Ancient Indian Education: An Inquiry into its Origin, Development, and Ideals c4.141

c4.141

We have seen that the Brāhmanic education started out with the idea of the teacher passing on to the pupil the traditions he had himself received, and this involved primarily the learning by heart of the sacred books, but even from the earliest times the content of the education must have begun to widen out. The sacrificial ritual itself gave birth to some of the sciences. The elaborate rules for the construction of altars led to the sciences of geometry and algebra being developed, and as it was sometimes desired to erect a round altar covering the same area as a square one, problems like squaring the circle had to be faced.¹ The desire to find out propitious times and seasons for sacrifice and other purposes gave rise to astrology, from which astronomy developed. The dissection of sacrificial victims was the beginning of anatomy. The care taken to preserve the sacred text from corruption led to the development of grammar and philology, while the deep questions with regard to the universe and man’s place in it, which were already being referred to in the *Samhitās* of the Vedas, and discussed more fully in the *Āranyakas* and *Upanishads*, led to the formation of elaborate philosophical systems and the study of logic. Medicine also received an early development in India as well as law.