Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c28.s1: Food

Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c28.s1

Language: English

Food

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The food allowed to the students was of the simplest kind. We have mention of rice-gruel being prepared as breakfast by a maid of the teacher's house [i, 318]. At invitation they were given sugar-cane, molasses, curd, and milk [i, 448].

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**Discipline.** The life of the students was also hard in other ways. Their standing duty was to gather firewood in the forests [ib.]. Their conduct was so much controlled that they were not allowed to go to a river for a bath except in the company of a teacher [No. 252].

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**Communal Colleges.** Side by side with these colleges of a heterogenous or cosmopolitan composition, we also find references to colleges of particular communities only. Teachers with 500, and only Brahman, pupils are frequently mentioned [i, 317, 402, etc.]. Sometimes teachers would have only Brahman and Kshatriya pupils [iii, 158]. We also read of a teacher at Taxila whose school had on its rolls only princes as pupils—all "princes who were at that time in India to the number of 101", besides two other princes newly admitted from the kingdoms of Kuru and Benares [v, 457].

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**Senior Students as Assistant Masters.** To manage a school of 500 pupils and undertake their education were no easy tasks for an individual teacher. He was, however, helped by a staff of Assistant Masters (*piṭṭhiāchāriya*). It was only the most advanced or senior pupils that were appointed as Assistant Masters [ii, 100; v, 457]. Assistance in teaching was also rendered by the senior pupils as such. We are told of a teacher appointing his oldest disciple to act as his substitute [i, 141]. Another teacher of Taxila, while going to Benares on some mission, appointed his chief pupil to take charge of his school during his absence, saying: "My son, I am going away from home; while I am away, you are to instruct these my pupils" (numbering 500) [iv, 51]. These senior pupils, by being associated in the work of teaching, soon became fit to be teachers. We read of Prince Sutasoma of the Kuru country who "being the senior pupil soon attained to proficiency in teaching" and, "becoming the private teacher" of his comrade in the school, "soon educated him, while the others only gradually acquired their learning" [v, 457–8]

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**Teaching by shifts both in the day and at night.** The college seems to have had a number of sittings every day. Instruction was imparted at times convenient to the students. The poorer scholars who paid for the expenses of their educational life by the performance of services or menial work for the school during the daytime could find time for study only in the nights when accordingly the teacher imparted instruction to them [ii, 278]. It was probably convenient for the day scholars to This page is blank and contains no printed text to transcribe.

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No. 1.—Gautama at School : practising writing.

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No. 2.—Gautama at School learning music.

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No. 3.—Gautama at School : being instructed in Archery.

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GANDHARA SCULPTURES (*c.* second century A.D.).

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attend the night classes: we read of Prince Juṇha who "one night, after he had been listening carefully to his teacher's instruction, left the house of his teacher in the dark and set out for home" [iv, 96]. Another student of Benares who went to Takkasilā for a particular instruction implored his teacher thus: "Give me your time for this one night only. . . I will learn the whole after one lesson" [ii, 47]. As regards the students who paid their teacher's fees, "they are treated like the eldest sons in his house, and thus they learn." They were given "schooling on every light and lucky day" [ii, 278].

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**Crowing of Cock as Call to Study.** Students seem to have commenced their studies very early in the morning, with the crowing of the cock. We read of a school of 500 Brahman students at Benares who "had a cock that crowed betimes and roused them to their studies". Probably a cock was domesticated in every school to serve as a clock! When the trained cock died, a second cock was secured which "had been bred in a cemetery and had thus no knowledge of times and seasons, and used to crow casually—at midnight as well as at daybreak. Roused by his crowing at midnight, the young Brahmans fell to their studies; by dawn they were tired out and could not for sleepiness keep their attention on the subject [already learnt (*gahitatthānampi*)]; and when he fell a-crowing in broad day they did not get a chance of quiet for repeating their lesson. And as it was the cock's crowing both at midnight and by day which had brought their studies to a standstill, they took the bird and wrung his neck" [i, 436]. It will appear from this passage that there was time for the private study of the students which they spent on repeating *new* lessons and revising *old* ones.

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**Birds as Aids to Study.** As the crowing cock was utilized to rouse students from sleep to study in the early hours of morning, the Tittiri birds, according to the Tittiri Jātaka, were trained to recite Vedic Mantras and help students by such recitations.

