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The Colas c32: Chapter XXIV. Education and Learning

The Cōḷas c32

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Chapter XXIV. Education and Learning

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Universal education is a modern ideal. Modern India does not appear yet to have quite accepted it. The ancient ideal of education in India was ‘to each according to his capacity’, capacity being measured by the teacher in accordance not only with the pupil’s individual aptitudes but his birth and station in life. What is now known as industrial or technical education was largely carried on in the homes of the artisans under conditions governed by caste rules and custom.

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Little evidence of a direct character is available on the spread of literacy or the extent to which it was generally valued. But one may hazard the conjecture that the percentage of literacy in the population was not lower, it was probably higher¹ than the extremely low level revealed by recent censuses. The village school assembling under the shade of a tree or in the verandahs of temples and *maṭhas* was a common institution, and its teacher (*vātti*)² was among the staff of employees remunerated from the common land held by the village. The free school at Panaiyavaram,³ South Arcot, mentioned in an undated record, belonged, most probably, to this type. Stone masons and copper smiths were to be found everywhere to engrave inscriptions on stone and copper, and the work was often done with remarkable accuracy and art. The corrupt and colloquial forms of words and phrases in several of the inscriptions show that the work was generally entrusted to workmen who were just literate, but were no scholars. The maintenance of the complex records of the government, local and central, and the employment for this purpose of a considerable staff of officers and clerks may have stimulated then as now the resort to scholastic education as an avenue to public employment. There can be no doubt that the elaborate bureaucracy set up by the growing Cōḷa empire perceptibly increased the demand for the services of such men.

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Popular education in a wide sense was amply provided for by the recitation and exposition in temples and other public places of the national epics like the *Rāmāyaṇa* and the *Mahābhārata*, and the Purāṇas. Sometimes the elements of philosophy from the stand-point of particular sects were also similarly expounded, for instance the Śivadharma,⁴ Sōmasiddhānta, and Rāmānuja-bhāṣya.

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Higher education was generally denominational in character and pursued in schools and colleges attached to *maṭhas* and temples. The *maṭha*, the *paḷḷi* and the *vihāra* were centres of learning which often owned large libraries and transmitted by successive copyings a vast mass of manuscript literature on a variety of topics which increased in volume and diversity from generation to generation. Besides numberless little endowments for the pursuit of particular branches of study, like the Mīmāmsā of Prabhākara,⁵ and grammar (Vyākaraṇa),⁶ under the guidance of individual teachers, there were in existence colleges for general higher education, which provided instruction in various branches of study and comprised a large number of teachers and pupils commanding all the facilities for intellectual intercourse provided by a common life in the same place, if not also under the same roof. Even these large institutions were fully endowed and all the places in these colleges were free places filled by the most deserving pupils chosen from a group of competitors for admission to each course of study. These mediaeval South Indian colleges have not had the advantage of a full description from the pen of a curious and observant foreigner like I-tsing, or of having been buried underground for centuries and then suddenly revealed by the spade of the excavator.

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But contemporary inscriptions bear eloquent testimony to the great work done in their day by some of these Hindu centres of higher learning and the extent to which they enlisted the sympathy and appreciation of a thoughtful and generous public. The existence of a Vedic school, Chandoga-kiḍaippuram, endowed by a member of the village executive (*āḷungaṇam*) of Kāmappullur (Kāppalur, N. Arcot) with land he bought from the *sabhā*, is attested by two inscriptions of the reigns of Parāntaka I and Sundara Cōḷa. About A.D. 999, the Mahāsabhā of Āniyūr (now Ānūr, Chingleput Dt.) provided a *bhaṭṭavṛtti* for the teaching of Veda, grammar (*Aṣṭādhyāyī*) and other subjects. The *bhaṭṭa*, it was laid down, must be well-versed in the Vedas and should be able to teach Pāṇini-vyākaraṇa, the Alaṅkāra, and the twenty-chapters of the Mīmāṁsā. He was not only to teach his pupils but also feed them. The mention of twenty chapters of Mīmāṁsā is notable; we have now only sixteen, the rest are believed to have been lost, but were still current in the reign of Rājarāja I.

