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

34 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch.
kula, but from his early childhood; ancient Indians
therefore attached great importance to the family in their
scheme of education. They held that the child begins to
receive influences that mould its character and determine
its efficiency right from the time of its conception. If
Prahlāda became a deep devotee and Abhimanyu a skilful
warrior, the reason was the influence indirectly exercised
upon them by Nārada and Kṛishṇa respectively, when
they were still to be heralded in this world. It was
believed that the impressions, which would be conveyed
on the mind of the expectant mother, would be automati-
cally transmitted to the mind of the child to be born. The
mother therefore was advised to devote herself to the
study and contemplation of the achievements and biogra-
phies of great national heroes and heroines, so that she
may herself get a child that may be a worthy successor of
theirs.
Family and the Pre-School Period: We have
seen already that the preservation of the national culture
was one of the important aims of education and the family
was expected to cooperate with the school in its realisation.
The ambition of the child was first fired and its imagina-
tion set aglow not by the lessons it received in the school
but by the stories it heard from its mother and grand-
mother. Well known is the part which the home influence
played in shaping the career and firing the imagination of
heroes and saints like Shivājī and Rāmadāsa. Multiplica-
tion tables, noun declensions and some metrical rules
about grammar were taught at home to the child during
its early childhood in all cultured families. The home
thus not only prepared the child for the school, but also
supplemented its work.
The Role of the Family in the Pre-Historic Times:
In pre-historic times, i. e. before about 1000 B. C., the