Ancient Indian Education: An Inquiry into its Origin, Development, and Ideals c4.3

c4.3

Our knowledge of this period is derived from the *Saṃhitās* (collections of verses) of the *Vedas*, which form the oldest strata of Indian literature. The *Rigveda* was the earliest of these collections. It contains 1017 hymns divided into ten different books or *maṇḍalas*. The composition of these hymns took place at some time previous to 1000 B.C., while the Aryan race still occupied territories on both sides of the Indus.¹ Of the collection of ten books, it is considered by scholars that Books ii. to vii. formed the original nucleus.² Each of these seven is ascribed to a different seer (*rishi*), and was probably the work of himself and his descendants. They were thus family collections handed down from generation to generation, and no doubt guarded jealously as a family inheritance. It had become the custom for chieftains or nobles to appoint *purohitas*, or domestic priests, to bring them prosperity by sacrifice, and it was probably in such priestly families of high standing that the collections of hymns were formed and preserved, and the competition among these families to possess the best hymns led to the formation of a dignified and expressive literary dialect. As the influence of the priests increased, the ritual of the sacrifice became more complex. The technical lore of language and of hymns was handed down from father to son, and this was no doubt the beginning of Brāhmanic education. In a hymn¹ belonging to one of these early books there is a reference to what was probably the earliest form of the Brāhmanic school in India. It is a poem which compares the meeting together of the Brāhmans with the gathering of frogs in the rainy season :—