Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c29.20

c29.20

One of the most prominent centres of Buddhist learning in Fa-Hien's time was Pāṭaliputra where he saw the Mauryan "royal palace and halls" "exist now as of old" (p. 77). There were in the city one Mahāyāna monastery "very grand and beautiful", and another Hīnayāna one, the two together containing six or seven hundred monks. "The rules of demeanour and the scholastic arrangements in them are worthy of observation. Shamans of the highest virtue from all quarters, and students, inquirers wishing to find out truth and the grounds of it, all resort to these monasteries." This shows that besides offering elementary instruction to the younger monks and novices, these monasteries served as centres of advanced instruction for the maturer monks. This was due to their having as their residents several far-famed teachers. One of these was "a great Brahman, named Rādhāsāmi, a Professor of the Mahāyāna, of clear discernment, and much wisdom, who understood everything, living by himself in spotless purity. . . He might be more than fifty years old, and all the kingdom looked up to him", including the king who "served him as his teacher". "By means of this one man, the Law of Buddha was widely made known" (p. 78). The other distinguished teacher seen by Fa-Hien was also a Brahman Buddhist named Mañjuśrī "whom the Shamans of greatest virtue in the kingdom, and the Mahāyāna Bhikshus honour and look up to" (p. 79).