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

172 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch.
commerce was in a primitive condition not requiring
any account keeping. Primary education in the sense
of the knowledge of the 3 R's was thus impossible.
It is significant to note that early times knew of no
ritual to mark its commencement.¹
**The Nature of preliminary Training :—**What the
boys and girls were taught in their early school stage,
was not how to read and write the Vedic Mantras
(verses), but how to pronounce them properly. During
this period they were trained to realise the difference
between short and long vowels, study the varieties
of accents and to master the rules about the
conjunction and coalescence of vowels and
consonants. At a slightly later stage they were
enlightened about the changes that took place in
original words when they were combined together
in Vedic stanzas.² This was the nature of ‘primary
education’ imparted to students in the Vedic period.
Such education will appear to us in modern times as
rather strange, but we should remember that students
could, when equipped with it, successfully prosecute
their Vedic studies, which then constituted the higher
·1. Appindix I. A.
2. Cf गुरुत्वं लघुता साम्यं ह्रस्वदीर्घप्लुतानि च ।
लोपागमावकाराश्च प्रकृतिर्विकृतिः क्रमः ॥ ४ ॥
स्वरितोदात्तनीचत्वं श्वासो नादोऽगमेव च ।
एतत्सर्वं तु विज्ञेयं छंदोभाषामधीयता ॥ ५ ॥
पदक्रमविशेषज्ञो वर्णक्रमविचक्षणः ।
स्वरमात्राविभागज्ञो गच्छेदाचार्यसंसदम् ॥ ६ ॥
Taittirīya Pratiśākhya, Chap. 24.
The view of Sāyaṇa, that the last verse refers to the approach
of the Vedic scholar to heaven is untenable. The student's departure
to the preceptor's house, and not to heaven, is referred to in the verse.