Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c19: Chapter XII: Some Typical Educational Institutions and Centres
Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c19
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Chapter XII: Some Typical Educational Institutions and Centres
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**Ancient Indian Education Individual and not Collective.** We have seen that the vital principle of Ancient Indian Education was that of individual and intimate relationship between pupils and their teachers as members of the same family, living in a common home, the home of the teacher functioning as the school in those days. Such a principle did not favour the growth of large educational institutions which, ignoring the vital differences between individuals, teach them collectively by "classes", and aim at mass-production in education. But education is a delicate biological process, a process of mental and moral growth which cannot be achieved by mechanical processes, the external apparatus and machinery of an organization. As in education, so in a more marked degree in the sphere of religion and spiritual life, India did not believe in the external and mechanical methods of organization and did not develop any ecclesiastical institutions like the churches. The interests of religious life and spiritual growth were not handed over to any institutions and their regimented life of routine, but were left to be dealt with between the guru and his pupil in their personal relationship from which the whole world was excluded. A man's inner religious life was thus treated as his supremely individual concern in which the collective life of the community should have no part. Spiritual growth, as we have seen, depends on one fundamental factor described as *Chitta-vṛitti-nirodha* and, therefore, all avenues of influences from the external world which might disturb or distract the mind should be closed, so that spiritual life may grow freely in the atmosphere of inner peace and quiet.
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**It was not Mechanized, as in large Educational Organizations.** And yet Ancient India was not lacking in religious institutions like temples and *Maṭhas* and *Tīrthas*, or places of pilgrimage where crowds gather in the interests of religious life. That is because the external aspect or element of these organizations does not supersede or interfere with the inner religious life of the individuals they bring together. Hinduism does not believe in congregational worship. There is solitude in a crowd. The press of pilgrims in a crowded temple on a sacred day of festival leaves every individual pilgrim to himself, to say his personal prayers by himself, in his own way, and in secret and private. There is an inspiring tradition that at the temple of Jagannath at Puri, which is notorious for its daily crowds of worshipping pilgrims, Lord Chaitanya was free to take to a solitary corner of the temple, at some distance from the image of the deity Jagannath, where he was always seen in the trance of meditation on the deity.
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It will thus appear that the emergence of temples and *Maṭhas* in Ancient India was not inconsistent with its religious principles and ideas which banned organization, in the Western sense, in the sphere of learning and religion, for fear lest even they, too, be "mechanized". Mechanization is fatal to learning and spirituality where the mind and soul should be left free to grow in the natural way like living organisms.
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**Examples of Organization in Education : Vedic Saṁghas, Parishads, Charakas, Maṭhas.** The beginnings of collectivism or of organization in education may be traced to the earliest Vedic times. As we have seen, even the Rigveda has several significant references to the *Saṁghas* or Assemblies of learned men meeting for those fateful and formative discussions which hammered into shape both the language and philosophy of the Vedas. The Upanishads tell of regular learned Conferences meeting at the courts of Kings by royal invitation and companies of *Chārakas* or wandering scholars touring the country in quest of higher knowledge, its centres and exponents. Then there were also stabilized institutions, the Academies of Science, like the Pāñchāla Parishat, which produced some of India's highest philosophy. Later came Jainism and Buddhism with their emphasis upon the system of organized brotherhoods accommodated in the rock-cut halls; *vihāras* and monasteries. The Brahminical system followed suit with similar institutions like *Maṭhas* and regular colleges, as we know them now.
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**Colleges endowed by Temple Charities in the South.** Of these latter-day institutions, we shall give an account on the basis of their most important and typical examples. The records of these are to be found more in the south and in inscriptions from the tenth century onwards.
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**Salotgi.** Nārāyaṇa, a minister of the Rāshtrakūṭa emperor Kṛishṇa III, founded a temple of the Trayī-Purusha, the hall of which accommodated a Sanskrit College. In course of time, the College had to build as many as twenty-seven Hostels for residence of its students who hailed from different provinces (*nānājanapadodbhavāḥ*). The expense of lights for the hostels was met from a special endowment of twelve Nivartanas (probably = 60 acres of land), while another endowment of 500 Nivartanas paid for the expenses of boarding for at least 200 students. The Principal of the College was maintained by the income of another endowment of fifty Nivartanas. The village where the College was situated, Salotgi, in Bijapur District, also supported the College by an arrangement that each villager should contribute to its funds 5 coins at each marriage, 2½ coins at each Upanayana, and 1¼ coin at each Chūḍākaraṇa ceremony to be performed by him, while at every social feast he was to invite its students and teachers [*Epi. Indica*, iv, 60].
