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The Rashtrakutas and their Times c23.s1: Section A: Education

The Rāṣṭrakūṭas and their Times c23.s1

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Section A: Education

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The theory that the compulsory education of the masses is a duty of the state is a very modern one, and we must banish it from our minds while examining the educational arrangements in the medieval or ancient times, whether in the west or in the east. The knowledge of the 3 R's was not regarded as a necessary part of the equipment of every citizen; members of the industrial classes paid more attention to the initiation of their boys in the mysteries of their professions than in those of the 3 R's. The village communities of the Deccan had arranged for the services of a permanent residential staff to meet their normal public needs by the grain-share system; the carpenter, the smith etc., whose services were required by every villager were assigned a grain share which was paid to them annually at the time of the harvest by all the villagers. The teacher does not figure among the grain sharing servants of the community, a fact which shows that the community at large did not regard the primary teacher as essentially necessary for the ordinary villager. It is very probable that only the children of the Brahmanas and the trading classes cared to be literate, and the arrangements for educating them could not be obviously made at the cost of the whole community, by assigning the village teacher a grain share from every villager.

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Our epigraphical materials do not throw any light on the arrangements made in the ordinary village for the primary education. Nor do the Smritis or the foreign travellers help us in the matter. It would seem that the village priest, or accountant, or some members of their families were undertaking the task of giving primary education to such village boys as cared to have it. The guardians were very probably paying the fees annually at the time of the harvest, according to their means, rather than according to a fixed scale. The teacher could supplement his income by the customary gifts in kind or cash that he used to receive on festivals like Dasara, or at the times of the thread or marriage ceremonies in the houses of his pupils. In many cases the teacher probably possessed some elementary knowledge of medicine and was also employed for writing letters, bonds and leases. Some such system prevailed in the Deccan at the advent of the British rule as I have learnt from many an octogenarian, and it is very likely that the state of affairs may have been similar in our period.

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We have ample evidence to enlighten us as to the arrangements for higher education that were made during our period. Higher education in our age meant Sanskrit education, and Veda, Vyākaraṇa (grammar), Jyotisha (astronomy and astrology), Sāhitya (literature), Mīmāṃsā, Dharmaśāstra, Purāṇas and Nyāya (logic) were the main branches thereof. The donee of the Dhulia plates of Dhruva, dated 779 A.D., ¹ is described as well versed in Vedas, Vedangas, history, Puranas, grammar, Mīmāṃsā, logic, Nirukta, and liturgy. Of these grammar is still the most extensively studied branch; Alberuni informs us that it was held in the highest estimation in his days, and curiously enough, the only place where epigraphs of our period specify the subject of a teacher is one where he happens to be the expounder of Kaumāra grammar. ² Grammar was the key subject to the knowledge of the rest of the sciences and, therefore, we may well presume that it was held in high estimation and extensively studied in the Deccan as in the north.

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¹ E. I. VIII p. 182.

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² E. I. V. p. 22.

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The Dharmaśāstra literature no doubt lays down that the whole of the Veda was to be studied for 12 years by the first three castes, but it is fairly clear that the society of our period did not pay much attention to this injunction. The Vaishyas of our period had already lost their privilege of the Vedic studies as has been already shown in the last chapter, ³ and the Kshatriyas too, though permitted to study the Vedas, were largely following the Pauranic ritual. ⁴ The normal Kshatriya youth, who intended to follow the hereditary profession of his caste, must have devoted the largest part of his time to the military training. Even in the epic period he had only a smattering of the Vedic knowledge, and we may, therefore, well conclude that in our period the cases of the Kshatriyas taking seriously to Vedic education may have been very rare. Among the Brahmanas themselves, only the professional priests must have concentrated on the study of the sacred lore; the average Brahmana who intended to take up to government service, trade or agriculture would hardly have troubled himself much about remembering the exact accent of the Vedic Mantras. Vedic sacrifices too had gone out of vogue and epigraphical evidence shows that the Puranas and the later Smritis were exercising a remarkable hold on the society as shown already in Chapter XIII. Proficiency in the Dharmaśāstra must have been regarded as a passport to government service in the judicial branch, and we may, therefore, presume that the study of this subject was more popular in our period than the study of the Vedas. It may be pointed out that the term Vedic study in our period did not mean only the cramming of the Vedic Mantras; in some centres the meaning was also studied as the title Vedārthada occurring in one of our records would show.⁵ Astrology was wielding great influence on the popular mind as shown in the last chapter; royal courts used to maintain astrologers⁶ and a number of works on astronomy and astrology were composed in our period. We may, therefore, well presume that this subject was fairly popular in the Sanskrit schools and colleges of our time as is still the case to some extent. One record slightly falling outside our period records an endowment to found a College where the work of the famous Bhāskara alone were to be studied.⁷

