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

264 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA
advantages. It was able to develop character and
personality, to inculcate civic virtues, and to turn out
citizens well qualified to follow their professions and
discharge their duties in life. It introduced a high
standard of culture and emphasised the necessity of
self-imposed discipline and stern regard for duty. It was
not only able to preserve the heritage of the past, but
also to enrich it from generation to generation. It
produced a galaxy of able scholars and thinkers from
age to age, who made important contributions to the
advancement of knowledge in the spheres of philosophy,
logic, mathematics, astronomy, medicine and chemistry.
It enabled India to achieve high material prosperity
by the excellent arrangements it made for training
young men in commerce, industry and fine and useful
arts. The general principles, which underlay the
system,—e. g. intellectual freedom, individual attention
to students, the monitorial system, gurukula ideal, plain
living and high thinking, mass education, combination of
useful and liberal education, the locating of educational
institutions away from the din and dust of the city-life,
etc.—are inherently sound and capable of yielding
excellent results even in modern times, if applied with
due regard to changed circumtances