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

286 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [App.
paid to the intellectual giants of the past, who have
enriched the national literature. It was a very happy
idea indeed to remind the students of the deep debt
of gratitude they all owed to the literary celebrities
of the past on the very opening day of the session.
When they paid tribute to them, their ambition was
naturally fired into imitating their glorious example.
They thus commenced their annual studies with zest,
vigour and ambition, hoping one day to equal the
ancients in their achievements. When the ritual
was extended to householders in later times, it
reminded them of their duty to be up-to-date in
their own branches of learning. It is a pity indeed
that the modern educational system has not got a
ceremony of similar import.
Sravani and the Sacred Thread :—The critical
reader may now naturally enquire as to the causes
that have led to the close association of Śrāvaṇī with
the change of the sacred thread. The renewal of the
sacred thread was a minor element in the ritual ; most
of our authorities do not even refer to it. At the time
of most of the Vratas (vows) and Sanskāras, a new
sacred thread, staff, girdle, etc., were to be worn by
students. Śrāvaṇī was no exception ; on this occasion
also they discarded their old sacred threads, staffs,
girdles, etc., and substituted them by new ones,—a pro-
cedure somewhat similar to that of the modern
student, who usually gets new clothes prepared when
he leaves home for joining his college. By a strange
irony of fate, the most insignificant element in this
ritual has now assumed an altogether disproportionate
importance and its real nature and significance have
been forgotten altogether.
Utsarjana Ritual : This was performed at the end
of the college term sometime in February or March.