Ancient Indian Education: An Inquiry into its Origin, Development, and Ideals c4.72

c4.72

By the time, then, that the various portions of the Veda had been completed, Brāhmanic education was not only of long standing, but was highly organized, and the literature of the next period shows elaborate rules formed for its regulation. This literature is known as the Sūtras, and came into being from about 600 to 200 B.C. The sacred books which had to be mastered by the student had increased to a huge bulk, and it was necessary to condense their teaching into some convenient form. Sūtras, or ‘threads’, consist of aphorisms, or pithy phrases, in which condensation and brevity have been carried out to such an extent that the result is often an obscurity which can only be explained by a commentary. There was a saying that the saving of one syllable in a Sūtra gave more pleasure than the birth of a son, the force of which can only be understood when we remember how important it was considered that every Hindu should have a son to succeed him and perform the sacrificial rites after his death. The rules which applied to education are contained in the Dharma¹ Sūtras. Dharma is ‘one² of the most comprehensive and important terms in the whole of Sanskrit literature’. It includes the ideas of sacred law and duty, justice, religious merit, religion, and morality. It is applied to the established practice or custom of any caste or community. That which a man is expected to do because of his position in life or his caste is his *dharma*. During the early centuries of Brāhmanic education the *dharma* relating to education as well as to other matters had been gradually formed, and we have already seen something of this process going on. The composition of the Sūtras helped to fix the *dharma* and so to stereotype a great deal of the social system, including the educational theory and practice of the schools. The oldest existing *Dharma Sūtras* are considered by scholars to be those of Gautama, and their date is supposed to be about 500 B.C.¹ The *Dharma Sūtras* contain regulations relating to social life, and amongst other things have many rules dealing with the duties of teachers and students. It must be remembered, of course, that these rules, though composed about 500 B.C., give an account of practice which must have been still more ancient. There are other extant *Dharma Sūtras*, besides those of Gautama, *e.g.* those of Āpastamba, Vasistha, and Baudhāyana, which probably come a little later, and the great Law Book of India, the Code of Manu, is a metrical work, supposed by scholars to date from about 200 A.D., but to be based upon a much older *Mānava Dharma Sūtra*,² which is no longer extant.