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

12 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch.
which students occasionally performed and the prayers
which they regularly offered every day were calculated to
emphasise upon their mind the fact that the student-life
was a consecrated one and that its ideals could be realised
only by those who did not swerve from the strict and
narrow path of duty. Examples of national heroes and
heroines like Hariśchandra, Bhīshma, Rāma, Lakshmaṇa,
Hanumān, Sītā Sāvitrī and Draupadī, which were pro-
minently placed before students, also served to mould
their character in a powerful manner. Character was
thus built up partly by the influence of direct injunctions,
partly by the effect of continued discipline and partly
by the glorification of national heroes, held in the highest
reverence by society.
Personality not Repressed: There is a general
impression that Hindu educationalists suppressed persona-
lity by prescribing a uniform course of education and
enforcing it with an iron discipline. Such however was
not the case. The caste system had not become hidebound
down to c. 500 B.C. and till that time a free choice of
profession or career was possible both in theory and
practice. Later on when the system became rigid; the
theory no doubt was that everybody should follow his
hereditary profession, but the practice permitted consider-
able freedom to enterprising individuals, as will be
shown in the following chapter. It is wrong to conclude
from some stray passages that the whole of the Brahmana
community, if not the whole of the Aryan community,
was compelled to devote twelve years to the task of
memorising the Vedic texts.¹ Kshatriyas and Vaishyas
never took seriously to the Vedic learning; only a section
of the Brahmanas dedicated themselves to the Vedic
studies, while the rest of the community learnt only
¹ E. g., Manu, III. 1; II. 168.