Education in Ancient India c5.49

c5.49

**Limitation on this Duty :** There were, however, limitations to this duty to work. The teacher was prohibited from assigning any work that was likely to interfere with the studies of the student. The duty was further more nominal than real in the case of paying scholars. We have seen already that the duty to teach was imperative and a teacher could not refuse a student merely because he was poor. Poor students were admitted if they were willing to help the teacher in his household or farm work; this duty to work was effectively operative only in their cases. At Taxila the students who used to pay their teachers honorarium in advance used to stay in their houses like eldest sons, doing no household work and spending all their time in study. Free students,—*dhammāntevāsikas*,—on the other hand used to do all kind of manual work for their teachers. They used to work by day, when paying scholars were receiving their lessons; teachers used to hold special classes for them at night with a view to see that their education did not suffer on account of their day's work on the farm or in the household.¹ At Nālandā also secular students who sought free boarding, lodging and education had to do some manual work for the monasteries.²