Ancient Indian Education: An Inquiry into its Origin, Development, and Ideals c5.47

c5.47

With regard to text-books those used in the ordinary Brāhman schools for Vedic study would serve also for the Kshatriyas in so far as they studied the same subjects, but there were two developments which arose to meet the needs of the special training required by them. We have already referred to the *Nītiśāstra* or *Arthaśāstra* as a manual of political science. The *Arthaśāstra* of Kauṭilya, from which we have quoted above, is an example, and there were probably many which have not survived. This *Arthaśāstra* contains a detailed account of the duties of the king and of his officials, and of the way the administration was carried on, and in connection with the work of the superintendents of different departments contains a good deal of information with regard to agriculture and trade, and thus included probably what was to be taught to the princes under the heading of *Vārta*. It also contains several chapters on the military science of those days. The *Nītisāra*, or *Essence of Conduct*, is a metrical treatise by an author named Kāmandaka. It is evidently based on the teaching of the *Arthaśāstra* of Kauṭilya, and contains in a condensed form many of the principles of policy taught in the *Arthaśāstra*. It belongs to about the third century A.D., or perhaps later. But the Brāhman preceptors, finding perhaps that their royal or noble pupils did not always take kindly to the effort of studying the political wisdom of the *Arthaśāstra*, devised the plan of using fables and stories as a vehicle for the teaching of this science. ‘It¹ is a combination highly characteristic of a civilization of which the two most important features were the intellectual passion and subtlety of the Brāhman Schools on the one hand, and the village life of a humorous people on the other.’ The *Pañchatantra* existed in the first half of the sixth century A.D., but the *Tantrākhyāyikā*, which is considered to be its most original and earliest form, was composed many centuries earlier.¹ It is introduced with the story of a certain king who had three particularly idle and stupid sons. He wished to find a teacher for them, and at last met with a certain Brāhman, who promised in six months to give the young princes such instruction that they should surpass all others in the knowledge of right conduct. For the accomplishment of his object he composed the *Panchatantra*. It consists of a series of fables which illustrate various points of moral conduct, and expose many human vices, like the intriguing of courtiers and the faithlessness of women. The Brāhmans themselves do not escape satire, which is levelled, for example, against their avarice and hypocrisy. The *Hitopadeśa* is a similar collection of fables, later than the *Panchatantra*, on which it is based, but the date of which is quite uncertain.² There are also other collections of fables like them, as, for instance, the *Kathā-sarit-sāgara*. The *Mahābhārata* contains a great deal of didactic material embedded in the story, and this may also have been used in the instruction of young nobles. For stories of heroes they had the epic poems like the *Mahābhārata* and the *Rāmāyaṇa*, and at a later date there were in Rājasthān many bards who wrote in verse chronicles of the deeds of heroes. These bardic chronicles begin about 700 A.D., and were composed in the vernacular.