Education in Ancient India c3.32

c3.32

Aims of Education: Some Comparative Observations: It would be interesting to compare the aims and ideals of ancient Indian education with those of some other systems, both ancient and modern, both eastern and western. We therefore now proceed to do so. In ANCIENT CHINA, Confucian preached that the purpose of education should be to train each individual in his path of duty, wherein is to be prescribed most minutely every detail of life’s occupations and relationships. If we understand duty in a sufficiently wide sense, this definition of the aim of education would appear to be very similar to that of ancient Indian educationalists. In ANCIENT GREECE as well as in REFORMATION EUROPE, the ideal of personal culture loomed large in the educational system. Ancient Indians held that the individual exists more for society than vice versa; it was therefore the function of education to acquaint the individual with the culture of the race. Personal culture was promoted by the educational system only to the extent it was possible to do so by imparting national culture. Music, painting and fine arts thus did not become subjects of general education in ancient India as they became in ancient Greece. THE SPARTAN EDUCATION aimed at providing the state with as many faithful and capable soldiers as possible, who would defend it with the armed hand. The existence of the Aryans in India was not a precarious one; they were not like the Spartans threatened with a slave population about ten times their own number; so their education was not naturally dominated by the military ideal in any degree. MEDIEVAL EUROPEAN EDUCATIONALISTS held that education should be primarily for piety and wisdom; some writers like Montaigne also have advocated that it should develop virtue, wisdom, good manners and learning. Ancient Indians agree with this view but add that education must also fit an individual for a useful profession. JESUITICAL EDUCATION aimed at creating an army of faithful and resolute servants of the Catholic Church. Brahmana priests, who controlled and guided education in ancient India did not have so narrow an aim; the youths they trained very often questioned their traditional beliefs and started new theories of religion and philosophy. The system also provided for the needs of the laity. MILTON held that educational system should qualify a youth to perform skilfully, justly and magnanimously all the offices, both private and public, of peace and war. Ancient Indians held that all persons are not versatile enough to be trained for this ideal; they believed in the differentiation of functions and trained different classes for their different duties. SOME MODERN AMERICAN EDUCATIONALISTS hold that moral character and social efficiency, and not mere erudition and culture, should be the aims of education. Ancient Indians accept this view, but add that the preservation of the ancient national culture, which naturally does not loom large before a young nation like America, must also figure prominently as an aim of education. SOVIET EDUCATION concentrates its activities on the training and upliftment of the proletariate. There was no class war in ancient India; educationalists therefore tried to provide education to each class, suitable for its own needs and traditions. MODERN INDIAN EDUCATION is dominated by the aim of passing examinations with highest honours; this aim was practically non-existent in ancient India. It will be shown in Chapter VI how examinations played quite a negligible part in ancient Indian education.