Ancient Indian Education: An Inquiry into its Origin, Development, and Ideals c4.130

Language: English

c4.130.1

The different Vedas arose, as we have seen, as collections primarily intended for different classes of priests. Every Brāhmanic family became devoted to the study of a particular Veda, and to a particular *śākhā* or recension of that Veda. The domestic rites of that family are performed according to the ritual described in the *Sūtras* connected with that Veda. It became then of the first importance that the exact text of that particular Veda, with the *Brāhmaṇas* and *Āraṇyakas* or *Upanishads*, as well as of the *Sūtras* attached to them, should be handed down from generation to generation. Now, writing was not known in India till 800 B.C., when it was introduced by traders coming by way of Mesopotamia. And although the complete Sanskrit alphabet on phonetic principles must have existed by 500 B.C., this being the alphabet recognized by the great grammarian, Pāṇini, who flourished in the fourth century B.C., writing was at first used chiefly for trading and other similar purposes, and it was a long time before it came to be used for the sacred books.¹ Probably these were considered too holy to be committed to writing, and there was also the fear that they might get into the hands of unauthorized persons. In course of time they were all committed to writing, but oral tradition was still the method relied on for handing down the sacred text.

c4.130.2

Max Müller states ¹ that even nowadays, when there are not only manuscripts but also a printed text, the Vedas are still passed on in the Brāhmanic families by oral tradition. When one considers the enormous bulk of the sacred literature it would seem an almost impossible task for it to have been preserved all through so many centuries in this way. Still we know it was done and is being done down to the present time. We need not be surprised at the long period of twelve years which was considered necessary to become acquainted with even one Veda. Max Müller quotes ² from a letter which he received in 1878 from an Indian gentleman giving an account of the system as it was then. ‘A student of a *Ṛgveda Śākhā*, if sharp and assiduous, takes about eight years to learn the *Daśagranthas*, the ten books, which consist of (1) the *Saṃhitā* or the hymns; (2) the *Brāhmaṇa*, the prose treatise on sacrifices, etc.; (3) the *Āraṇyaka*, the forest-book; (4) the *Gṛhya-Sūtras*, the rules on domestic ceremonies; (5-10) the six *Angas*, treatises on pronunciation, astronomy, ceremonial, grammar, etymology, and metre. A pupil studies every day during the eight years, except on the holidays, the so-called *anadhyāya*, i.e. non-reading days. To complete the work in eight years he would have to learn about 12 *ślokas* of 32 syllables each every day.’ Professor R. G.

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Bhandarkar is also quoted with regard to the wonderful arrangements which the Brāhmans devised for the accurate preservation of the sacred text. These were far more complicated than anything the Massoretes ever dreamed of. In the *saṃhitā* arrangement the words were in their natural order and joined together according to the Sanskrit rules of sandhi. In the *pada* arrangement the words were separate, that is, not united by *sandhi*, and the compounds also dissolved. In the *krama* arrangement the words were in the following order: 1, 2; 2, 3; 3, 4; 4, 5, etc., with *sandhi* between them. In the *jaṭā* arrangement the order was 1, 2, 2, 1, 1, 2; 2, 3, 3, 2, 2, 3; 3, 4, 4, 3, 3, 4, etc. In the *ghana*, 1, 2, 2, 1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 2, 1, 1, 2, 3; 2, 3, 3, 2, 2, 3, 4, 4, 3, 2, 2, 3, etc. This was, no doubt, a later development, but it must have greatly added to the burden upon the pupil's power of memorizing, which even before was almost too heavy to be borne, and we must wonder however pupils could have been willing to submit to the monotonous task of learning by rote such an enormous mass of material. It certainly seems as though the powers of memorizing gained by this laborious process have been inherited by later generations, for it is no uncommon thing for a boy in India, even at the present day, to commit on his own initiative a whole text-book to memory, a task which most English boys would find unbearable.