Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c11.s6.10

c11.s6.10

**Sylvan Schools.** In this connection a reference may also be made to the type of schools implied in the literature of the *Āraṇyakas.* According to Sāyaṇa,¹ the *Āraṇyakas* are so called because they had to be read in the forest. In another place, Sāyaṇa defines an *Āraṇyaka* as a Brāhmaṇa appointed for the vow of the anchorite. Oldenberg [*Prolegomena*, p. 291] holds that the *Āraṇyaka* is so called because the mysterious or mystical character of its contents requires that it should be imparted to the pupil in the solitude of the forest (*araṇye*) outside the busy haunts of men and far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife. Perhaps an instance of this may be found in the *Bṛihadāraṇyaka* [iii, 2, 13] where Yājñavalkya with reference to the discussion of a secret doctrine with another scholar in a public meeting says: "Take my hand, my friend. We two alone shall know of this; let this question of ours not be discussed in public." "Then these two went out and argued." [Cf. the terms *rahasyam*, *upanishad* as explained above.] Deussen accepts the second interpretation of Sāyaṇa because, as he states, the *Āraṇyakas* consist mainly of all kinds of explanations of the ritual and allegorical speculations embodied in the *Brāhmaṇas* which would serve as a substitute in the life of the forest for the actual sacrificial observances. Max Müller also opines that it might almost seem as if the *Āraṇyakas* were intended for the *Vānaprasthas* only, people who, after having performed all the duties of a student and a householder, retire from the world to the forest to end their days in the contemplation of the Divine, as Yājñavalkya is said to have done in the *Bṛihadāraṇyaka* [iv, 5]. Indeed, it is even explicitly stated in the *Āruṇikopanishad* that the *Sannyāsin*, the man who no longer recites the Mantras, and no longer performs sacrifices, is bound to read, out of all the Vedas, only the Āraṇyaka or the Upanishad.