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**Use of Writing in Education.** In this passage, again, the reference to drowsiness preventing the students from understanding (lit. "seeing", *passanti*) the subject already learnt may be taken to indicate the use of books for their studies. The Jātakas frequently use the expression *sippam vācheti*, i.e. "getting the sciences read". More definite is the following reference to the existence of written books at the time: "the Bodhisatta . . . caused a book of judgments to be written and said, 'By observing this book ye should settle suits'" [iii, 292].

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We have again references to the various and widespread uses of writing in the Jātakas; to the writing of epistles [i, 377 (mentioning a correspondent), ii, 95, 174 (sealing a letter), iv, 145 (contents of a message given), vi, 370, 385, 403], to the forging of letters [i, 451; iv, 124], to inscription on gold plate [ii, 36, 372, 376; iv, 7, 257, 335, 488; v, 59, 67, 125; vi, 29], to inscription over a hermitage [vi, 520; iv, 489 (inscription in letters of vermilion upon a wall)], to letters of the alphabet engraved on gold necklets [vi, 390], to inscriptions upon garments and accoutrements [vi, 408], to the scratching of a message on an arrow [ii, 90], to writing on a leaf [ii, 174; iv, 55; vi, 369, 400 (writing on a leaf fastened on an arrow)]. Lastly, there is another passage [i, 451], which indicates how the art of writing was being regularly taught to the young in the elementary or primary schools. It tells how when a rich man's son "was being taught to write", his "young slave used to go with his young master's tablets and so learned at the same time to write himself". The three R's were evidently taught in these schools. We may recall in this connection the passage in the *Kauṭilīya* [i, 5], showing how after the ceremony of *chūḍākaraṇa* a boy was to be taught *lipi* or writing and *saṁkhyānam* or counting and arithmetic.

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**Different Courses of Study.** We shall now consider the courses of study that were offered by the Colleges of Takkaśilā. The Jātakas constantly refer to students coming to Takkasilā to complete their education in the three Vedas and the eighteen Sippas or Arts [i, 259, 356, 402, 464; ii, 87; iii, 115, 122, etc.]. Sometimes the students are referred to as selecting the study of the Vedas alone [i, 402; iii, 235; iv, 293, etc.] or the Arts alone [iii, 18, 238; v, 127, 162, 177, 247, 426; iv, 456; iii, 143, 219, etc.]. We may conveniently distinguish education in the Vedas as Literary Education from Education in the Arts as Scientific and Technical Education.

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**Religion and Humanities.** The invariable mention of the three Vedas shows that the study of the Atharva Veda was not included in the curriculum for general education at the time of the Jātakas. The Vedas were of course to be learnt by heart. We are told of a teacher at Takkasilā from whose lips 500 Brahman pupils learnt the Vedas [i, 402] The Bodhisatta is frequently referred to as having learned the three Vedas by heart [cf. i, 259]. Instead of the three Vedas, we sometimes find mention of "sacred texts" [iii, 235], "holy books" [iv, 293], or "the law" [iv, 392]. Some of these terms may indicate the sacred literature

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MUTTRA

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Image in stone of Piṅgala, attendant of Sūrya, holding Pen in his right hand and an Ink-pot in his left [Gupta Period].

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of the Buddhists. We find even the direct mention of a Vinaya scholar and a Sūtra scholar [iii, 486].

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**Sciences, Arts, and Crafts.** The subjects under the Sciences and Arts are not individually mentioned. Their number alone is frequently mentioned. We may refer in this connection to the passage already cited from the *Milinda Pañha* which gives the individual names of the nineteen Sippas then current. Some passages in the Jātakas, however, make individual mention of some subjects under scientific and technical education, but it is not certain whether they would come under the eighteen Sippas. We have mention of the following arts being taught in some of the colleges of Takkasilā, viz. (1) Elephant Lore (*Hatthi Sutta*) [ii, 47], (2) Magic Charms [ii, 100], (3) Spell for bringing back the dead to life [i, 510], (4) Hunting [ii, 200], (5) Spell for understanding all animals' cries [iii, 415], (6) Archery (*Issatthasippa*) [iii, 219; i, 356; v, for ii, 87], (7) The Art of Prognostication [iii, 122], (8) Charm for commanding all things of sense [iv, 456], (9) Divining from signs of the body [ii, 200], and (10) Medicine [iv, 171].

