Education in Ancient India c4.18

c4.18

Studies not to stop with the Course: Even in modern times, when books are cheap and library facilities fairly good, students forget a good deal of what they learn within a few years after leaving the school or the college. The danger was much greater in ancient times when books were rare, costly and fragile. Our educationalists therefore emphasise that every graduate should recapitulate daily a portion of what he had learnt in the school or the college. At the time of his convocation, the chancellor particularly exhorted him not to neglect his duty of daily revision⁴. To forget what had once been learnt was pronounced to be a sin as grave as the murder of a friend or Brahmana (*Yāj.*, III. 228). During the rainy season, every graduate was expected to devote extra time to his studies ‘in order to remove their staleness’. Some thinkers like Śvetaketu even recommended an annual stay of two months at the college for this purpose [*A. D. S.*, X. 1. 2. 12].