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

174 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch.
i. e. Brahmanas, Kshatriyas and Vaishyas. Even in
modern times when this ritual has become a mere
formality, we find that the percentage of literacy is
fairly high among those castes which still go throug hits
formality. We may therefore well conclude that the
case was similar, if not much better, in the past.
Since Upanayana of both boys and girls was universal
among the Aryans at c. 600 B. C. we may well
conclude that the percentage of literacy among them
must also have been very high. It may have been as
high as 80 percent. We can now understand the
proud claim of an Upanishadic king that there was
no illiterate person in his kingdom.¹ This was a
natural consequence of an obligatory Upanayna being
followed by genuine Vedic and literary studies.
The Curriculum of Primary Education : Grammar,
philology, arithmetic, astronomy and metrics were well
developed in this period, and a good grounding in
them was not possible without a knowledge of the art
of writing. Reading and writing must have been
included in primary education, although there was
still a prejudice against committing the Vedas to
writing. Elementary arithmetic and grammar,
phonology and metrics also formed part of the
primary curriculum. Sanskrit was still the spoken
language and Prakrits were yet to be developed.
Primary education was therefore mainly confined to
the preliminary stage of the cultivation of Sanskrit.
Agencies of Primary Education : We have but
scanty information as to how primary education was
imparted. It must have been given in the family as
long as it continued to be the centre of education.

1. न मे स्तेनो जनपदे....नानाहिताग्निर्नोबिद्वान् ।
   Ch. Up., V. 11. 5.