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

30 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch.
in moulding the character and improving the calibre of a
student. Even a dull student, they point out, will improve
his intellect if he is in close association with a brilliant
boy and imitates his methods of study¹. One should
therefore be very careful in choosing one's company. One
can now understand why our educationalists have attached
a great importance to sending a student to live under the
direct care of a teacher, or better still, in a gurukula
(boarding) of established reputation.
The Gurukula System: The Gurukula system,
which necessitated the stay of the student away from his
home at the house of a teacher or in a boarding house of
established reputation, was one of the most important
features of ancient Indian education. Smṛitis recommend
that the student should begin to live under the supervision
of his teacher after his Upanayana; etymologically
_antevāsin_², the word for the student, denotes one who
stays near his teacher and samāvartana, the word for
convocation, means the occasion of returning home from the
boarding or the teacher's house. The rules which require
the student to rise earlier and sleep later than his teacher,
to show him alms gathered at midday and to attend to the
night service of his Agnihotra (sacrificial fire) also show
that the student was normally living at the house of his
teacher³. Ancient literature contains several stories like
¹ बुद्धिश्च हीयते पुंसां नीचैः सह समागमात् ।
मध्यमैर्मध्यतां याति श्रेष्ठतां याति चोत्तमैः ॥ Mbh., VI.1.30
2 अन्तेवासी is an abbreviation of आचार्यकुलवासी Ch. Up, 11.23.
uses this expression in the case of the general student; cf.
द्वितीयो ब्रह्मचारी आचार्यकुलवासी ।
3 Stories like those of Upakośala, where we find the wife of the
' teacher coming forward to induce the student to give up his fast,
also show incidentally that students must be living with their
teachers; see Ch. Up, IV, 10 8. P.T.O.