Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c12.s6.38

c12.s6.38

**Non-Brahmin Teachers.** There is one other statement of Max Müller which also requires to be qualified. He says that the teachers were recruited only and exclusively from the Brahman caste. Exceptions were, however, allowed to this rule. Baudhāyana [i, 2, 3, 41] permits "study under a non-Brahmin teacher in times of distress". This is confirmed by Āpastamba [ii, 2, 5, 25], who says that "in times of distress a Brāhmaṇa may study under a Kshatriya or Vaiśya" and also by Gautama [vii, 1]. Such a non-Brahmin teacher was to be paid due honour by the Brahman student throughout the long period of his studentship. He must "walk behind him and obey him" [ib.]. The same injunction is also given by Manu [ii, 241]: "he shall walk behind and serve such a teacher, as long as the instruction lasts." The supply of non-Brahmin teachers in the country was, of course, created by the system which freely admitted them to the Brahminical schools and made education compulsory for all. We may in this connection recall the eminence achieved by Kings and Kshatriyas in the realm of highest knowledge of which they figure as teachers in the *Brāhmaṇas* and Upanishads, kings like Janaka, Ajataśatru, Aśvapati, or Jaivali, and also a significant passage in the *Kāṭhaka Saṁhitā* [ix, 16], prescribing a ceremony by which a non-Brahmaṇa who had mastered the Vedas but was not faring well in life could achieve his due reputation and affluence (*yaḥ abrāhmaṇaḥ vidyāmanūchya naiva rochate sa etāṁśchaturhotṝn vyāchakshīta*).