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Education in Ancient India c7.s7: Hindu Temple Colleges

Education in Ancient India c7.s7

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Hindu Temple Colleges

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Introduction: We have seen already how educational activity became a part of the daily monastic life fairly early in the history of Buddhism. It is, however, only from the 10th century that we get evidence of Hindu temples becoming centres of higher education. It is however quite possible that temples began to undertake educational work much earlier, though we have yet no evidence on the point. The causes that led to this new development have been indicated already at pp. 72-3.

Salotgi Temple College

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A Famous and Free College: The village of Salotgi in Bijapur District of the Bombay Presidency was a famous centre, probably of Vedic learning, in the 10th and 11th centuries A. D. The Sanskrit college that flourished at this place must have existed for a long time, for it eventually transformed the original name of the place, Pāviṭṭage, into Sāloṭgi, which is an abbreviated and Prakritised compound of Śālā and Pāviṭṭage. The college was located in a spacious hall, attached to the temple of Trayī-Puruṣa, which was built by Nārāyaṇa, a minister of the Rāṣṭrakūṭa emperor Kṛṣṇa III. Owing to its far spread fame for efficiency, the college could attract students from different parts of the country. The strength of the college is not known, but it seems that 27 houses were necessary for lodging the students. An endowment of 12 Nivartanas (probably equal to 60 acres) of land was made for meeting the lighting charges of the boarding houses.¹ The students were offered free boarding, an endowment of 500 Nivartanas having been received for that purpose. It would appear that at least 200 students were offered free boarding, lodging and education at this institution. The salary of the principal was provided for by another endowment of 50 Nivartanas. The inscription is silent about the salaries of the other teachers.

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¹ The relevant verses from the inscription are given below:—

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Public Support: The inhabitants of the village were not slow to appreciate the benefits of the institution; they had agreed to offer to the college a donation of five rupees at every marriage, of two and half rupees at every Upanayana and of a rupee and quarter at every tonsure ceremony. Besides whenever

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नारायणोऽभिधानेन नारायण इवापरः ।
प्रधानः कृष्णराजस्य मन्त्री सन्सन्धिविग्रहे ॥
तेनेयं कारिता शाला श्रीविशाला मनोरमा ।
अत्र विद्यार्थिनः संति नानाजनपदोद्भवाः ।
शालाविद्यार्थिसंघाय दत्तवान्भूमिमुत्तमाम् ।
मान्यां निवर्तनानां तु पंचभिश्च शतैर्मिताम् ॥
निवर्तनानि दीपार्थ मान्यानि द्वादशैव च ।
पंच पुष्पाणि देयानि विवाहे सति तज्जनैः ।
देयं तथोपनयने विवाहे यत्पुरोदितम् ॥
केनचित्कारणेनेह कर्तव्ये विप्रभोजने ।
भोजयेत्तु यथाशक्ति परिषत्परिषजनम् ॥

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a feast was given in the village, the host was expected to invite as many teachers and students as possible. A later inscription from the same place informs us that when the college hall built by the minister of Kṛṣṇa III in 945 A. D. crumbled down in the next century, it was rebuilt by a local magnate.

Ennāyiram Temple College

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¹ S. I. E. R. for 1918, p. 145, Inscription No. 883 for 1917

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The Strength of the College; Subjects Taught: At the beginning of the 11th century A. D. there existed a famous and well organised college at Ennāyiram in South Arcott district, which was an educational institution of the modern type, with a staff of sixteen teachers, engaged in teaching a pre-determined curriculum. The local village community had endowed the college with 300 acres of landed property, thus enabling its authorities to offer free tuition, boarding and lodging to 340 students. The admission of students was governed by the principle of the reservation of a fixed number of seats for different subjects. Thus 75 seats were reserved for the Ṛigveda and Black Yajurveda each, 40 seats for the Sāmaveda, 20 for the White Yajurveda, 10 for the Atharvaveda, Baudhāyana Dharmasūtra and Vedānta each, 25 for grammar, 35 for Mīmānsā and 40 for Rūpāvatāra (?). The institution was thus predominently a Vedic college.

