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

18 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch.
the services of their entire class were not necessary for
the task. A section of the Brahmana community, however,
was always available to sacrifice its life and talents in
order to ensure the preservation of the sacred texts.
Theirs was a life-long and almost a tragic devotion to the
cause of learning. For, they consented to spend their life
in committing to memory what others and not they
could interpret. Secular benefits that they could expect
were few and not at all commensurate with the labour
involved. Remaining sections of the Brahmana commu-
nity were fostering the studies of the different branches
of liberal education, like grammar, literature, poetics,
law, philosophy and logic. They were not only preserving
the knowledge of the ancients in these branches, but
constantly increasing its boundaries by their own contri-
butions, which were being made down to the medieval
times. Specialisation became a natural consequence of
this tendency and it tended to make education deep rather
than broad.
The Theory of Three Debts : The interesting
theory of three debts, which has been advocated since the
Vedic age, has effectively served the purpose of inducing
the rising generation to accept and maintain the best
traditions of thought and action of the past generations
The theory maintains that the moment an individual is
born in this world, he incurs three debts, which he can
discharge only by performing certain duties. First of
all, he owes a debt to gods, and he can liquidate it only
by learning how to perform proper sacrifices and by
regularly offering them. Religious traditions of the race
were thus preserved. Secondly, he owes a debt to the
rishis or savants of the bygone ages and can discharge it
only by studying their works and continuing their literary
and professional traditions. The rising generation was