Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c29.31

c29.31

**Oral teaching still the rule.** Even in Fa-Hien's time, the time-honoured Brahmanical system of oral tradition was still obtaining as the method of instruction even among Buddhists. The subjects of study were not yet reduced to writing. "In the various kingdoms of North India he had found one master transmitting orally the rules to another, but no written copies which he could transcribe" (p. 98). This was a great disappointment to the traveller who had set out on his travel with the object of finding copies of the Vinayas, as we have already seen. Out of the numerous monasteries he had visited, it was only in two that his object was realized. Manuscripts of sacred texts which he could copy were found in the Mahāyāna monastery at Pāṭaliputra and in the monasteries in Tamalipti. Thus oral instruction was the only educational method followed in the north, while the rule was relaxed in the east where the aid of written literature to education was recognized.