and pupil was one of lasting reverence and affection; especially where the period of instruction was prolonged, and the information imparted of great value, as amongst the higher craftsmen.