Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c11.s4.53

c11.s4.53

**Study.** Together with, and after, these acts of service, "in the time remaining over from work for the teacher" [*Guroḥ karmātiśesheṇa*] the pupil prosecuted his studies [*Chhānd.*, viii, 15]. Considering the early age at which students were admitted to study, we should consider what might have been its contents in that primary stage of education. For initiation into such study which was then a study of the Veda, the student should start with a knowledge of the pronunciation of its texts with all that it implied, a knowledge of phonology, metrics, and elementary grammar and etymology. The *Taittirīya Prātiśākhya* [chap. xxiv] states that a student of Veda should first know all about the production of voice or sound: "the degree of effort involved in it, whether it is heavy (*guru*), light (*laghu*) or equal (*sama*), whether it is long (*dīrgha*), short (*hrasva*), or very long or elongated (*pluta*); whether it has undergone elision (*lopa*), addition (*āgama*), or modification (*vikāsa*); its exact nature (*prakṛiti*) and modification (*vikṛiti*), as also stages in the process of its production (*krama*); the degree of its pitch, high (*svarita*), moderate (*udātta*), or low (*nīcha*); the degree of strength of breath in its utterance (*nāda* and *śvāsa*) and also place of its origin (*udgama*)."¹ He should also have a special knowledge (*viśeshajña*) of the *Pada-Pāṭha* and *Varṇa-Pāṭha* (i.e. how each letter is modulated under the influence of each preceding and succeeding letter); the difference between *svaras* (vowels) and the *mātrā* or measure of effort with which they are pronounced.