Local Government in Ancient India c15.17

c15.17

It may be interesting to note in this connexion that the subjects of study in these days embraced a very wide field. Besides those connected with the Vedas, the Mīmāṃsā (Pūrva and Uttara), Vyākaraṇa and the Śrauta Sūtras, all of which are arts subjects, there seem to have been subjects connected with science as well. This is shown in a Nellore inscription which refers to the following eleven sciences as being studied, viz. Rasa, Rasāyana, Pādāñjana, Khaḍga-yāga, Ghuṭika (magic), Kanyakā-vāda (erotics), Mantra-vāda (spells), Dhātu-vāda (metallurgy), Dhūmra-vāda (art of producing optical illusions in smoke), Gāruḍa-vāda (science of birds), and Rasa-vāda (chemistry). The extent of knowledge acquired by some of the most successful scholars of the times is surprising. Jyeṣṭhapāda-Somayājin, one of such scholars, who was granted a village for his learning, is described as having mastered the Vedas, the chanting of Sāman, six Vedāṅgas, ‘words, sentences and subjects’ (i. e. grammar), Karma-kāṇḍa, Jñāna-kāṇḍa, Śruti, Smṛti, all sacred and secular learning (‘Sarva-Jñāna-Vijñāna’) such as ‘poems, dramas, stories, epics, and legends’. He seems, however, to have been steeped exclusively in the arts or humanities and absolutely innocent of the sciences (No. 73, *S. I. I.*, vol. II, part III).