Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c18.7

c18.7

At the conclusion of the ceremony, the preceptor, in the presence of Agni as witness, will ask the pupil to take an oath that he will follow the injunctions stated. ‘The pupil must abjure lust, anger, greed, inertia, vanity, conceit, envy, harshness, lying, laziness, and disreputable deeds. He must duly cut off his nails and hairs; wear pure silken clothes (as preventing infection); and practise *brahmacharya* and truthfulness. He must perform his prescribed duties, as the preceptor must perform his. He was also asked to treat, without charging fee and cost of medicines, the following persons: the *dvija*, *guru*, pauper, friend, ascetic, protégé, saint, orphan, and guest. He must avoid treating as his patients the hunter, fowler, the degraded and sinful.’ The principle of these rules is that the physician must himself be possessed of a sound healthy body, observe rules of hygiene and avoid all kinds of defilement, infection, and contamination, and be a man of strict morals as having to deal with patients of both sexes and of all sorts and conditions.