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

190 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch.
upon the medical profession, which could not but
have told upon its efficiency and progress.¹
Veterinary Education :—The veterinary science
had been developed in India fairly early. Śālihotra is
its traditional founder and two of the Pāṇḍava heroes,
Nakula and Sahadeva are said to have been experts in
it. In the 3rd century B. C. veterinary doctors were
fairly common ; Asoka could find them in necessary
numbers to man his hospitals for animals throughout
the country. The army authorities used to employ
them in army to treat the ailments of horses and
elephants (Arthaśāstra, II. 30-2). There were special
books also dealing with these subjects.² We however
do not come across any veterinary schools or colleges,
nor do we possess any information as to how veterinary
doctors were trained. Probably army authorities used
to organise their own schools to meet their own needs.
In villages the profession may have been hereditary in
some farmers' families, which may have occasionally
taken some outsiders also to be trained as apprentices.
MILITARY EDUCATION
Vedic Period : During the Vedic period the
military profession must have been a popular one, as

1. An incidental observation in the Mitāksharā would show that
   the medical course was finished in four instead of eight years during
   the 12th century A. D. ; of :—
   अन्तेवासी गुरोर्गृहे कृतकालं वर्षचतुष्टयमायुर्वेदशिल्पशिक्षार्थे त्वद्गृहे
   वसामीति ।
   On Yāj. II. 184.
   2 Aśvavaidyaka of Jayadatta, Aśvachikitsā of Nakula and
   Hastyāyurveda of Pālakāpya (published in A.S. series) are the important
   works on the veterinary science. Some of these works in their present
   form are not later than c. 800 A.D., but they had their precursors,
   now unfortunately lost.