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³ Ante, page 332.

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⁴ Ante, p. 332.

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⁵ I. A., XIV, p. 69.

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⁶ Kavi plates, I. A., V., p. 145.

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⁷ E. I., I. p. 30.

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Arrangement for the higher education was made in three places, (i) Mathas associated with temples endowed by the state or private charity, (ii) agrahāra villages granted to Brahmana settlements, and (iii) special educational institutions conducted by private individuals or village communities with the help of the public and the state. At Hebbal in Dharwar district there existed a Matha in the Bhujjabes'vara temple; an inscription, dated 975 A.D., records the grant of 50 *mattars* ( probably equal to 200 acres ) of land for the Matha, where students were fed and taught.(8) Two 12th century inscriptions, one from Managoli dated 1161 A.D.,(9) and the other from Belgamve dated 1183 A.D.,(10) show that there existed Sanskrit schools in these villages associated with the local temples; at the latter place the temple authorities of the Dakshines'vara temple, where the school was located, were enabled by private charity to provide for the boarding of the scholars free of charge. An inscription at Jatiga Rames'vara hill in Chitaldurg district, dated 1064 A.D., records a grant of 50 *mattars* of land to the Rames'varam temple for defraying the expenses of the temple worship, and for imparting education.(11) Part of the donation of Bhadravishnu, given to the Buddhist Vihara at Kanheri, in the reign of Amoghavarsha I, was for purchasing books. The Buddhist monastery at Kanheri like the one at Valabhi(12) was obviously maintaining a library which was very probably required for the school connected with it. We learn from the Chinese travellers that the Buddhist monasteries used to attend to the training not only of the monks but also of the children of the laity.(13) Indirect help to the cause of education was given by some of the temples, which used to give free food to the students in the feeding houses attached to them.(14) Some of the records mentioned above fall just outside our period, but they may be well utilised to illustrate further the state of affairs in our age.

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The Kalas inscription(15) from Dharwar district shows that Kalas, which was an *agrahara* in our period, was maintaining a Sanskrit College. All its 200 Brahmana householders are described in v. 30 of the record as well versed in grammar, works on polity, the science of literary composition, the legendary lore and the great logic of Ekākshara sage and writing of interpretations i. e. commentaries. V. 25 observes that Kalas can pride itself, inter alia, on its brilliant dispensation of lore. The main purpose of the grant is to record an endowment, part of which was reserved for the salaries of professors. It is, therefore, quite clear that this agrahāra village was maintaining a college where grammar, Puranas, Nyāya, literature and works on polity were taught. The students must have flocked to the place from distant places. The inscription, which gives information about this college is dated in the reign of Govinda IV, but it is likely that this institution may have been flourishing throughout the 10th century.

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⁸ E. I., IV, p. 358.

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⁹ E. I., V, p. 22.

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¹⁰ *Mysore Inscriptions*, No. 45.

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¹¹ E. I., IV, p. 214.

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¹² I. A., VII, p. 67.

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¹³ I-tsing, p. 155.

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¹⁴ Kharepatan grant, E. I., III, p. 360.