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**Ennāyiram: Its 340 Students, 10 Teachers, and 300 Acres of Land.** An inscription of the time of emperor Rajendra Chola I (of *c.* 1023 A.D.) [*No.* 333 *of* 1917] records the endowment made by a village of certain charities which included the establishment of a Vedic College at Ennāyiram in South Arcot District, providing for the free board and tuition of 340 students, distributed as follows among the different subjects of study: 75 for Rigveda, 75 for Yajur-Veda, 20 for Chhāndoga-Sāman, 20 for Talavakāra-sāman, 20 for Vājasaneya, 10 for Atharva-Veda, 10 for the Baudhāyanīya Gṛihya, Kalpa, and Gaṇa, 40 for Rūpavatāra, 25 for Vyākaraṇa, 35 for Prābhākara Mīmāṁsā, and 10 for Vedānta. The College was manned by ten Teachers, three for each of the two Vedas taught, two for Mīmāṁsā, and one for each of the other subjects.
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**Cost of Student's Boarding.** The College was maintained by an endowment of 45 *Velis* (= about 300 acres) of land. Each student of Veda cost 6 *Nālis* (= ¾ *Karuṇi*) of paddy per day and ½ *kalañju* of gold (= 25 grains = Rs. 2/-) per year, to meet probably the cost of his clothing. A student of the more advanced subjects like Mīmāṁsā, Vedānta, and Vyākaraṇa, was given 66 per cent additional allowance.
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**Salaries of Teachers.** A teacher got the daily allowance of 1 kalam (= 12 karuṇi) of paddy, while the cost of a daily meal was ¾ karuṇi. Thus he was given the cost of food for sixteen persons per day. He was also given a bonus of ½ kalanju of gold per year.
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The Vedānta teacher got an additional allowance of 25 per cent.
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The teacher of *Vyākaraṇa* was paid at 1 kalanju of gold per *adhyāya* of the *Ashṭādhyāyī* taught.
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**Another College of 340 Students.** Inscription No. 343 of 1917 refers to the hostel attached to the temple where were daily fed 506 learned Brahmans, including the 340 College students, and also to provision made by the village for the daily supply of firewood for the hostel, while all surpluses of ghee, milk, and curds left after worship were made over to the hostel by the Temple authorities.
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**A College owning three Villages.** Five inscriptions on copper plates of the Pallava king, Vijayanṛipatunga-varman [*Epi. Ind.*, iv] record the gift of three villages to support a College, "like the Gaṅgā, supported by Śiva on his matted locks." The College taught fourteen *Gaṇas*, comprising 4 Vedas, 6 Vedāṅgas, 1 Mīmāṁsā, 1 Nyāya, 1 Purāṇa, and 1 Dharmaśāstra.
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**A College with 190 Students and 12 Teachers for its Veda and 7 for Śāstra Departments.** Inscription No. 176 of 1919 (of *c.* 1048 A.D.) records the endowment of another residential Sanskrit College which had a staff of 12 Teachers, 3 for Rigveda, 3 for Yajurveda, and 1 for other subjects each, such as Chhāndogya-Sāman, Talavakāra-Sāman, Apūrva, Vājasaneya, Bodhāyanīya, and Satyāshṭa (āḍha)-Sūtra. The College had a separate Department of Śāstra with a staff of seven Teachers to teach the seven subjects, Vedānta, Vyākaraṇa, Rupāvatāra, Śrī-Bhārata, Rāmāyaṇa, Manu-Śāstra, and Vaikhānasa-Śāstra.
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As regards students, 60 studied Rigveda, 60 Yajurveda, 20 Chhāndogya-Sāman, and 50 other Śāstras together, totalling 190 students.
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**A School of Grammar at Tiruvorriyūr.** Inscription No. 202 of 1912 records the endowment of 60 Velis of land (=about 410 acres) for the construction of a separate Hall called *Vyākaraṇa-dānavyākhyāna-maṇḍapa* for the teaching of Pāṇini's grammar and worship of God Vyākaraṇadāna-Perumāl (Śiva) in the Temple at Tiruvorriyūr. This School of Grammar was supported by further gifts recorded in Inscriptions Nos. 110 of 1912, 201 of 1912, 120 of 1912.
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**A College with a Hostel and Hospital.** Inscription No. 182 of 1915 of A.D. 1062 records the gift of a Vaiśya establishing (1) a college for teaching the Vedas, Śāstras, Rūpāvatāra (perhaps a grammatical work), (2) a Hostel for its students, and (3) a Hospital. The students were given free food and lights. The Hospital called *Vīra-śolan* (= Vīra-Chola) had fifteen beds and a staff of one physician, one surgeon, two servants for fetching drugs, fuel, and for other work for the Hospital, two maidservants to serve as nurses, and one general servant for the whole establishment. The Hospital was also equipped with a store of medicines, such as *Harītakī* of different kinds, *Bilvādighṛita*, *Vajra-kalpa*, *Kalyāṇalavaṇa*, and varieties of *taila* or oils.
