Education in Ancient India c3.29

c3.29

Other Methods to Preserve Cultural Traditions: The emphasis laid on obedience to parents, respect to elders and teachers and gratitude to *savants* of the bygone ages also helped to preserve the best traditions of the past. Especially significant in this connection are the rules about *svādhyāya* and *ṛṣitarpaṇa*; the former enjoin a daily recapitulation of at least a portion of what was learnt during the student life and the latter require a daily tribute of gratitude to be paid to the literary giants of the past at the time of morning prayers. In later times, when archaic Sanskrit ceased to be understood and abstract and abstruse philosophy failed to appeal to masses, a new type of literature, the Purāṇas, was composed to popularise national culture and traditions among the masses. It was daily expounded to the masses in vernaculars, and as a consequence the best cultural traditions of the past filtered down to and were preserved by even illiterate population. Devotional literature in vernacular also served the same function.