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The small village of Salotgi in Bijapur district was another agrahāra village, that is known to have been maintaining a big college in the reign of Kṛṣṇa III. The college must have been flourishing for a fairly long time, for it has transformed the original name of the village Paviṭṭage into Salotgi, which is a combination of the words S'ālā and Paviṭṭage. From one of the inscriptions from this locality¹⁶ we learn that the college was located in a big hall attached to the temple of Trayī-purusha, which was built by Nārāyaṇa, a minister of Kṛṣṇa III, in 945 A.D. The record expressly states that the college attracted students from far and near, and 27 boarding houses were necessary to accommodate them. An endowment of 12 Nivartanas ( probably equal to 60 acres ) was necessary to defray merely the lighting charges of the institution. The pay of the principal of the college was the income of 50 Nivartanas of land i. e. about 250 acres. The institute had received a magnificent endowment from a local magnate, and the inhabitants of the village had agreed to pay 5, 2½, and 1¼ coins on the occasion of marriages, thread ceremonies, and tonsures respectively, besides agreeing to feed as many students and teachers as possible, at the dinners that may be given on these and similar occasions. A later inscription from the same place informs (17) us that when the college hall built in 945 A.D. crumbled down, it was built again by a local feudatory in the next century.

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¹⁶ E. I., IV, p. 60.

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There existed scores of agrahāra villages in our period given to Brahmana donees, who in many cases are expressly described as engaged in the six scriptural duties consisting of learning, teaching etc. (18) It is, therefore, fairly likely that many of these villages must have been maintaining educational institutions, more or less similar to those at Kalas and Salotgi.

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Ordinary villages also had sometimes their own schools and colleges. One institution for Sanskrit education existed at Belur in Bijapur district in 1022 A.D., (19) another at Soratur in Dharwar district in c. 950 A.D., (20) a third one at Bijapur during c. 975-1075 A.D., (21) a fourth one at Yewoor in 1077 A.D. (22) and so on. These are the institutions the memory of which has been accidentally preserved in records, that have withstood the ravages of time; there may have probably existed many more. We may, therefore, fairly conclude that the facilities for higher education during our period can compare fairly well with those afforded in the present age.

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These institutions were financed partly by state aid and partly by private charity. The agrahāra village institutions can well be regarded as being indirectly financed by the.

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¹⁷ E. I., IV, p. 64.

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¹⁸ E. g., Chittarājadeva's grant, 1024 A.D., I. A., V, p. 278.

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¹⁹ I. A., XVIII, p. 273.

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²⁰ I. A., XII, p. 253.

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²¹ I. A., X, p. 229.

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²² I. A., VIII, p. 21.

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state, since it was the state that used to alienate the village revenues to Brahmanas, who, being freed from the anxiety of their maintenance, could devote their energies to the cause of education. The *iṣṭāpūrta* theory was inducing a number of private individuals to endow educational institutions. We have seen already how a minister of Kṛṣṇa III had built the college hall at Salotgi; when it crumbled down it was re-erected by a local chief. A record from Soratur, (23) dated 951 A.D., records the gift of 12 *mattars* of land made by the officer of the division for the Maṭha and education. The Mahājans of Belur had granted in 1022 A.D., 12 *mattars* for the purpose of feeding and clothing the local students. (24) At Salotgi, as shown already, a local magnate had endowed the college and the inhabitants had levied a voluntary cess as their contribution. At Habale in Dharwar district a private individual had given five *mattars* of land for education in 1084 A.D.

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The guild at Dambal, which owned 18 cities, is described in a record from the place as maintaining a college. (25) It is, therefore, not unlikely that some of the big guilds of our period may have been either maintaining or supporting educational institutions. The state also used to sanction grants specially and directly for education, in addition to its indirect help given by the creation of the *agrahāras*. The Bahur plates of Nṛpatuṅgavarman record a grant of three villages for the maintenance of a college, made by the king at the request of his minister. (26)

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