Page:History of India Vol 1.djvu/293

Rh Instruction, it is needless to repeat, was imparted by rote. The student respectfully held the hand of his teacher, and fixed his mind on the teacher and said, "Venerable sir, recite," and the Savitri (the well-known Gayatri verse of the Rig-Veda) was recited, and learned as the introduction to the study of the Vedas. From day to day new lessons were recited and learned, the student dividing his day's work between his lessons and the household work of his teacher.

When, after years of study, often under different teachers, the student at last returned to his home, he made a handsome gift to his instructors, married, and settled down as a householder. The Sutrakaras are never tired of impressing on householders the paramount duty of courtesy and hospitality towards guests, for the reception of guests is an everlasting sacrifice offered by the householder to God.

Besides the order of the student and that of the householder, there were two other orders of life, those of the ascetic (bhikshu), and the hermit (vaikhānasa). We learn from later Sanskrit literature that a typical or perfect life was the life of a man who belonged to these four orders in the successive periods of his life. But this was not the original idea, and in early times a man might have chosen to spend the whole of his life in one of these four orders. It is needless here to dwell on rules laid down for an ascetic and a hermit respectively. It will suffice to state that an ascetic shaved his head, had no property or home, practised austerities, fasted or lived on alms, wore a single