Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c12.s6.59

c12.s6.59

**‘Parishad.’** The Sūtra works, however, reveal a third type of educational institutions, the scope and purposes of which make it radically different from the other two types of institutions. Every educational colony or settlement in ancient India had within itself an academy of learned and religious men called a *Parishad*. According to Gautama [xxviii, 49], a *Parishad* should consist at least of the ten following members, viz. four men who have completely studied the four Vedas, three men belonging to the three Orders enumerated first (viz. a student, a householder, and an ascetic), and three men who know three different Institutes of Law. Vasishṭha [iii, 20] and Baudhāyana [i, 1, 1, 8] lay down the same definition of a *Parishad* but instead of the three members knowing three different Institutes of Law they specify one who knows the Mīmāṁsā, one who knows the Aṅgas, and a teacher of the sacred law. Manu [xii, 111] gives a somewhat different composition of the *Parishad*. According to him, the *ten* members include *three* persons who each know one of the three principal Vedas, *one* logician, *one* Mīmāṁsaka, *one* who knows the Nirukta, *one* who recites the Institutes of the sacred Law, and *three* men belonging to the first three Orders (which do not include the hermit who cannot enter a village). Manu also permits a *Parishad* to be constituted by three members learned in the three Vedas. It will also be observed that the eligibility for the membership of such an authoritative academic body did not rest on mere intellectual qualifications. "Even if thousands of Brāhmaṇas who have not fulfilled their sacred duties are unacquainted with the Veda and subsist only by the name of their caste meet, they cannot form a *Parishad*" [Manu, xii, 114; Baudhāyana, i, 1, 1, 16]. And again: "Whatever an assembly consisting either of at least ten or of at least three persons who follow their prescribed occupations declared to be law, the legal force of that one must not dispute" [Manu, xii, 110]. Or again: "There may be five or there may be three or there may be one blameless man who decides questions regarding the sacred law. But a thousand fools cannot do it" [ib., 113; *Baudh.*, i, 1, 1, 9].