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

VIII] PROFESSIONAL AND USEFUL EDUCATION 197
few centuries later, commercial classes did not feel
it necessary to copy their example. By this time the
caste system had become hereditary and the training
in different trades and industries was usually imparted
in the family itself by the elders. Where there were
no elders in the family to train its children, they were
usually attached as apprentices to some neighbouring
trader or artisan. This apprenticeship system, which
will be soon described, rendered any regular schools of
the modern type unnecessary.
TRAINING IN ARTS AND CRAFTS.
**Introduction :—**We shall now consider the pro-
blems connected with the training of students in arts
and handicrafts like sculpture, artchitecture, painting,
carpentry, smithy, agriculture, etc. Our sources of
information are scanty, because neither Smṛitis, which
have written about education, nor foreign pilgrims like
Yuan Chwang and I-tsing who often throw consider-
able light on educational conditions, were interested
in the problems connected with the training in arts
and handicrafts.
Attitude towards Arts and Crafts : Early Period :—
It will be convenient at the outset to consider the general
attitude of society towards arts and crafts. In the early
period they were held in high esteem. Agriculture was
the general profession for the average Aryan. There
are prayers both in the Ṛigveda and the Atharvaveda for
success in various agricultural processes and operations.
It was not therefore a profession held in low
esteem as in later times. The carpenter was so impor-
tant a member of the Vedic society that the chief of
his guild was included among the twelve courtiers to
whose houses the king had to repair in person for
offering oblations at the time of his coronation. Ṛibhus,