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**Specialization.** It is to be noted that students are mentioned as taking up for their study only one of these subjects in which they wanted to specialize and make themselves experts.

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**Courses of Study in Theory and Practice.** The study of these Sciences and Arts seems to have had a theoretical and a practical course. Knowledge of the literature of a subject had to be followed by its practical applications. In regard to some subjects like Medicine, for instance, the practical course had to be gone through under the direction of the teacher. The practical course in Medicine at Takkasilā included a first-hand study of the plants to find out the medicinal ones, as shown in the story of Jīvaka's education. In other subjects, the practical course was left to be completed by the students themselves when they left their colleges after finishing their instruction. Thus we read of a Brahman student "of a market town in the north country" who specialized in the science of Archery at Takkasilā and, after finishing his studies, went as far as the Andhra country in prosecution of the practical application of his art [i, 356]. There is mention of the Prince of Magadha who, having mastered all the arts of Takkasilā, "wandered through towns, villages, and all the land to acquire all practical usages and understand country observances" [iii, 238]. We have mention of another student, Setaketu, of Takkasilā who similarly "wandered, learning all practical arts" [iii, 235]. There is mentioned another prince of Magadha who, being trained in all sciences at Takkasilā, "left that place with the intention of learning the practical uses of arts and local observances" [v, 247]. We have an interesting reference to the Pāṇḍu brothers who, after receiving instruction in arts at Takkasilā, "travelled about with the idea of mastering local customs" [v, 426]. We read again of two sons of merchants and a tailor's son travelling together to learn the customs of the country folk after finishing their education in Takkasilā [iv, 38]. There is a similar reference to a student from Benares undertaking a travel after his education at Takkasilā [iv, 208]. A prince of Kosala is mentioned who after studying the three Vedas and eighteen liberal arts at Takkasilā left the place to study the practical uses of the sciences learned [iii, 115]. Lastly, there is an instance in which a student, on completion of his education in the Arts at Takkasilā and returning home to Benares, had to exhibit before his parents a practical demonstration of the technical knowledge he had acquired. In this connection, we may also recall the successful surgical operations executed by Jīvaka as soon as he had left Takkasilā on finishing his education, for they show that he must have had a previous practical training and experimentation in such difficult operations.

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**Education made practical.** A practical turn was indeed given to all instruction as a pedagogic principle. We have already referred to the first-hand observation of plant-life as a compulsory part of medical education. We have again one Jātaka [No. 123] which shows how Nature-study was always insisted upon as the best means of awakening a healthy curiosity, a spirit of observation and inquiry which are indispensable aids to intellectual culture. In the story, a "world-renowned Professor" of Benares "had 500 young Brahmans to instruct", one of whom "had always foolish notions in his head and always said the wrong thing; he was engaged with the rest in learning the scriptures as a pupil, but because of his folly could not master them". The teacher was at pains to consider what method of instruction would be suitable for that "veriest dullard" of all his pupils. "And the thought came to him that the best way was to question him on his return from gathering firewood and leaves, as to something he had seen or done that day, and then to ask what it was like. 'For,' thought the master, 'this will lead him on to making comparisons and giving reasons, and the continuous practice of comparing and reasoning on his part will enable me to impart learning to him.’ ”

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**Foreign Travel as completing Education.** The point of some of the examples cited above which should not be missed in this connection is that they demonstrate how the students of those days after their graduation undertook an extensive foreign travel to give a practical turn to their theoretical studies at the colleges, and qualify themselves for the life in the world by broadening the range of their experience and deepening their insight into human affairs by a first-hand study of the diverse manners and customs prevailing in the different parts of the country. Besides its direct educational value, this post-graduate travelling as giving a finishing touch to a student’s training was encouraged and even insisted upon for another very substantial reason, especially in the cases of the students of the well-to-do classes who were brought up in luxury. This was to build up the physique or the physical constitution of the student by inuring him to the hardships of travelling, to make him “endure heat or cold” and stand all weathers and climates. And we have already referred to the recognition of the utility of the institution as a means of moral education especially of the students of the royal and aristocratic houses, who were sent to distant centres for their education, so that by their necessary travelling and living under strange conditions in foreign parts, they might be more humanized, with their native pride of position and spirit of exclusiveness crushed out of them under the spirit of a thorough-going democracy and fraternity which a seat of learning would always breathe [No. 252].