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Number of Teachers: For the Ṛigveda and Black Yajurveda, there were three teachers each, for the Mīmānsā two, and for the rest of the subjects one each. There were 16 teachers for 340 students, and so the average number of students per teacher was about 22. Students therefore must have received personal attention and instructions. Big classes like those existing in modern colleges were unknown.

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Maintenance Allowance to Students: The college supplied free boarding to students, and we have interesting information about the rations allowed per head. Each Vedic student received about one seer of rice per day and this quantity was sufficient for the daily meals. He also received annually an allowances of about one eighth tola of gold, which was probably intended to cover the clothing expenses. The allowance for the students of grammar and philosophy was about 66 per cent higher; the reason for this preferential treatment is not clear.

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The Salaries of Teachers: The normal allowance for the teachers of the college was about 16 seers of rice every day. The cost of an ordinary meal was about half a seer of rice; an ordinary Sanskrit teacher was thus getting as his salary about three times the amount necessary for the food expenses of a family of five. He was thus receiving a salary just sufficient for his normal family responsibilities. He was neither rolling in riches nor suffering from abject poverty. Philosophy (Vedānta) was apparently regarded as a difficult subject, for the salary of the teacher of the subject was 25 percent higher.

Tirumukkudal Temple College

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¹ E. I., XXI, No. 220.

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General Organisation: During the 11th century, Venkatesh Perumal Temple at Tirumukkudal in Chingleput district was a very interesting institution, for it was running a college, a hostel and a hospital. The college was a smaller institution than the one at Ennāyiram, for arrangement was here made for the free boarding and lodging of 60 students only. Out of the 60 seats in the hostel, 10 were reserved for the students of the Rigveda, 10 for those of the Yajurveda, 20 for those of grammar, 10 for those of the Pañcha-rātra system, 3 for those of Śaivāgama and 7 for Vānaprasthas and Sanyāsins. All the students in the hostel were provided with oil for bath every Saturday.

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Teachers' Salaries : The teachers' salaries in this institution were lower than those in the Ennāyiram college. Vedic teachers used to receive only about three seers of rice every day; their salary was thus about one sixth the salary that was paid in the Ennāyiram college. Vedic teachers of this institution were apparently part-time teachers; for their salary is seen to be practically the same as the wages of the servant appointed in the temple hospital for fetching medicinal herbs and preparing medicines. The grammar teacher was apparently a full time employee, for he received about eight seers of rice every day. His pay was thus half the pay of the teacher at Ennāyiram. In ancient as in modern times, salaries of teachers varied with the financial condition of educational institutions.

Tiruvorriyur Temple College

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¹ S. I. E. R. for 1912, No. 201 of 1912

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A Grammar College in Memory of Panini

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temple before Pāṇini for fourteen continuous days in order to teach him the first fourteen aphorisms; the village community had therefore organised an efficient grammar college in the Śiva temple to commemorate the event. The college was a much bigger institution than the Ennāyiram college. In the latter place an endowment of 300 acres had enabled the organisers to arrange for the free food and education of 340 students. The Tiruvorriyur college had received an endowment of 400 acres; we may not be therefore far wrong in assuming that this grammar college must have had more than 450 students on its rolls. The number of teachers was probably about 15 to 20. This college went on performing its functions down to the 14th century; for a record, about a century later than the previous one, mentions how certain additional taxes were assigned for the upkeep of the grammar college.¹ Details about the management of this college are not available.

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¹ Ibid, No. 110 of 1912

Malkapuram Temple College

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A Temple, College, Hostel and Hospital combined: An inscription from Malkapuram, dated 1268 A. D.,² reveals the existence of an institution which was a temple, a college, a hostel and a hospital combined. There were eight teachers in the college, three for the Vedas and five for the secular subcets consisting of grammar, literature, logic and Āgamas. There was one doctor in charge of the hospital. In the south Indian colleges we have seen so far, there used to be about 20 students on the average under the charge of each teacher. The Malkapuram college therefore had probably about 150 students. They were as usual offered free tuition, boarding, lodging and medicine.