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**A few other similar Institutions, and Teachers' Salaries.** Inscription No. 259 of 1905 (of *c.* A.D. 1122) records the munificent gift of forty-four villages to a Temple for the purpose of giving food and clothing to Vedic students, religious teachers, and ascetics.
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The Inscription on a Pillar at Malkāpuram in the Guntur taluk records an endowment establishing a number of institutions, a temple, a monastery, a feeding-house, colonies of Brahmins, schools of students of Śaiva Purāṇas, and a Maternity Home and a Hospital. The Staff of all these institutions included (*a*) three teachers for teaching the three Vedas, (*b*) five for teaching Logic, Literature, and the Āgamas, (*c*) one Doctor, (*d*) one Accountant (Kāyastha), (*e*) six Brāhmaṇa servants for the *Maṭha* and feeding-house, (*f*) Village-guards, called *Vīra-bhadras*, (*g*) Village Craftsmen called *Vīra-mushṭis*, to work as goldsmith, coppersmith, mason, bamboo-worker, blacksmith, potter, architect, carpenter, barber, and artisan. In the feeding-house were fed at all hours men of all castes from Brāhmaṇa to Chaṇḍāla—a remarkable instance of Śaiva catholicity.
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Each teacher was granted for his maintenance two *puṭṭis*, while a carpenter or a drummer in the service of the Temple got as his wages one *puṭṭi* of land. The Principal was paid a salary of 100 *nishkas*, of which the value is not known.
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A similar triple institution comprising a college, a hostel, and a hospital, is also recorded in an Inscription of A.D. 1068 [*Epi. Ind.*, xxi ; No. 185 of South Indian Epigraphy Report for 1915]. The College had an arrangement for free board and lodging for sixty students, of whom ten were admitted to Ṛigveda class, ten to Yajurveda, twenty to Grammar, ten to Pañcharātra philosophy class, three to Śivāgama class, while seven seats of the Hostel were reserved for Vānaprasthas and Sannyāsins.
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Vedic teachers were paid sixty *kalams* of paddy and four *kāsus* of gold in the year (about a sixth of the salary paid at the Ennāyiram college, as stated above). The teacher of Grammar was paid double that salary, 120 *kalams* of paddy and 10 *kāsus* of gold (equal in value to 35 *kalams* of paddy). But even this salary was only half of that paid at the other college to the teacher of Grammar. A menial in Temple service got a salary of sixty *kalams* of paddy with two *kāsus* of gold in the year. Thus teachers' salaries were not the same in all institutions.
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**Learned Settlements.** The cause of learning and culture was not confined, however, to these Schools or Colleges. It was recognized that learning should be a life-long pursuit and could not be confined within the limits of study which a College could undertake within the time fixed for it. Accordingly, we find public benefactions establishing not merely the purely educational institutions where the foundations of learning are laid but institutions of a wider scope, serving as centres of post-graduate, advanced study under savants devoting themselves completely to the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. These endowments of higher learning and research sought to establish entire learned settlements or cultured colonies, made up of households of pious and scholarly Brahmans, in select areas. Inscription No. 99 of vol. ii, part v of *South Indian Inscriptions* records the gift of a whole village for supporting 308 learned Brahmans in their sacred avocation of research and teaching, who were chosen as masters of the Vedas and Smṛitis and known as "Chaturvedin, Trivedin, Somayājin, Shaḍaṅgavid, Bhaṭṭa, Kramavid (proficient in the *Krama-pāṭha* of Rigveda), Sarvakratuyājin, Vājapeyin, etc". They were thus masters of both the texts or tenets and practices of Dharma and could promote learning and religion together. Inscription No. 7 of 1912 records another similar gift establishing a colony of 308 Brahmans. Inscription No. 277 of 1913 records an endowment establishing a group of 108 learned Brahman families with provision for all the necessaries of life, including a library called *Sarasvatī Bhāṇḍāra*. These learned settlements were centres of light and life, showing how theory and practice should go together, how precept should be supported by example, ethics by conduct, learning was to be lived, and truth or religion was to be realized in the activities of daily life. The cause of learning was thus very well served by these endowments supporting advanced scholars in a life of research and religion and pursuit of Truth for its own sake, to the exclusion of all other pursuits.
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Sometimes, advantage was taken of these learned settlements or *Sabhās* to judge of literary works of authors, as stated in Inscription No. 198 of 1919. The Sabhā met under a royal order and heard the work of a poet recited. On its verdict, the poet was granted land as reward of his merits. It was a relic of the old and famous *Saṅgams* which judged of the works of Tamil poets and upheld the standard of Tamil Literature.
