Ancient Indian Education: An Inquiry into its Origin, Development, and Ideals c4.82

c4.82

Having accepted the position of student by the rite of initiation, to which we have already referred, the pupil was received into the household of his teacher. Sometimes, of course, the teacher might be his own father. But although he was thus made, as it were, a member of his teacher's family, and the teacher was bidden to love him as his own son, the pupil was subjected to a rigid discipline during his course of study. The length of the course varied according to the number of Vedas studied. ‘He shall remain a student for twelve years in order to study one Veda. Or if he studies all the Vedas, twelve years for each. Or during as long a period as he requires for learning them.’¹ Thus, if all four Vedas were studied, the length of the course might be forty-eight years! Some of the authorities only recognize three Vedas (excluding the Atharvaveda), but even thirty-six years seems a long enough course even for the most enthusiastic. A great part of the work consisted of the committal to memory of the sacred texts and other writings, and the enormous bulk of these must have necessitated a long period of study. It seems hardly possible to believe that more than a few students continued their studies as long as even thirty-six years. Probably most were satisfied with the twelve years required for studying one Veda, and the twelve years prescribed for each of the Vedas may have been intended to emphasize their importance. Megasthenes, the Greek who visited India about 300 B.C., refers, however, to the Indian student spending thirty-seven years in study. The length of the annual term to be spent in Veda study was four and a half or five and a half months each year, and began usually at the full moon of the month Śrāvaṇa (July-Aug.)¹ It thus came during the rainy and cold seasons when the heat is less intense. Numerous holidays were also allowed, such as the new-moon and full-moon, days of certain months and other days which were set apart for various religious ceremonies. The authorities have also a long list of restrictions,² which prohibit the reading of the Veda when certain occurrences take place, as, for instance, when the wind whirls up dust in the daytime, or when the wind is audible at night, when the sound of a drum or of a chariot or of a person in pain is heard, when there is the barking of dogs and jackals, or the chattering of monkeys, when the sky was a brilliant red, or there was a rainbow, etc., etc. Some of these restrictions were no doubt dictated by superstition, others because the various sounds or phenomena betokened impending danger or discomfort, or because their distraction was not conducive to study. But all these possible hindrances must have reduced the actual time spent in learning.