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

238 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch.
the traders and colonisers, who were familiar with
Babylon, Arabia. Ceylon, Java, Sumatra, Burma and
Borneo.
Arts and Crafts become plebian Professions :
Skill in manual training and industrial arts was highly
appreciated in early times. Liberal and useful
education was usually combined among high class
workers. Brahmanas used to be skilled in mining and
metallurgy, medical and military sciences. Weavers
were often amateur students of literature, folk lore,
astronomy and the art of war. This combination of
liberal and useful education began to become
progressively rare after the Gupta age. The status of
the Vaishya became assimilated to that of the Śūdra
as early as the 1st century A.D. and talented persons
among the intellectual classes began to think it below
their dignity to follow useful and industrial arts. Like
European classical scholars of the Renaissance period,
Indian scholars became fascinated by the charms of
the classical literature. Absorbed in the beauty of
words and ideas, they neglected the world of Nature.
Mathematics and astronomy, sculpture and architecture
ceased to attract them. The level of intelligence
among the industrial classes therefore became lowered
down when their education became rigidly confined
to the technique and processes of their own professions
from about the 9th century A. D. As a natural
consequence of such a state of affairs, the growth and
development of the fine, useful and industrial arts
became arrested in India from about the 8th century
A.D. No advance is to be seen after that date in the
realms of sculpture, painting, mining, surgery, etc. The
old type of learning became stereotyped and it soon
began to degenerate. It is true that India continued
to retain her dominating position in the weaving
industry down to the beginning of the last century; but