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

III] THE TEACHER AND THE STUDENT 63
about 4-30 A. M. Then they used to attend to morning
functions, take their bath and offer their prayers. Vedic
students used to spend a good deal of the morning time
in performing various morning rituals connected with fire
sacrifices; this afforded them practical training in the
rituals they were expected to perform in their after-life.
Other students contented themselves with their prayers
(sandhyā) and spent the rest of the morning either in
learning new lessons or in revising old ones. At about
11. A. M. this work would come to an end and students
used to break off for their meals. Those staying with
their teachers or in boarding houses used to get ready
meals served out for them; those who were poor used
to go out to collect cooked food for their meals. After
the noon meal there followed a period of rest of about
an hour or so; and teaching started at about 2 P. M.
and went on till the evening. We sometimes get refer-
ences to students spending their evening in collecting
sacred fuel for sacrifices (Jātaka No. 150); but this
must have been true of Vedic students of the early period
only. Evening was probably spent in physical exercises.
At sunset they offered usual prayers, attended to fire
sacrifices, and then took their supper. Poor students,
who had to work by day in the teacher's house or else-
where, used to spend a considerable part of the night in
studies. We should not forget that paper and printing
were unknown and books were rare and costly; so there was
little of homework possible, except the revision and reca-
pitulation of the lessons learnt in the teacher's presence.
Students of sculpture, architecture, painting, smithy and
carpentry etc. spent most of the day in the teacher's
workshop, learning the details and the technique of the
art and trade, and often accompanying and helping the
teacher as apprentices in the professional work that he