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Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c14: Chapter VII: Education in Kauṭilya's ‘Arthaśāstra’

Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c14

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English

Chapter VII: Education in Kauṭilya's ‘Arthaśāstra’

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**Kauṭilya’s ‘Arthaśāstra’.** The conditions of education in the Sūtra period are very clearly, if somewhat succinctly, indicated in that famous work, the *Arthaśāstra* of Kauṭilya, which is now regarded almost unanimously by all scholars as the work of the minister of the emperor, Chandragupta Maurya. Kauṭilya indicates the entire circle of the then knowledge as being made up of four divisions called (1) *Ānvīkshakī*, (2) *Trayī*, (3) *Vārtā*, (4) *Daṇḍanīti*. Each of these divisions comprises a number of subjects or sciences.

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**Subjects of Study.** The name *Ānvīkshakī* stands for the sciences derived from subjective or metaphysical speculation involving keen introspection. Three such different subjects or systems of thought and philosophy are known to Kauṭilya, viz. *Sāṁkhya*, *Yoga*, and *Lokāyata*.

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The division called *Trayī* is, of course, made up of the three Vedas, Sāma, Ṛik, and Yajus. The Atharvaveda and Itihāsaveda are also known as Vedas. The Vedāṅgas are also enumerated, viz. Śikshā, Kalpa, Vyākaraṇa, Nirukta, Chhandas, and Jyotisha.

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The rules of studentship are clearly mentioned.

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Studentship was open to the first three castes. The first Āśrama or stage of life obligatory upon all the three castes was that of studentship.

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The duties of the student comprised (1) repetition of sacred texts, (2) worship of fire, (3) ablution, (4) observance of the vow of begging, (5) service to the teacher to the end of his life and in his absence to his son or to the fellow-disciple.

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Certain moral and mental qualities are insisted upon as constituting the eligibility for studentship, implying the duties as mentioned above. Learning is regarded as a process of discipline which cannot operate successfully except upon suitable material [*Kriyāhi dravyaṁ vinayati nādravyam*]. Learning cannot train up any student unless he is intent upon or keen about the following requisites thereof, viz. (1) desire to learn, (2) receiving the lessons duly, (3) understanding them, (4) retaining them in memory, (5) reflection upon them, (6) exercise of judgment or discrimination, and (7) love of truth.

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The need of a teacher is emphasized. The regulations regarding instruction and discipline will be determined by him according to the subjects of study.

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The *Kauṭilīya* gives some new information regarding the preliminary training to be given to a child before he is old enough to be admitted to formal studentship. After the ceremony of tonsure was over, the child was to be taught Writing (*lipi*) and Numbers (i.e. arithmetic, *saṁkhyā*).

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The studentship begins with the ceremony of Upanayana. Then the student is introduced to the different subjects of study connected with the four principal divisions of knowledge mentioned above under competent teachers..

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The *Kauṭilīya* is primarily concerned with the education of the prince belonging to the ruling Kshatriya caste for which the following details are given.

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The studentship of a prince is to continue only up to his sixteenth year when he must marry. During this necessarily short term¹ of his studentship, he is to pursue a threefold course of studies. The first course is in the department of the *Trayī* and *Ānvīkshakī*, i.e. religious and philosophical subjects. The teachers of this course must be *Śishṭas*, i.e. teachers whose authority was acknowledged as much for their character as for their learning. The second course of studies was connected with *Vārtā*, i.e. subjects relating to agriculture, cattle-rearing, and trade. These subjects the prince must study under practical experts, viz. the heads of the several actual government departments administering the interests pertaining thereto. The third course for the prince was in *Daṇḍanīti* or the science and art of government. The teachers should be those who were equally proficient in the theory and practice of administration.

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¹ Considering that the Dharma-sūtras prescribe the eleventh year as the age when the Kshatriya is to commence studentship, its term for the prince would thus comprise only six years.

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Even after his marriage the prince was to continue his studies, for which a time-table is given. In the forenoon he is to receive training in the military arts connected with the four departments of the army, viz. the elephant, the horse, the chariot, and the infantry (which implies training in the art of handling various weapons of war). The afternoon he is to spend in listening to discourses on *Itihāsa*, which included, according to Kauṭilya, the following subjects, viz.· Purāṇa, Itivṛitta, Ākhyāyikā, Udāharaṇa, Dharmaśāstra, and Arthaśāstra. During the available intervals of day and night he is to acquire new and revise old knowledge. In the case of lessons not grasped, he must listen to repeated instruction. Besides these studies, companionship with men of ripe wisdom and culture is also prescribed for the prince as the root of mental and moral growth. In the case of a king, such companionship was afforded by his *Purohita* whom he is to obey as the pupil his preceptor, the son his father, or the servant his master. As regards the qualifications of the *Purohita*, it is stated that he must have the culture and character of a family well versed in traditional learning, fully educated in the Vedas, the six Vedāṅgas, the science of portents and omens, the art of administration, and able, by his knowledge and application of the Atharvan remedies, to ward off calamities due to divine and human agencies.

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**Schools of Arthasāśtra.** That the Sūtra period was an age of specialization leading to the growth of numerous schools of thought in various subjects of study then known is also shown by the evidence of Kauṭilya. In connection with the special subject of the Arthaśāstra with which alone he is concerned in the book, he refers to a number of Schools named after their founders which all grew up long before his time. These Schools are called the Mānavāḥ, Bārhaspatyāḥ, Auśanasāḥ, Pārāśarāḥ, and Āmbhīyāḥ. Besides Schools, individual specialists are also mentioned, viz. Bhāradvāja, Viśālāksha, Parāśara, Piśuna, Kauṇapadanta, Vātavyādhi, Bāhudantīputra, Kātyāyana, Kaṇiṅka-Bhāradvāja, Dīrgha-Chārāyaṇa, Ghoṭamukha, Kiñjalka, and Piśunaputra.¹

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¹ A convenient list of these names is given in Professor D. R. Bhandarkar's *Carmichael Lectures*, 1918, pp. 89, 90. In this connection we may note the exact significance of the name *Arthaśāstra* as defined by Kauṭilya himself. *Artha* = the source of livelihood of men = the earth as peopled by men whom it supports. The *Artha-śāstra* is the science (and art) dealing with the means by which the earth of human beings is to be acquired and maintained. Thus it comes to mean the science and art of government [p. 426 of Dr. Shama Sastri's edition of the *Kauṭilīya*]. It may also be pointed out that though the evidence of the *Kauṭilīya* has been considered here in connection with the Sūtra period, that work is not a typical Sūtra work, made up as it is of both *sūtras* and *bhāshyas* or commentaries, as Kauṭilya himself reminds us at the end of the book.

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