Education in Ancient India c6.47

c6.47

The List of Holidays: We come across a systematic list of holidays only in post-Vedic¹ literature. But many of these go back to very early times. Regular holidays were four in the month at an interval of a week, the new and full moon days and the eighth day of each fortnight. Sympathetic interest with the inhabitants of the locality was also responsible for the stopping of the work sometimes, when the peace of the settlement was disturbed by an invasion or by incursions of robbers or cattle-lifters, or when the king or a Brahmana of the village had met with an accident or died. Arrival of distinguished guests led to the suspension of studies; for a good deal of the time and energy of both the teacher and the students had to be devoted to make the guests comfortable.