Ancient Indian Education: Goals and Overview

Ancient Indian Education Overview

• India had a well-developed education system that attracted scholars from Tibet, Java, Sumatra, China, Mongolia, Japan, and Korea
• The Chinese monk Fa-Hien (Faxian) noted the spread of Indian education's fame beyond India between 399 and 414 CE

Goals of Indian Education

• Focused on inner and outer dimensions: cultivating inner values along with mastering various disciplines
• Inner values included: truth, patience, regularity, self-mastery, humility, self-denial, purity of self, understanding of life's unity, reverence for nature and all beings
• Learners pursued the puruśārtha catuṣṭaya: dharma (righteousness), artha (material well-being), kāma (enjoyment), and mokṣa (liberation)
• Students trained to live by dharma, as a guiding principle for the individual, family, and society
• Dharma dictated that students fulfill duties to parents, teachers, people, and gods
• Outer goals included mastery in disciplines like history, debate, law, and medicine
• The 'outer goal' of knowledge acquisition was inseparable from the ethically aligned 'inner dimension'

Physical Education

• Included krīdā (games and recreational activities), vyāyāma prakāra (various exercises), and dhanurveda (archery)
• Included martial arts, swordplay, and yoga-sādhanā (prānāyāma, āsana, nāḍīśuddhi) for controlling senses
• Examinations involved learned debates (śāstrārtha) where students defended their positions
• Advanced students taught beginners, gaining teaching experience

Teaching and Learning

• Indian tradition saw knowledge as one, but education divided it into disciplines arranged hierarchically
• The first division split knowledge into śāstra (learned disciplines) and Kāvya (imaginative literature)
• Ṥāstras were classified as apaurūṣeya (knowledge not contingent on individuals) and paurūṣeya (knowledge contingent on individuals)
• Apaurūṣeya texts included Vedas and Vedāngas, and the Upaniṣads
• Vedāṅga literally means "limbs of Vedas," and includes sciences auxiliary to Vedas
• The Vedangas are six: śikṣā (phonetics), kalpa (social thought), vyākaraṇa (grammar), nirukta (etymology), chanda (metrics), jyotiṣa (astronomy), and alaṃkāraśāstra (study of figures of speech)
• At least nine disciplines existed under paurūṣeya
• Literature was described as smriti against Vedas and Vedāngas known as śruti literature
• Paurūṣeya disciplines included: purāṇa (including itihāsa), anvikṣīki (logic), mimāṃsā (analysis/interpretation), dharmaśāstra (sociology), kāvya vidyā (literary theory), kāmaśāstra (erotics), śilpaśāstra (architecture), arthaśāstra (polity), and vārtā (agriculture, trade)
• Upavedas existed as a knowledge category between apaurūṣeya and paurūṣeya, dealing with applied knowledge
• Itihāsaveda (history), dhanurveda (warfare), gandharvaveda (music), and Ayurveda (medicine) fell under the upaveda category
• Teaching was teacher and text-centered, relying on a learned teacher's exposition of knowledge
• Learning had three stages: śravana (listening), manana (reflection), and nidhidhyāsana (meditation)
• Śravana: students listened intently to the teacher
• Manana: students thought, reflected and removed any doubts that may arise
• Nididhyasana: students minutely observed, remembered and meditated on what they had acquired
• Teaching was oral, with students expected to gain firsthand experience

Teacher and Student

• Indian culture valued the teacher-student relationship
• The teacher (guru or ācārya) was highly honored as a guide out of ignorance
• The teacher's house (ācāryakula or gurukula) served as the educational center
• Students and teachers had a symbiotic relationship, with students treated like family
• Students lived with the teacher leading a life of self-control, abstinence, obedience, and devotion

Living Rules

• They regulated their lives by adhering to yama (self-restraint) and niyama (five observances)
• The five observances include: śauca (purity), santoṣa (contentment), tapas (austerity), svādhyāya (self-study), and īśvarapraṇidhāna (faith and surrender to gods)

Centers of Education

• Education began in villages, homes, and temples
• Students then moved to gurukulas (learning centers around teachers) and then to vihāras and universities
• The best became parivrājakas (wandering teachers) promoting welfare by imparting values and knowledge

Temples as First Schools

• Villages used temples and mosques as initial schools
• Temples sustained educational institutions, maintaining students within their grounds
• Saltogi inscription described a temple under Rāṣtrakūṭa Kṛṣṇa III (939-97 CE) with a college of 27 hostels for students nationwide
• The inscription detailed support for teachers, students and how the temple maintained its center through endowments
• Another inscription noted a village endowment for an educational center providing free boarding and teaching to 340 students
• Hostels and educational institutions attached to temples received provisions from people and villages; temples provided ghee, milk, and curd

