Education in Ancient India c8.s5.5

c8.s5.5

Literary Tournaments: Rājaśekhara describes the examinations held in the royal court¹, and Charaka refers to heated discussions held in learned assemblies to test the relative merits of the contending physicians.² These examinations were, however, fundamentally different from modern degree examinations. Each participant in these literary affrays was anxious to prove, not that he possessed certain minimum qualifications, but that he was the best poet or physician in the land, entitled to precedence, honour and annuities from the royal court. What Charaka or Rājaśekhara have in contemplation is not a routine examination, but an intellectual combat among the distinguished physicians and scholars of the age.