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52 form themselves into a group under a stately banyan and discuss the several systems of their special branch of study. Another group under the sacred pipal, probably codifiers like Manu, would discuss the revisions and emendations of moral and ethical codes. A third batch would be clearing their doubts regarding their intonation in the chanting of Vedic hymns. Thus according to their tastes and inclinations the learned sages grouped themselves into batches and carried on discussions in their lines of thought; and at the end of the period of the sacrifice they left the hermitage not only enriched by the liberal gifts of the host but with increased knowledge acquired from exchange of thoughts with their fellow professors, which knowledge they diffused among the people at large during their travels from place to place.

Such gatherings, which in the old days may be said to have somewhat corresponded to the present day British Association stripped of all its modern environments, were the result of the ancient form of Kalakshepa. And students of oriental literature will find descriptions of such gatherings in the pages of the ancient epics of India, such as the Mahabharata and