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

90 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch.
(Dharmaśāstra), may have finished their grammar course
in five or six years and devoted about ten years for
getting a mastery in the subject of their choice. A person
who wanted to be regarded as cultured and well educated
had thus to spend about 15 or 16 years for his education,
subsequent to the time of his Upanayana at about the age
of eight or nine.¹ Usually he could finish his education
and become an expert in one particular branch at about
the age of 24, which was regarded as the ideal age for
marriage. It is interesting to note that in medieval
Europe also, the complete course of Latin education
covered a period of about 15 years (Raymond, Principles,
p. 193).
Longer course for special experts : Those however
who wanted to become special experts² or get the mastery
of several Vedas or wanted to specialise in more than
one branch of knowledge had to devote a much longer
period for their studies. They had to spend another
10 or 12 years and their studentship continued to the
age of 35 or 40. Megasthenes³ and Colebrooke⁴ refer
to such students, when they both refer to scholars
prosecuting their studies even at the age of 37. Society
however did not approve of the devotion of so great a
part of life to the cause of studies, if the person
eventually intended to marry. One authority states that
a person ought to be married in the prime of his life;
to postpone marriage to the age of 35 or 40 would be a

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1 I-tsing, pp. 170-77
2 Twenty years were required for mastering the Krishna
Yajurveda and the enormous number of sacrifices and rituals
connected with it. Education Commission Report, Madras Prov.
Committee, 1882, p. 6.
3 Fragment No. 41,
4 Nadia Gazetteer p, 182,