Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c4.t2.21

c4.t2.21

The prince was respected, very often petted by the people. They would not let him do any manual work even if he wished to do², because he was a "prince". His life thus tended to be easy-going upto the 16th year, which was considered to be the age of discretion when generally he had to leave home and go abroad for purposes of higher education and training under "world-renowned teachers".³ It is conceivable that the young prince up to this time had been instructed in his father's house in the elementary sciences (the three Rs)' and physical exercise, and it was only for higher studies both in arts and sciences that he went abroad.⁴ It is Takkasilā which is invariably mentioned as the place where these young princes go for their higher studies. Takkasilā had a long-standing fame as the seat and centre of Indian culture which exercised a kind of intellectual suzerainty over the wide world of letters in India. And there is nothing to be mistrusted in the words of the Jātakas which speak of this custom of sending princes to so far away a place as Takkasilā, as Fick seems to feel.⁵