Ancient Indian Education: An Inquiry into its Origin, Development, and Ideals c8.70

c8.70

Moral and religious instruction was not apparently given very much place. The Muhammadan *maktabs* taught the Korān, but it seems to have been often little more than the memorizing of those passages necessary for the performance of Muhammadan devotions. The Hindu vernacular elementary schools were unconnected with the ancient system of Brāhmanic education. The Saraswatī Bandana, or salutation to the goddess of learning, was learnt by heart in some of these schools, and repeated by the whole school each day, and where the teacher was a temple priest, or other Brāhman, he may have given to his pupils incidentally a certain amount of instruction in the mythology and sacred lore of the Hindus, but beyond this there does not seem to have been much attention paid to the moral and religious side of education.