Ancient Indian Education: An Inquiry into its Origin, Development, and Ideals c6.104

c6.104

A description of the education carried on in Ceylon in a Buddhist school, as given by a writer¹ who wrote about the middle of last century, may help us to form some picture of what the Buddhist schools in India were probably like, though difference of country and lapse of time may have brought many changes. He says that there was generally a school attached to a *pansal*, or residence of a Buddhist priest. The children did not all attend at the same period of day, but as they had leisure went to the *pansal* to repeat their lessons, and then returned home, or went to their employment in some other place. The school was a mere shed open at the sides, with a raised platform in one corner covered with sand, on which letters were traced by the finger of the child learning to write. Lessons were usually repeated aloud, and were recited in a singing tone, several boys frequently joining in chorus. The alphabet was first learned, and was usually copied upon *tal* leaves; after that the union of vowels and consonants. Then the pupil began to write the letters upon sand, holding in the left hand a piece of wood to erase what he had written. The course of reading included about fourteen books: (1) A name book, which was a collection of names of villages, countries, temples, caves, etc.; (2) an enumeration of the various signs and beauties upon the person of Buddha; (3) stanzas in honour of Buddha, Truth, etc., with some grammatical rules also; (4) an account of the birth of Ganeśa, etc.; (5) stanzas in praise of Buddha in Elu, Pāli, and Sanskrit; (6) Navaratna (‘The Nine Jewels’)—a description and eulogy of nine most precious things in the world, the principal of which is Buddha; (7) Sanskrit proverbs with explanations; (8) Sanskrit stanzas in honour of Buddha with explanation; (9) Sanskrit stanzas containing the names of the last twenty-four Buddhas, etc.; (10) Pāli stanzas in honour of Buddha; (11) Sanskrit stanzas in honour of the sun; (12) Sanskrit stanzas on the management of the voice in recitation; (13) Pāli stanzas in honour of Buddha; (14) the Amarakośa, or Sanskrit lexicon, with a Singhalese commentary. This was the complete curriculum for a Singhalese student unless he was preparing for the priesthood or for the medical profession. Even this course was only completed by a few of the boys who attended the *pansal* schools.