Education in Ancient India c6.7

c6.7

Rise of Organised Institutions : Corporate educational institutions were first evolved in ancient India in connection with Buddhist monasteries. The Buddha had emphasised the vital importance of imparting systematic instructions to novices, who were required to be educated for ten years, not only in spiritual practices, but also in the study of the sacred literature, which required a good grounding in Pali and Sanskrit, logic and metaphysics. When Buddhist monasteries developed into big establishments from the time of Asoka onwards, they naturally developed into centres of education. They were the counter parts of Hindu Gurukulas, where the Guru was the head, not of a family but of a monastery. At first they were intended for monks and nuns only, but later on for the lay population as well; for it was soon discovered that the best way of getting a good supply of novices of the right type and of propagating the religion among the masses was to mould the pliant minds of the young generation by taking up its education. Hindu educational institutions, so far known, are all later than the time of the Nālandā University (c. 400 A.D.). It is probable that the starting of organised public institutions for education may have been suggested to Hindus by the transformation of Buddhist monasteries into colleges and Universities. Temple colleges started by Hindus were a natural reaction to the Buddhist monastic Universities. The Maṭhas of the Āchāryas (religious teachers and recluses) of the medieval times continued the same tradition.¹