Education in Ancient India c14.s3.13

c14.s3.13

Sravani Ritual; Its Critical Survey:—When it is remembered that Śrāvaṇī was a ritual performed by teachers and students at the beginning of the college session, and by others at the onset of the monsoon when the annual period of revision of studies commenced, we can well anticipate its nature and details. The ritual differed with different Vedic schools,² but there is one central idea common to them all, viz., on the opening day, Vedic and sacrificial deities should be offered oblations, presiding deities over intellect, memory and imagination should be propitiated, and a tribute of gratefulness should be paid to the intellectual giants of the past, who have enriched the national literature. It was a very happy idea indeed to remind the students of the deep debt of gratitude they all owed to the literary celebrities of the past on the very opening day of the session. When they paid tribute to them, their ambition was naturally fired into imitating their glorious example. They thus commenced the annual studies with zest, vigour and ambition, hoping one day to equal the ancients in their achievements. When the ritual was extended to householders in later times, it reminded them of their duty to be up-to-date in their own branches of learning. It is a pity indeed that the modern educational system has not got a ceremony of similar import.