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In the reign of Rājēndra I, the *sabhā* of Rājarājacaturvēdimaṅgalam (Eṇṇāyiram), in South Arcot, resolved in the presence of an officer of the king's government, to arrange for the feeding of the pupils and the remuneration of the teachers of a college in accordance with the terms of an order made by the king himself.⁷ From the words of the inscription it is not easy to say whether the college was founded on this occasion, or had been in existence for some time before Rājēndra came forward to give it such splendid support. However that may be, the details recorded in the inscription give an accurate idea of the strength of the college, the popularity of the different courses, the relative esteem in which teachers of different subjects were held in so far as this may be judged from their respective salaries, and the average cost of maintaining pupils of different grades. The provision in this record contemplates 270 junior students and 70 senior students and a teaching staff of 14 persons. Among the junior students, Brahmacāris, forty studied the elements of grammar according to the *Rūpāvatāra*, and the rest were learning the Vedas by rote—75 devoting themselves to the Ṛg- and 75 to the Yajur-veda, twenty to each of the Vājasanēya-, and the Chandōgā- and Talavakāra- sāmas, ten to the Atharva-Vēda and the remaining ten to the Baudāyana-*gṛhya*, -*kalpa*, and *gaṇa*. Each of these junior pupils was allowed six *nāḷis* of paddy per diem.

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The seventy senior pupils (*chātras*) had an allowance of ten *nāḷis* each, and were studying three advanced subjects—Vyākaraṇa 25, Prābhākara Mīmāṁsā 35 and the Vēdānta 10. It will be noticed that, in the courses of study, while all the four Vedas are represented, there is only one *sūtra* of Ṛgveda. The use of the *Rūpāvatāra* as an introduction to the elements of Sanskrit grammar in Rājēndra's reign,⁸ the popularity of the Mīmāmsā of Prabhākara almost to the exclusion of the Bhāṭṭa school, and, if the whole college was a Vaiṣṇava institution, as most probably it was, the mention of Vēdānta of the Viśiṣṭādvaita school as a subject of study long before the great Bhāṣya of Rāmānuja came into existence, should also be noted as of particular significance to the history of Sanskrit learning in South India. Among teachers, the largest daily allowance in grain of one *kalam* and a third went to the professor of Vēdānta; the *nambis* who taught the Mīmāmsā and Vyākaraṇa came next, getting one *kalam* each. All the others were on the same level receiving only three *kurunis* or a fourth of a *kalam* *per diem*.

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Besides these daily allowances of grain, all the teachers and *chātras* (senior pupils) except the professor of Vēdānta got other allowances in gold—at the rate of one *kaḻañju* per *adhyāya* taught in the case of Vyākaraṇa and Mīmāmsā teachers, entitling them to 8 *kaḻañjus* and 12 *kaḻañjus* respectively for a whole course, and a half *kaḻañju* per head *per annum* for all the rest. To make money by teaching Vēdānta was prohibited by law and custom, and this, apparently, was the reason why no payment in gold was offered to the teacher of Vēdānta. Another college, quite similar to that at Eṇṇāyiram, was maintained at Tribhuvani, near Pondicherry.⁹ There were in it 260 students

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and 12 teachers. The subjects of study were generally those prescribed at Eṇṇāyiram; the Prābhākaram is not mentioned, but other new subjects come in, like the Satyāṣāḍha *sūtras*, Manu *śāstra* and Vaikhānasa *śāstra*, besides *Bhārata*, *Rāmāyaṇa*, these last being expounded to popular audiences rather than taught as school subjects. The daily allowances to students and teachers were all in grain; the junior students were allowed six measures each and the senior eight; among teachers, the professor of Vēdānta got a *kalam* and a sixth, while the others received varying allowances ranging from one *kalam* to a fourth of it. The inscription of the thirtieth year of Rājādhirāja, A.D. 1048 which records these facts, also exempts the teachers and students of the college from active service on the committees of the village-assembly in accordance with a resolution of the *sabhā*.

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Next we have the celebrated Tirumukkūḍal inscription of Vīrarājēndra, A.D. 1067.¹⁰ This inscription contains a very detailed account of the entire budget of receipts and expenses in the local temple of Mahāviṣṇu, and the schedule of expenses included provision for a college and a hospital. The college was a comparatively small institution and only two Vedas (Ṛg and Yajus) and Vyākaraṇa with *Rūpāvatāra* were taught in it. Provision was made for one teacher and ten pupils for the studying of each of the two Vedas, and for one teacher and twenty pupils in the Vyākaraṇa school. The Veda teachers were remunerated at the rate of one *padakku* of paddy per day and four gold *kāśus* per annum, while the teacher of Vyākaraṇa was paid a *tūṇi*—twice a *padakku*—per diem and ten *kāśus* per annum. It is clear that the Veda school was only what is now called an *adhyayana-pāṭha-śālā*, a school where pupils are trained to repeat the text by rote. The pupils were provided not only with food on the basis of 1½ *nāḷis* of rice per *diem* and suitable side dishes, but with mats for sleeping on, oil for their heads on Saturdays (fifty-one Saturdays being counted to the year), and a night light. There were also two women servants who looked after the menial service required by the schools and their pupils.

