Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c12.s6.27

c12.s6.27

**Punishment of Pupils.** These old-world teachers were against hard punishments being inflicted on their young pupils. According to Gautama, "as a rule the pupil shall not be punished corporally. If no other course is possible, he may be corrected with a thin rope or cane. If the teacher strikes him with any other instrument, he is liable to punishment by the king (i.e. under the law)" [ii, 42–4]. Manu [viii, 299–300] allows a pupil who has committed faults to be beaten with a rope or split bamboo but only on the back part of the body never on a noble part. The teacher who strikes him otherwise will incur the same guilt as a thief. Gautama, as we have seen, permits bodily punishment only as the last resource, when other means of reformation fail. These other means are defined by Āpastamba to consist, first, of reproof by the teacher, and then of "frightening, fasting, bathing in cold water, and banishment from the teacher's presence", which are to be applied according to the magnitude of the pupil's fault until the pupil is completely corrected and leaves off sinning [i, 2, 8, 28–9].