Education in Ancient India c5.7

c5.7

**Why the Teacher was Revered:** The great importance that was attached to the teacher in the ancient system of education and the high reverence that was shown to him in society are not difficult to understand. Since the earliest times the Vedic learning is being transmitted orally in India from one generation to another. This continued to be the case even when the art of writing came into general vogue. The *Mahābhārata* condemns to hell a person who commits the Vedas to writing. Great importance was attached to the proper accent and pronunciation in the Vedic recitation, and these could be properly learnt only from the lips of a properly qualified teacher. The continuous transmission of the store of the Vedic knowledge, which society regarded as priceless, was possible only through the instrumentality of the teacher and his importance therefore could not be exaggerated. With the rise of the mystical systems of philosophy in the age of the Upanishads, the reverence for the Guru became still more intensified; for spiritual salvation depended almost entirely upon his proper guidance.¹ This deification of the philosophical Guru was not without its reaction in favour of the ordinary teacher who taught disinterestedly without stipulating for any fees. We should further remember that books being dear and rare, the student had generally to rely upon his teacher alone to a much greater degree than is the case now.² in the case of professions, even when books exist in plenty, a good deal more has to be learnt from the teacher. So a competent and sympathetic teacher, who would unreservedly place at the disposal of his pupil the essence of all his experience, could hardly be over-venerated by the artisan apprentice working under him. The glorification of the teacher must have produced great psychological influence on students, for childhood is the hey day of personal influence.