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**Special Schools of Taxila : Schools of Medicine, Law, and Military Science.** Takkasilā was also famous for some of its special Schools. One of such Schools was the Medical School which must have been the best of its kind in India, if we may believe in the story of Jīvaka. It was also noted for its School of Law which attracted students from distant Ujjenī [iv, 392; also iii, 171]. Its Military Schools were not less famous. One such School could boast of counting all the then princes throughout India numbering 103 as its students [v, 457]. We have already seen how keen and widespread was the demand in the country for the courses and training offered by its Schools of Archery.

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Thus the teachers of Takkasilā were as famous for their knowledge of the arts of peace as for that of war. In this connection, we may refer to the story of the Brahman boy of Benares of the name of Jotipāla who was sent at the king's expense for education in archery at Takkasilā. When he had finished his training and was returning home, the teacher presented him with his own sword, a bow and arrow, a coat of mail, and a diamond, and asked him to take his place as the head of 500 pupils to be trained up by him in the military arts, as he was himself old and wanted to retire [v, 127]. The Veda-of-the-bow claimed almost as many students as the sacred triple Veda in those days.

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It is also evident that the demand for the knowledge of the *Sippas* or for technical and scientific education was not less keen than that for general education or religious studies.

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**Benares as a Centre of Education : Its School of Music.** Next to Takkasilā ranks Benares as a seat of learning. It was, however, largely the creation of the ex-students of Takkasilā who set up as teachers at Benares [Nos. 130, 185, etc.], and carried thither the culture of that cosmopolitan educational centre which was moulding the intellectual life of the whole of India. Subjects in the instruction of which Takkasilā held the monopoly were being gradually introduced into Benares. We find established there schools for the teaching of spells and magic charms by students trained from Takkasilā [ii, 99]. For the study of the ordinary subjects there were of course established many schools [i, 464]. Benares, however, was not without its own alumni as educationists. There are several references to teachers of world-wide fame with the usual number of 500 pupils to teach [i, 239; iii, 18 and 233]. The son of a Brahman magnate worth eighty crores is educated in Benares [iv, 237]. There were again certain subjects in the teaching of which Benares seems to have specialized. There is a reference, for instance, to a School of Music presided over by an expert who was "the chief of his kind in all India" [No. 243]. With all this, the inferiority of Benares to Takkasilā as a seat of learning is apparent from the fact that there are hardly to be found many references in the Jātakas to the movement of foreign scholars towards that city for education in different subjects, as we find in such abundance in respect of the other city.

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**Hermitages as Centres of Highest Learning.** Lastly, it is to be noted that the educational system of the times produced men of affairs as well as men who renounced the world in the pursuit of Truth. The life of renunciation indeed claimed many an ex-student of both Takkasilā and Benares. In the sylvan and solitary retreats away from the haunts of men, the hermitages served as schools of higher philosophical speculation and religious training where the culture previously acquired would attain its fruitage or a further development in a particular direction. These special schools of spiritual culture are also referred to as being composed of the standard number of 500 ascetics gathering round the personality of an individual hermit of established reputation to seek instruction as his disciples [i, 141, etc.]. We have, however, references to schools of larger sizes. We read of one which was so overcrowded with zealous pupils that the chief had to get other hermitages established by his seven senior pupils to relieve the congestion but to no purpose, for the original or parent hermitage continued to be crowded as before with aspirants after the religious life [v, 128].

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The hermitages were generally established in the Himalayas [i, 406, 431; iii, 143; iv, 74]. Sometimes, however, the bands of ascetics would establish themselves near the centres of population and would have facilities for attracting recruits [iii, 115; iv, 293]. These imparted to their disciples a knowledge of their “arts, texts, and practices”. We read of Setaketu, originally the senior pupil of a school of 500 pupils at Benares, going to Takkasilā for education in the “arts”, on completion of which he wandered through the country learning all practical arts, when in a village he comes across a group of 500 ascetics who, after ordaining him, taught him all their “arts, texts, and practices” [iii, 235].

Linked texts (2)

Jātaka — Pāli
Kauṭilīya Arthaśāstra — Kauṭilya, Sanskrit