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

IV] EDUCATIONAL ORGANISATION AND FINANCE 83
schools at Nadia varied from 10 to 20¹. It therefore
seems to be almost certain that the Jātaka statement about
the teachers at Taxila having 500 students each is an
exaggeration. The normal strength of a class was never
more than 20.
School Hours: Curiously enough there is very
little information available about the school hours.
Smṛitis are altogether silent upon the point. We should
however note that in ancient time press, paper and cheap
books were absent; so home work or home reading was
practically impossible. All the work had to be done
under the guidance of the teacher or the monitor. Literatur
often describes the early morning time as resounding with
the sound of the recitation of students². So there is no
doubt that there was a morning session, probably starting
at about 7 A.M., when the daily religious duties were
over. The morning session continued till about 11 A.M.,
when both the students and the teachers had to break
off for their religious duties and meals. The noon
meal was followed by a short rest and the school
reassembled at about 2 P. M. and worked for three
or four hours. The school period was spent partly in
what may be called homework and partly in learning
new lessons. The former consisted of committing to
memory the texts expounded earlier with the help of one
or two copies of the book existing in the school or under
the direction of a senior monitor, who was well versed in
it. The memorising and revision work was usually done
in the morning, and new lessons were taught in the
afternoon. Such at any rate was the tradition in the Sans-

1. Nadia Gazetteer, p. 182.
2. शुश्राव ब्रह्मघोषान् स विरात्रे ब्रह्मरक्षसाम् । Rāmāyaṇa.
   बटुपटलसमारब्ध स्वाध्यायाध्ययनध्वानप्रबुद्धासु । Vāsavadattā