Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c17.55

c17.55

**Hermitage of Kaṇva.** The hermitage of Kaṇva was another famous centre of learning, of which a full description is given [i, 70]. It is situated on the banks of the Mālinī, a tributary of the Sarayū River. It was not a solitary hermitage, but an assemblage of numerous hermitages round the central hermitage of Ṛishi Kaṇva, the presiding spirit of the settlement. The entire forest was full of hearths where sacred fire was burning, and resounding with the chanting or recitation of sacred texts by learned Brahmins. The wide range and variety of their studies is also indicated. There were specialists in every branch of learning cultivated in that age; specialists in each of the four Vedas; in sacrificial literature and art; Kalpa-Sūtras; in the art of reciting the Saṁhitās according to the *Pada* and *Krama-pāṭha*, and in Orthoepy generally, and in Śikshā (Phonetics), Chhanda (Metrics), Śabda (Vyākaraṇa), and Nirukta. There were also the philosophers well versed in Ātma-Vijñāna (Science of the Absolute), in Brahmopāsanā (Worship of Brahma), in Mokshadharma (the way to salvation), and in Lokāyata (*Vaiśeshika*). There were also Logicians knowing the principles of *Nyāya*, and of Dialectics (the art of establishing propositions, solving doubts, and ascertaining conclusions). There were also specialists in the physical sciences and arts. There were, for example, experts in the art of constructing sacrificial altars of various dimensions and shapes (on the basis of a knowledge of Solid Geometry); those who had knowledge of the properties of matter (*dravyaguṇa*); of physical processes and their results, of causes and their effects; and zoologists having a special knowledge of monkeys and birds. It was thus a forest University where the study of every available branch of learning was cultivated.