Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c10.33

c10.33

**Evidence on Education.** In ancient India, the system of education was fixed and standardized on the basis of certain universally admitted and established ideals and practices connoted by the term *Brahmacharya*. The Atharvaveda is the only Veda which directly extols, exalts, and expounds this fundamental system and institution of *Brahmacharya* which forms the foundation of the entire structure of Hindu thought and life. Subjects and courses of study may vary, but the system of education, its methods of training and discipline, must remain the same under all conditions. Studentship in ancient India was evolved into a science or an art of life which did not admit of any change according to age or clime but was taken to be of universal validity.