Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c16.6

c16.6

At the outset it is to be noted that the different Schools of Philosophy rest on a common system of discipline as their foundation. This system is known as *Varṇāśramadharma*, the regulations belonging to the different castes and *āśramas* of life. These comprise the various *saṁskāras* or sacraments prescribed for the different stages of life: *Upanayana*, *Brahmacharya*, and *Samāvartana* (graduation) for its first stage, that of Studentship; the various sacrifices prescribed for the householder’s life (already described); the rules for the gradual detachment from the world in the third stage of the forest-dwelling hermit; followed by the last stage of a wandering mendicant to be devoted wholly to meditation [for details see my *Hindu Civilization*, London, 1936, pp. 128–133].