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Traveling is an important source of informal education. There are different types of objectives and reasons for the tours and pilgrimage. People travel with religious, social and political motifs. A part from these objectives ancient people traveled far and wide for the acquisition of higher education and knowledge. It appears the that ancient poets used to travel to foreign countries. and utilised their experience in those countries in their works. Prince of Magadha after mastering all the arts at Taxila wandered through towns,

145 villages and all the land to acquire practical knowledge about the life of the people by direct observations. 39 After the completion of such long journeys the traveler was often completely changed in character because through these journey he faced a variety of powerful experiences and adventures. From these experiences he learned lessons of life and these lessons influenced his attitudes and view of the world. Unlike the moderns period, there were no facilities for people to travel safely and with speed. They went to one place to another place by walking or using vehicles drawn by bullocks or horses. Long journeys lasted for months and years. The informal experiences from these journeys were the greatest education for the traveler. When the traveler came back to his native place, villagers thronged at his residence to hear from him about the world outside. Religious pilgrimage were very important for a devotee during the ancient and medieval times. Such tours were conducted for the acquisition of virtue, propagation of religion and visit to the holy places. For example, Jagad Guru Sankaracharya visited all important places in India to preach Advaita Vedanta. For similar purposes sanyasins and mendicants traveled to many religious and educational centers all over India. The scholars learned about the geographical peculiarities,

146 population, languages, customs, traditions etc. existed in this country. They distributed the knowledge they had acquired wherever they went. Pilgrims were often the great acquirers and mediators of informal education. Another group of people were forced to runaway from their native place for the protection of their life from the political conquer or natural calamities or climatic changes, and conducted long and toilsome journeys and migrated to distant places. In another cases some persons went to the distant places for material benefits: for the purpose of trade or search for job. They also covered hills, rivers, forests etc and mingled with the people of various places. They influenced their language, culture and modes of life. But some persons conducted these tours consciously for educational purposes. Panini the greatest grammarian in Sanskrit conducted many tour to study language. In these cases the aspirants were never satisfied with the existing knowledge and searched for new knowledge. They thought that their education is not complete or not enough for them. The world was very wide and they had to go beyond the limits of their own environment. For this purpose they traveled to many places by taking many years. During the journey they got chances whole. discussions with other scholars in different areas or mingled with eminent

147 persons on different occasions. From these experiences they learned more language, philosophies or science formally or informally. This experience influenced and shaped their vision, ideas believes and thoughts. In the Buddhist period, as we have already referred, many scholars came to India from the other countries like China, Hiuen-T Sangh, Fahiyan etc, came to India and learned Sanskrit, Buddhism, Indian Philosophy, literature etc. They were also obliged to give instruction to the ignorant and the travelling scholars who held pilgrimages from one teacher to another were attracted by the fame of the teacher's special learning. In 40 the same way Indians also went to other countries for religious propagation. Eg: Samghamitra the daughter of Asoka went to other countries like Ceylon, China and Tibet for the propagation of Buddha's teachings.