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An inscription of the third year of Vikramacōḷa, A.D. 1121,¹¹ from Tiruvāḍutuṟai, mentions that among persons who were to be fed in a *maṭha* in that place were students of medicine and grammar, learners of Vāgbhaṭa’s *Aṣṭāṅgahṛdaya*, of *Carakasaṁhitā* and of the *Rūpāvatāra*. In the thirteenth regnal year of Kulōttuṅga II twelve *vēlis* of land were set apart for ten Bhaṭṭas versed in Veda and *śāstra*, one Śivācārya, and one *vaidya* (physician) at Peruvēḷūr in S. Arcot; they were all provided with houses to the north and west of the temple; the endowment was made by Rājēndraśōḷa Śambuvarāyan who also provided lands for the Veḷḷāḷa tenants of these Bhaṭṭas and remitted the *pāḍikāval* fees on the *dēvadāna* and *agaram* lands. Another inscription of A.D. 1213 from Tiruvoṟṟiyūr recapitulates the legend of Śiva expounding the fourteen Vyākaraṇa sūtras to Pāṇini, localises the legend in the Vyākaraṇa-dāna-maṇḍapa in the temple of Tiruvoṟṟiyūr, and records an endowment of sixty-five *vēlis* of land towards the maintenance of a school of Vyākaraṇa in the *maṇḍapa* and of the *maṇḍapa* itself in proper repair. From Tiruviḍaikkaḷi in the Tanjore district, we have yet another inscription, dated a.d. 1229, which provides for the free feeding in the local *maṭha* of Brahmin students of the Vēdānta from the Malabar country.¹² An undated inscription which may be assigned to the latter half of the thirteenth century mentions the foundation of a library (*Sarasvatī-bhaṇḍāram*) in the Śrīraṅgam temple by Pālapalli Nīlakaṇṭha Nāyakar who also set up the image of Hayagrīva, Sarasvatī, and Veda-Vyāsa in the *maṇḍapa* housing the library and provided for their daily worship. There were, besides, several endowments for rewarding merit and distinction attained in these scholastic pursuits, like the one at Kāmarasavalli, dated a.d. 998, to those who recited portions of the *Talavakāra-sāma*.¹³ There were also other organisations of a learned character like the *Ghaṭikā* of Vembāṟṟūr¹⁴ of which only the names have come down to us.

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While we thus find much evidence on the nature and organisation of higher studies in Sanskrit, it is somewhat disappointing that we are left with practically no tangible evidence on the state of Tamil learning; yet there can be no doubt that the numerous *maṭhas*, the names of which are recorded in inscriptions all over the country, did serve as more or less important centres for the promotion of learning, religious and secular, in the Tamil language. We may be certain that then, as now, it was one of the principal tasks of the *maṭhas* to train the bands of choristers who sang the *Tiruppadiyam* in the temples.

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¹ Cf. Elphinstone—*History of India*,^5 p. 205.

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² 17 of 1920.

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³ 323 of 1917.

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⁴ 321 of 1917; 403 of 1896; 493 of 1919.

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⁵ 233 of 1911; 333 of 1923.

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⁶ 18 of 1898; 202 of 1912.

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6a 268 and 270 of 1938-39, *ARE.* II, 12.

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6b 76 of 1932-3, *ARE.* II, 22. N. L. Rao refers me to *Mīmāṁsā-Darśana*, ed. Prājña Pāṭhaśālā-maṇḍala-granthamālā, about the twenty chapters.
7. 333 of 1917, *ARE.* 1918.
8. Dharmakīrti, the author of the *Rūpāvatāra*, must have lived much earlier than the 12th century, the date assigned to him by M. Rangacharya in his edition of the *Rūpāvatāra*, p. xv. 8a. This may have been due to the common epistemological standpoint of the Vaiṣṇava Viśiṣṭādvaita and Prābhākara mīmāmsā in holding that all knowledge is valid.
9. 176 of 1919.
10. 182 of 1915, *EI.* xxi, pp. 220 ff.
11. 159 of 1925. 11a. 512 of 1937-38, *ARE.* II, 38. 11b. 202 of 1912.
12. 276 of 1925. 12a. 139 of 1938-9, *ARE.* II, 70.
13. 76 of 1914. 343 of 1917 from Eṇṇāyriam provides for presents to reciters of all the Vēdas.

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