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**Noted centres of Education in Mysore.** Some of the Mysore Inscriptions show how the Province was abounding in such wider cultural institutions which were known in three distinct varieties called *Ghaṭikā*, *Agrahāra*, and *Brahmapurī*. Sk. 176 (of *Epigraphica Carnatica*, vol. vii) tells of a pupil who, wishing to be a master of *Pravachana*, went to Kāñchī, visited each of its *Ghaṭikās* for instruction, and became a quick and accomplished debater. Thus a *Ghaṭikā* was a centre of learning and religion and small in size.
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An *Agrahāra* was a wider institution, a whole settlement of learned Brahmans, with its own powers of government and means of maintenance granted by generous donors founding them. The Agrahāra was governed by its *Sabha*, some of whose proceedings are recorded in inscriptions [*ib.*, vol. ix, pp. 127–132].
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**Belgame.** An important centre of education in Ancient Mysore was Belgame, the capital of the Banavase 12,000 province (the figure indicating the revenue fixed for it), which contained three *Puras*, five original *Maṭhas*, seven *Brahmapurīs*, scores of *Agrahāras*, Temples, Jain and Buddhist *Bastis* and *Vihāras*. The evolution of this place as a centre of culture is recorded in inscriptions. An early Sātavāhana grant of the first or second century a.d. laid its beginnings in a Brahman settlement [Sk. 263]. A Kadamba king of the third century imported from the north thirty-two Brahman families and settled them in the Agrahāra of Talgunda, near Belgame. Sk. 177, 178, 185 tell of the growth of the Agrahāra, owning as many as 144 villages, the gift of the Kadama King Mayūravarman. Sk. 14–18 refer to grants made to 1,300 Brahmans of Begur in northern Edenad 70 of Banavase 12,000.
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The Inscriptions describe the subjects of study to comprise "the four Vedas with their Aṅgas and Upāṅgas; Mīmāṁsā, Lokāyata, Bauddha, Sāṁkhya, Vaiśeshika, and other Śāstras and Āgamas; eighteen Smṛitis, Purāṇas, Kāvyas, and Nāṭakas. Sk. 92 and 96 describe how learned was the Head of the Kodiya Maṭha at Belgami, named Vāmāśakti. He was a Pāṇini in Grammar, Bharata in Drama and Music, Subandhu or Māgha in Poetry, and Nakulīśvara in Siddhānta.
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DHĀRĀ (MALWA) : Stone Image of *Vāgdevī* "Goddess of Learning"
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Sl. 277 of A.D. 1158 testifies to the existence of three Medical Dispensaries at Belgame. Sk. 102 describes how the Kōḍiya Maṭha of the same place was resorted to by destitute and diseased persons for medical treatment.
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**Mathas.** Without multiplying further evidence, what is adduced is sufficient to show how the interests of education and learning were served by a variety of institutions supported by religious endowments. The Colleges proper sprang up as annexes of the Temples, while their work received a wider scope in a more extended sphere in institutions like the Maṭhas and settlements of learned men functioning like the Academies of science of modern times. The *Maṭhas* specially are indigenous Indian examples of educational organization by which different and distant centres of culture and religious life, religious brotherhoods of different localities, are affiliated to a central and common seat of authority at headquarters and regulated and controlled by it. The best example of this federal type of educational and religious organization is furnished by the Golaki Maṭha, of which accounts are given in a series of inscriptions of the Kurnool district of the thirteenth century A.D., showing how this particular Maṭha grew up and exercised its spiritual influence and direction over as many as 3 lacs of villages under a succession of its famous chiefs and teachers. The religious life and culture of the Tamil country were very largely influenced by numerous Śaiva Maṭhas which acquired great power, and popularity under the Chola kings. The Maṭhas of Śivayogins or Māheśvaras were also great cultural influences in those days [Nos. 164, 177, 402, and 583 of 1908], while No. 465 of 1909 testifies to a similar Vaishṇava Maṭha constituted by learned Brahmans from eighteen Vaishṇava countries.
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**A College at Dhārā.** King Bhoja of Malwa (A.D. 1018–60), a patron of learning, founded at his capital, Dhārā, a college appropriately located in a Temple of ‘*Vāgdevī*’, ‘Goddess of Learning’, whose image in stone is a masterpiece of Brahmanical sculpture [Plate XVI]. The inscription on its pedestal mentions the king called ‘Bhoja-Narendra-Chandra’, the sculptor ‘Manthala, son of Sūtradhara (craftsman), Sahira’, ‘the writer, Śivadeva’, and the date, ‘Saṁvat 1091’ = A.D. 1034. The Image shows to its right the figures of a bearded Ṛishi, his disciple, the donor, and, to the left, the Mother of Vāgdevī, Durgā on lion [*Rūpam*, January, 1924].