प्राचीन भारत में शिक्षा (डॉ. ए.एस. अल्तेकर - गुरुकुल एवं बौद्ध विहार शिक्षण इतिहास)

160 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch..
students should aquire a mastery in their subjects,
which should stand them in good stead throughout
their lives. Learning in ancient times had to be at
the tip of the tongue ; a scholar asking for time to
consult his notes or books could carry no prestige.¹
The highest ambition of an author of even the 12th
century A. D. was, not that his work may adorn the
shelves of the libraries of the learned, but that it
may shine as an ornament on their neck, i. e. it should
be memorised by them.²
Importance of Recitation and Recapitulation :
Recitation and recapitulation therefore formed an
important part in the daily routine of the student life.
The home-work, which the student did in his spare
time, did not consist of written exercises ; it merely
amounted to the recitation and recapitulation of lessons
learnt already. Every day students were required to
spend a part of their time in the school in jointly
reciting a portion of the work they had committed to
memory. As a result of this training, the memory
of the average student in ancient India was very
highly developed ; he could perform feats of memor-
ising which now we may regard as impossible. I-tsing
rather obscurely refers to certain interesting aids to
memory owing to which, after the practice of ten or
fifteen days, the student felt ‘his thoughts rising
like a fountain and could commit to memory whatever
he had but once heard’. ‘This is far from a myth,’
१. पुस्तकस्था तु या विद्या परहस्तगतं धनम् ।
कार्यकाले समुत्पन्ने न सा बिद्या न तद्धनम् ॥
S. R. B., p. 168 v. 413.
२. तेन प्रीत्या विरचितमिदं काव्यमव्याजकान्तं ।
कर्णाटेन्दोर्जगति विदुषां कण्ठभूषात्वमेयात् ॥
Vikramānkadevacharit, XVIII 102.