Gurukulas

• Gurukulas were often in secluded, forested areas known as āśramas
• Āśramas were named after the guru as mentioned in ancient texts detailing pupils gathering and living with the teacher
• The āśrama of Ṛṣi Kaṇva was in Nandana forest on the banks of the river Malini
• The renowned teacher Śaunaka's āśrama was in the Naimiṣa forest
• Other teachers included Agastya near the Godavari and Bharadvāja on the Yamunā
• Women had access to education, with women like Gargī, Maitreyī, and Lopāmudrā mentioned as leading ācāryās and dialecticians in the Upaniṣads

Viharas and Universities

• During the Buddhist era, vihāras (monasteries) emerged as major learning centers
• Buddha encouraged vihāras for monks and nuns to meditate and learn
• Vihāras gradually grew into educational centers attracting students from afar
• Nālandā, Vikramaśilā, and Valabhi evolved around vihāras through societal initiatives
• Taxila (Takṣaśilā) near Rawalpindi, Nālandā, Vikramaśilā, and Valabhi were among the first universities
• Taxila taught various subjects with special attention to medicine, with schools for painting, sculpture, handicrafts, and astronomy
• Indian grammarian Pāṇini and Cāṇakya studied there, and Jīvaka learned medicine at Taxila
• Chinese scholars I-tsing and Hsüan-tsang visited Nālandā in the 7th century CE
• Nālandā was noted to have eight halls, 300 apartments, meditation halls, classrooms; surrounded by lakes and parks
• Education was free with 5,000 students and 1,500 teachers
• Hundreds of lectures were conducted daily, and learning through debates and discussions was encouraged

Nalanda University

• It had an imposing library called ‘Dharmagañja’ of three multi-storey buildings
• The buildings were titled ‘Ratnasāgara’, ‘Ratnarañjaka’ and ‘Ratnodadhi’, the last being nine-stories high
• The library contained lakhs of manuscripts
• In 1193, Bakhtiyar Khilji set the university on fire
• Great teachers included Nāgārjuna, Sthiramati, Śīlabhadra and Śāntarakṣita, whose fame spread to Tibet and China

Community Supported Education

• Education had community support, where gifts for education were the highest donation (dāna)
• All members of society supported education by offering food, gifts, and shelter
• Wealthier sections supported education by building hostels and making educational endowments (adhyāyanavṛttis)
• Education was free
• Wealthy students at the University of Nadia in Bengal supported themselves, while the university supported students of limited means
• Kings supported learning centers through grants
• In the South, villages (agrahārams) were dedicated to learning and teaching

The Education Systems

• Had resilience, functioning until the pre-colonial age
• British administrators documented a wide network of learning institutions
• William Adam's reports (1835-1838) noted the system was supported by local resources, including donations from citizens and peasants

Widespread

• Records indicate 100,000 to 150,000 indigenous village schools in Bengal and Bihar
• A Collector of Cuddapah (Andhra Pradesh) in the 1820s noted villagers supporting studying students
• Many higher learning institutions existed in Bengal and southern India
• The district of Coimbatore had over 700 indigenous schools
• A significant 78% to 80% of students in South Indian village schools came from disadvantaged sections of society
• Indian education focused on inner and outer development, preparing students for life’s challenges
• The decentralized network of education centers was the foundation for India's intellectual, artistic, and spiritual contributions

Further Notes

• Śaunaka asked Angiras what knowledge makes everything known, and was told of higher and lower knowledge.
• Lower knowledge includes the Vedas, śikṣhā, kalpa, vyākaraṇa, nirukta, chandas and jyotiṣ
• Higher knowledge allows one to reach the Imperishable Brahman
• The wise teacher should impart the Knowledge of Brahman to pupils with controlled senses
• Intellectual understanding must also be met with reasoned conviction of what is sufficient
• With reference to knowledge the teacher is the preceding word: With reference to the pupil, it is teaching
• May students practice Brahmacārins who enjoy peace and control
• Lack of understanding and control leads to senses that disobey like bad horses
• A man with understanding and control has senses that obey like good horses
• The teacher said not to neglect your ancestors and treat them like gods
• Speak the truth and give with dignity
• A useful life is one led thinking of wellbeing and treating people like their own
• Xuanzang says they are taught [led] to study the book of twelve chapters
• First and up they are taught the five vidyās, the book of sounds, the book of mechanics, the book of medicine, the book of logic, the book of the interiors
• Teachers must work hard to secure knowledge
• Those that had finished are wise and kind and have knowledge
• Nalanda can be lost in the clouds and have lots of ponds with lotus leafs: Inside the temples about 100 people gave wisdom
• Those who do wrong are banished and no one goes against the rules
• The education is simple for what it is, they would write and draw the alphabet in sand
• There are teachers for everything there is so much to learn There are three colleges on the education for each where everyone is taught to do what they do