Ancient Indian Education: An Inquiry into its Origin, Development, and Ideals c5.63

c5.63

We may say that the education of the young Indian nobles was not inferior to that of the European knights in the times of chivalry, and was very much like it in many respects. The note of personal ambition and of adventure for adventure’s sake seems much less prominent in the Indian ideal than in the European, and perhaps hardly existed, and the gentler virtues such as patience and filial devotion were much more emphasized, as we see in the story of Rāma. The idea that the king and the nobles had a duty to perform to society in the protection of the weak, and that their position was not one so much of glory and of ease as of service to others, is very prominent. No doubt many of them failed to live up to this noble ideal, but in formulating it and holding it before the rising generation of young Kshatriyas, India has much of which to be proud.