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² S. I. E. R., for 1917. pp. 122-24

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Teachers' pay: Each teacher was given an endowment of two puṭṭis of land. We do not know anything about the net income of this land endowment. The inscription, however, states that the carpenters and drummers of the temple establishment were assigned one puṭṭi of land for their wages. The teacher's income was thus twice the wages of the skilled labourer. The society was offering him just what was necessary for a decent family life. The salary of the principal was 100 niṣkas; it is difficult to assess its real value as the denotation of the term niṣka at this period is not definitely known.

Somes Other Temple Colleges

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Temple Colleges fairly common in south India: We have got somewhat detailed information about the free Sanskrit colleges that were organised in the five temple establishments mentioned above. There are, however, clear indications that there were many more similar temple colleges in the Deccan in the medieval times (c. 900—1400 A. D.). Thus at Hebbal in Dharwar district there existed a Maṭha in Bhuja-bbeśvara temple in the 10th century A. D., which had received an endowment of about two hundred acres of land for giving free tuition and boarding to students. About 200 students must have been receiving free education here.¹ At Nagai in Nizam's dominions, there existed a big temple Sanskrit college in the 11th century where two hunndred students were instructed in Vedic lore, two hundred in Smṛitis, one hundred in epics, and fifty two in philosophy. The library of the institute employed six librarians.² In 1075

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¹ E. I., IV, p. 355.

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² Hyd. Arch.. S., No. 8, p. 7.

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A.D., a temple at Bijapur received a big endowment of about 1200 acres of land for providing food and raiments to ascetics and to the pupils of Yogeśvara Paṇḍita, who was conducting a free Mīmānsā school there.¹ To judge from the endowment, the college of this Paṇḍita must have been much bigger than that at Ennāyiram. At Managoli in Bijapur district, during the latter half of the 12th century, a local temple used to maintain a grammar school where Kaumāra grammar was taught by a teacher, who was given an endowment of 20 acres of land.² At about the same time the Dakṣiṇeśvara temple authorities at Belgamve in Karnatak used to offer free boarding to students studying in the temple school.³ In 1158 A. D. there flourished at Talgund in Shimoga district a small Sanskrit college in the local Prāṇeśvara temple, where free food and education was offered to 48 students, studying the Ṛigveda, the Yajurveda, the Sāmaveda, Prābhākara-Mīmānsā, philosophy (Vedānta), linguistics (Bhāṣā-śāstra) and Canarese. The institution had employed two cooks to manage the kitchen of the boarding house. At Punnavayil in Tanjore District there existed another grammar college, attached to a local temple and endowed with 400 acres of land. As the endowment for the maintenance of this institution was larger than that enjoyed by the Ennāyiram college, it is quite likely that it may have afforded free education and food to about 500 students.⁴ South Indian Inscriptions Nos. 604, 667, 571, and 695 of 1916 record various grants for the salaries of teachers and boarding of students studying in different temple colleges in Tamil country. The last of these records is an interesting one, for it records a donation for a *Sarasvatī-bhavana* or library of a temple college in Tinevelli district. These instances of temple authorities organising Sanskrit schools and colleges are typical of the age. Many more must have existed, whose memory has not been handed down to the present times. For, down to the 18th century almost every religious centre in south India used to maintain a Sanskrit school or college. The whole country was in fact studded with them¹.

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¹ I. A., X, pp. 129-31.

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² E. I., V, p. 22.

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³ E. C., L. No. 45.

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⁴ S. I. E. R. for 1918, pp. 109-110.

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¹ Report of the Madras Committee, Education Commission, 1882, p. 1, foot-note.

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Temple colleges in northern India : Instances of temple colleges given above all hail from South India. It is not however correct to suppose that no such institutions existed in north India, because they are not referred to in any north Indian inscriptions. A very large number of north Indian temples have been destroyed, along with their documents of antiquity, during the Muslim invasions and rule. If all the documents conveying extensive properties to most of the rich temples in north India are recovered, it would be almost certainly found that a considerable portion of the temple property was originally intended for educational purposes. Temple authorities used to discharge their duty to impart education; one of the reasons that impelled Aurangzeb to destroy Hindu temples was the report that Brahmanas of Sindh, Multan and Benares were using their temples as schools. It is thus clear that in North India also, the important temples were centres of education throughout the middle ages.

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