Indian Palaeography from about B.C. 350 to about A.D. 1300 c6.s2.t2.11

c6.s2.t2.11

Finally, Jātaka No. 125, and Mahāvagga 1, 49,⁸ bear witness to the existence of elementary schools, in which the method of teaching and the matter taught were about the same as in the indigenous schools of modern India. The Jātaka mentions the wooden writing-board (*phalaka*), known (as well as the *varṇaka* or wooden pen) also to the Lalitavistara⁹ and to Berūnī,¹⁰ and still used in Indian elementary schools. The passage of the Mahāvagga gives the curriculum of the schools, *lekhā*, *gaṇanā* and *rūpa*, which three subjects, according to the Hāthigumphā inscription of the year 165 of the Maurya era,¹¹ king Khāravela of Kaliṅga learnt in his childhood. *Lekhā*, of course, means "writing," and *gaṇanā*, "arithmetic," *i.e.*, addition, substraction and the multiplication-table formerly called *aṅka* and now *āṅk*, while *rūpa*, literally "forms," corresponds to applied arithmetic, the calculations with coins, of interest and wages, and to elementary mensuration. These three subjects are still "the three R's" taught in the indigenous schools called *gāṁṭī niśāl*, *pāṭhśālā*, *lekhaḍ* or *toll*.