Education in Ancient India c8.s3.26

c8.s3.26

Courses in Logic and Philosophy : The age we are reviewing was reverberating with controversies among the followers of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. Within the fold of Hinduism itself, the followers of Sāṅkhya, Yoga, Nyāya, Mīmānsā and Vedānta were contending for supremacy. It was but natural that these controversies should have given an impetus to the study of metaphysics. After getting a preliminary grounding in grammar and literature, the students of the subject used to select one of the systems of philosophy for specialisation and master its most advanced and difficult works. The study of philosophy presupposed a study of logic during this period; so students of philosophy used to devote considerable time to the study of logic also. The young graduate in philosophy was however expected not only to expound and defend his own system but also to attack and refute those of his opponents. The course therefore included a comparative study of the contending systems of metaphysics. Hindu philosophers like Gauḍapāda and Śaṅkarāchārya and Buddhist scholars like Nāgārjuna and Vasubandhu used to master the systems of their opponents as well. In a famous philosophical college situated in a sylvan retreat in the Vindhya mountain presided over by Divākarasena, a Brahmana convert to Buddhism, students of Hinduism, Buddhism and Śvetāmbara and Digambara Jainism studied together side by side under the same principal.¹ Such an arrangement naturally presupposes a comparative study of the rival systems leading to the broadening of the outlook and the deepening of the scholarship of the average student of the institution.