The Social Organisation in North-East India in Buddha's Time c14.70

c14.70

The method of teaching must have been the same as that which we know from Brahmanical sources,¹ and that which is still in vogue in India ; the teacher recites verse after verse and the scholar repeats what is recited. The same thing also is to be understood when in the Tittira Jâtaka it is narrated that the parrot consoles the scholars after the death of the teacher by saying that it will undertake their teaching and when they ask in astonishment how it can do this, replies, "I have listened when your teacher recited before you and have committed to memory the three Vedas." The parrot explains difficult (lit. knotty) passages one after another before the scholars (ganṭhiganṭhiṭṭhânam osâresi. III. 538).