Education in Ancient India c4.56

c4.56

The Function of Nurture: Though natural endowments thus play a great part, it was realised that they exist only in a potential condition in our childhood and would not flower into perfection unless they are properly developed by training and education. One may be born in a Brahmana family on account of his past good Karman: one may be also endowed by nature with the qualities of a Brahmana like self-control and love of learning. Still he will be not a whit higher than a Shudra if he does not receive proper sacraments (Sanskāras) and gets the necessary education.¹ Past Karman may determine the mental and intellectual qualities of an individual. But they will deteriorate if he does not receive proper education, and improve, though within a limited degree, if he gets the benefit of good training under a competent teacher. That nature can thus be considerably modified by nurture seems to have been the considered opinion of ancient Indian educationalists from about the beginning of the Christian era. This view is similar to the theory of Stern who sought to effect a compromise between the extreme positions of Galton and Locke by maintaining that man is born with tendencies, which are conditioned by heredity but which are transformed into the qualities of human personality through a process of development and training.