Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c30.133

c30.133

**Manual or menial work of Monks controlled by an officer called 'Karmadāna'.** As regards the practical or moral side of monastic education, the discipline and conduct of the monks were regulated according to a system. In the first place, like the Brahmachārin in the Brahmanical system of education, much menial work was expected of the Buddhist monks too. As indicated in the passage just cited, the prevailing system was to place the control of the secular affairs of a monastery under an officer selected from the monks, called the *Karmadāna*, whose orders were to be obeyed by all the common monks for all kinds of menial work required. Exemption from this work had to be earned, as we have seen, by a monk proving himself proficient in one subject or section of the Canon and skilled in its eloquent exposition. We read of the Śrāmaṇera monastery of Rāmagrāma which was so called because its temporal affairs were controlled by a Śrāmaṇera or an unordained novice (ii, 21).