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82
Appointment with Kalidasa
drop falling in a conch-shell in a sea when the constellation Svati looms in the sky is alone transfor.ned into a pearl ; in the same way, the learning and skill imparted by a teacher to a very worthy and deserving pupil blossom into real brilliance.95 The implication of the analogy is that a pupil has to be worthy, with innate abilities, before a teacher may start teaching him ; otherwise it will be a sheer waste. In the gurukula system in ancient India, the desire and insistence on the part of a teacher to take up only deserving pupils had a meaning and a significance. Instances of preceptors who would not impart real knowledge before putting a pupil to some kind of severe test are easily found in the Upanişads; and it appears that such a criterion continued to operate in educational life in later days also. It may have lost some of its validity, perhaps, with the employment of paid teachers. The teacher today cannot exercise this right of refusing a pupil; the ability to pay fees is the only passport to education,
In Kālidāsa's thinking a pupil too had a certain privilege as the teacher did have. It was considered unfair to ask pupil to show his knowledge or skill, in a test or examination, till he had fully assimilated it.86 In modern language it means that tests or examinations were for the pupils; the pupils were not compelled to submit to them unless they were ready. And the guardians were equally alert about this principle. Queen Dhāriņi's objection to the public show of Malavikā's skill in the art of dance can be interpreted from this angle. But it is also true that the teacher, not the pupil or the pupil's guardian, will be in a better postion to judge whether a pupil is ready for the test or must wait. If Gañadāsa insisted that Mālavikā gave an exhibition of her ability, even though Dhāriņi thought that Malavikā was yet 'not ripe', it means the teacher was confident of his pupil, whatever laymen may think.
There is an educational principle involved in the confidence a teacher may express like this about a particular pupil. The teachers in those days generally declined to accept a pupil with mediocre intelligence lacking the ability to complete a course in a branch of knowledge or in art. Dhāriņi asks, 'If a girl with limited intelligence spoiled the instruction she had received from her preceptor, how could it be taken as the teacher's fault ? Gaņdāsa replies, with confidence, that it would be the teacher's fault; because, 'In choosing a pupil not worthy of the standard the teacher shows his defective intelligence.' 87 It is evident that this principle cannot be operative in our present educational setup. It may have some scope still in the teaching of some arts like music or dance; but it is invalid in the sphere of general education. A teacher may come to grief if he used this principle. And educational institutions, guardians of students and even the government have no use of it. Strangely enough, the present day student also my not have any respect for a teacher with an independent mind and principles, concerned as he is with btaining a certificate or a degree by hook or by crook. Kalidasa's principle that a teacher would show lack of intelligence if he accepted an unworthy pupil is clearly out of date !
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