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

IV] EDUCATIONAL ORGANISATION AND FINANCE 71
small centres for higher education, which co-operated
with the private teacher in rendering the valuable service
of keeping the lamp of learning burning in a dark age,
when society was often over-whelmed by anarchy, inter-
necine war and foreign rule.
Private teachers: Private teachers have all along
been the sheet anchor of the educational system. In the
prehistoric period, the followers of different Vedas had
no doubt formed their own literary organisations like
the Parishads, the Śākhās, and the Charaṇas, but curiously
enough these do not seem to have ever made any concerted
effort to form educational institutions, which would hand
down to the next generation the literature of which they
were the custodians. This need not cause any surprise.
The sacred texts required each Brahmana to devote
himself to the cause of teaching in his individual capacity,
and the injunction was very largely followed. Each
learned Brahmana was thus an educational institution by
himself. The Parishads or councils of famous scholars
of the different centres or tribes therefore did not feel
it necessary to organise public educational institutions
of the modern type, worked with the co-operation and
assistance of a number of teachers. Famous capitals and
holy places like Taxila and Benares were centres of a
number of famous scholars, but they also imparted
education in their individual capacity, and did not as
a rule combine to form any colleges. If the number
of pupils under any teacher happened to be large, he
would either engage an assistant teacher, or assign part of
the work to brilliant advanced students.¹ Neither step
however would change the individual character of the
See Anabhirati Jātaka (II p. 185) and Mahadhammapala Jātaka
(IV. p. 447) for the appointments of pittiachārayas and Jethantenva-
sikas respectively.