Education in Ancient India c4.29

c4.29

The Gurukula System: The Gurukula system, which necessitated the stay of the student away from his home at the house of a teacher or in a boarding house of established reputation, was one of the most important features of ancient Indian education. Smritis recommend that the student should begin to live under the supervision of his teacher after his *Upanayana*; etymologically *antevāsin*², the word for the student, denotes one who stays near his teacher and *samāvartana*, the word for convocation, means the occasion of returning home from the boarding or the teacher's house. The rules which require the student to rise earlier and sleep later than his teacher, to show him alms gathered at midday and to attend to the night service of his Agnihotra (sacrificial fire) also show that the student was normally living at the house of his teacher³. Ancient literature contains several stories like those of Nābhānediṣṭa and Kṛṣṇa showing that students were being actually sent to reside with their preceptors. Of course this was recommended only in the case of students of higher education. The evidence of the Jātakas shows that they used to leave their homes, not perhaps immediately after their Upanayana, but at about the age of 14 or 15 when they were old enough to look after themselves in a distant place. It is also likely that parents living in the same locality with the teacher, or belonging to the same place where the educational institute was located, may not have always sent their wards to stay with their preceptors or in boarding houses. But such cases could not have been many. On the other hand there is evidence to show that rich persons used to deliberately send their children to distant places, even when there were famous teachers in their own towns, because they were anxious that they should reap the benefits of the Gurukula system.