Education in Ancient India c12.s1.8

c12.s1.8

The Rise of Public Educational Institutes :— For a long time education was imparted by individual teachers in ancient India on their own private initiative and responsibility. The rise of organised public educational institutions may be justly attributed to the influence of Buddhism. This was but natural; Buddhist monasteries already existed as corporate bodies: when they developed into educational centres, they naturally became corporate educational institutions. Temple colleges of Hinduism probably owed their inspiration to the monastic colleges of Buddhism. In the heyday of Buddhism India was studded with monasteries, and about 10 per cent of them at least used to impart higher education. An account of the more important of these institutions has already been given in Chapter V. Some of these monastic colleges like those of Nālandā, Valabhi and Vikramaśilā became international centres of learning and spread the fame of Indian education in Central and Eastern Asia. Nālandā could get an endowment even from a king of distant Java. Kings and merchant-princes in India vied with each other in giving rich endowments to these famous centres of education, and they in turn used to give not only free tuition but also free food and clothing, certainly to monks and probably to lay students also. How these institutions were organsied and managed been already explained in connection with the account of the Nālandā University (pp. 114-123). Buddhist monasteries were either independent and self-sufficient townships or situated on the outskirts of towns and villages. They therefore enjoyed the advantage of a quiet atmosphere.