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Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c8.s1: I. Education

Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c8.s1

Language
English

I. Education

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In times past the education of boys was carried on by Buddhist priests at the village pansala, the home of the incumbent of the nearest vihāra, just as the village priest taught at the church door in mediæval England. This system has been already referred to, on p. 45 above. At about the age of six the boy was taken to the pansala with an offering for the teacher. At an auspicious hour the teacher took his seat and recited the first line of vowels, beginning with the words *svasti siddham*, ‘let prosperity attend’; the alphabet continues, *ayanu, ayanu*, etc., . . . ending with the words *iti siddhi astu*, ‘so let there be success!’ The alphabet first given to the pupil was written in large characters, in three lines on an ola leaf; afterwards a book was given containing the complete alphabet, including combinations of letters. The letters were learnt by loud repetition in a singsong tone; the pupil stood before the teacher holding the closed book to his forehead and so repeated his lesson. Nothing else was taught until the alphabet could be repeated without fault or hesitation. The form of the letters had next to be systematically learnt, the teacher pointed to the letters and read; ‘the letter ‘a’ is read *ayanu*,” and so on. Writing was only taught after this descriptive repetition was perfectly mastered. Writing was learnt on a narrow board, called *veḷipiḷa*, spread with sand; it stood on four legs, which were sometimes turned and lacquered; the teacher had a carved ivory style (*veḷipiḷa*) with which he traced the sign *sva*, after which he guided the boy’s hand in copying: the boy wrote with his middle finger, supported by the fore-finger and thumb: in this way, little by little, the boy learnt to write the whole alphabet, and by that time he could read short sentences: this might take six months or a year. Ola writing was taught afterwards. The boy was given a long strip of ola, untrimmed, and the teacher wrote large letters on this: the boy was given an *ulkaṭuva*, i.e., a blunt writing style, and with this he traced the letters over and over again till the leaf was cut through; this was called *saṭahan kẹpima*; the boy learnt in this way to exercise a very even pressure. Afterwards he used *karakola* (talipot leaf) not tracing but copying the *guru akuru* (letters written by the teacher) as in a copybook, writing smaller and smaller by degrees: finally he was allowed to use a sharp style (*panhinda*) and to write on *puskola* (prepared talipot leaf).

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As an example of good handwriting (on paper) may be shown the script of Fig. 3, two pages of an eighteenth century paper ‘prayer book,’ a breviary said to have been used by Narēndra Simha himself. The book is further illustrated on Pls. XVII. and XX.

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Fig. 3. Two pages of an eighteenth century paper baṇa book.

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The standard of good writing (on olas) is conveyed in a corrupt Sanskrit verse current in pansala schools:

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*Samāni samapadāni, Sāmansāni samāh sirah*
*Aksharāṇi pratiṣṭavyah, Mṛiduni lalitani ca*

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*Lesson books* ‘Well-formed letters should be similar in size, similar in their tails, and in their heads, and (written) with a light pressure.’

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The first book read and learnt after the alphabet was the *Nampota*, a list of important places and temples, practically an elementary geography of Ceylon; next came *Mangul-lakuṇu*, a description of the 216 auspicious marks on the soles of the feet of Buddha, in which book Sanskrit words appear, followed by sentences in Pali. Everything had to be learnt by heart and repeated perfectly; much or all of the material so learnt was not understood at the time, but laid a sure foundation for more advanced studies. The books next read were *Gaṇa-devi-hēlla* (account of the youth and education of Gaṇeśa), *Vadan-kavi-pota* (grammar, orthography, &c.), *Buddha-gajja* (praise of Buddha in Sanskrit), *Sakas-kaḍa* (prose with difficult combinations of words; there is a saying “the tongue that hath not uttered Sakas-kaḍa is like a white ant’s”). After these came Nāmaṣṭa (Sanskrit ślokas on Buddha, and Sinhalese paraphrase); Navaratna (‘nine gems,’ nine verses of high value uttered by nine Pandits at the court of Vikrama); Vyasakāra, Pratyaśataka, Anuruddha śataka, Bauddha śataka (or Bhakti śataka), Sūrya Sataka, Vrittamālava, Vrittamālākhyāva, Amara Siṃha (i.e., Amarakosha, the Sanskrit vocabulary), all in Sanskrit: these works completed a thorough general education; a majority of students did not, of course, proceed so far. If, however, the student was intended for a learned profession, as astrology or medicine, or for the priesthood, he now proceeded to specialise; he would read, for example, Yoga-śataka (Ariṣṭa śataka) as his first book in medicine. If intended for the priesthood he would study Pali.

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Teaching was not always carried on at the pansala: the child might be taught at home by a priest or by his own father. In the case of aristocratic families, the incumbent of the family vihāra became the child’s tutor. Otherwise, and especially if there were no pansala near, the father taught his own children in the same way.

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Children were taught to be silent in the presence of their elders, and very obedient, and remain so even when grown up. They were also expected to do their own share of household or other work at an early age, and so became capable and responsible much sooner than in Europe, where children expect all their wants attended to by their elders.

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The relation between pupil and teacher in the East is one of affectionate respect, almost of reverence. This is marked in many gracious ways; I shall not easily forget the action of a craftsman’s apprentice (a man full-grown) to whom I paid money in the presence of his teacher and of another master craftsman; taking the money in both hands he salaamed to his “gurunnanse” and gave it to him; he received the money and then gravely returned both money and salute; and so also with the other master craftsmen there.

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The old system of education above described could not have been preserved in its entirety; ‘Progress’ it is in many respects unsuited to modern requirements, besides having intrinsic faults; but it is very unfortunate that so many of its real advantages are lacking in the modern system, and especially unfortunate that an “English education” such as the Royal College provides, leaves the “educated” ignorant of everything that would appear to be of special interest and value to him, and unable to hand on to others even that knowledge which he possesses of the great world beyond, and the lesson he has learnt from a study of the history and manners of other peoples. Most stupid of all is the affectation of despising everything Sinhalese and thoughtlessly admiring everything English; reminding one of that time in England when ‘Falsehood in a Ciceronian dialect had no opposers; truth in patois no listeners.’

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