Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c6.s3.2

c6.s3.2

As the individual is the chief concern and centre of this Education, Education also is necessarily individual. It is an intimate relationship between the teacher and the pupil. The relationship is inaugurated by a religious ceremony called *Upanayana*. It is not like the admission of a pupil to the register of a school on his payment of the prescribed fee. The spiritual meaning of *Upanayana*, and its details inspired by that meaning, are elaborated in many texts and explained below in the proper place. By Upanayana, the teacher, "holding the pupil within him as in a womb, impregnates him with his spirit, and delivers him in a new birth." The pupil is then known as a *Dvija*, "born afresh" in a new existence, "twice-born" [*Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa*, xi, 5, 4]. The education that is thus begun is called by the significant term *Brahmacharya*, indicating that it is a mode of life, a system of practices.