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Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c31: Chapter XXIII: I-Tsing’s Account of Education in the Seventh Century A.D.

Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c31

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English

Chapter XXIII: I-Tsing’s Account of Education in the Seventh Century A.D.

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**I-tsing visited India soon after Hiuen Tsang.** Seventh-century India has been described by another Chinese traveller who set foot on Indian soil in A.D. 672 within a few years after Hiuen Tsang had left it (A.D. 645). It was this fact which probably determined the lines and scope of I-tsing’s account of India so as not to render it superfluous after Hiuen Tsang’s copious account immediately preceding it. Accordingly, we miss in it the wealth of details, the range and variety of information, which make of Hiuen Tsang’s record a sort of a Gazetteer for India of those spacious times. And yet, in covering the ground not trod in Hiuen Tsang’s account, the account of I-tsing necessarily forms a valuable addition and supplement to Hiuen Tsang’s.

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**His reverence for Hiuen Tsang.** But apart from this, Hiuen Tsang exercised a considerable personal influence upon I-tsing. According to his biographer, he was an eye-witness of the noble enthusiasm of Hiuen Tsang and the ceremony of his funeral which was celebrated with special pomp under the Emperor’s orders. Hiuen Tsang died during the time of I-tsing’s stay in the capital. His references to Hiuen Tsang are always full of reverence. He calls him “the Tripiṭaka Teacher of China” (p. 74) and “the Bhadanta Hiuen Tsang who followed out his professional career in his own country” (p. 184), and places him on a footing of equality with renowned Buddhist scholars from India like Paramārtha and Kumārajīva. According to his biographer, I-tsing was a great admirer of both Hiuen Tsang and Fa-Hien, in whose footsteps he followed in seeking to slake his thirst for knowledge at its very fountains in India.

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**Object of his Mission: its difficulties.** Like Fa-Hien I-tsing’s object was to study and gather the genuine texts of the Vinaya rules, to correct their misrepresentations in China, and to combat the erroneous views held by the *Vinayadharas* there in those days (Takakusu’s ed., pp. 15, 18). At first I-tsing organized a band of scholars to undertake that mission and a joint travel to India, the home of Buddhist literature, but eventually he had to travel almost alone, his only companion being a youthful priest. Not at all depressed by this discouraging circumstance, he had the inspiring words of his teacher to lead him on to that arduous enterprise from which others had shrunk: “Go without hesitation; do not look back upon things left behind. I certainly approve of your pilgrimage to the holy places. Moreover, it is a most important duty to strive for the prosperity of Religion. Rest clear from doubt! This is a great opportunity for you, which will not occur twice” (p. xxviii).

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**Places visited by I-tsing and periods of his stay.** The places actually visited by I-tsing in India were much fewer than those visited by Hiuen Tsang. These were: Kapilavastu, Buddhagayā, Vārāṇasī, Śrāvastī, Kānyakubja, Rājagṛiha (Nālanda), Vaiśālī, Kuśinagara, and Tāmralipti. He refers to several other places in India, viz. Lāṭa, Sindhu, Valabhī, Udyāna, Kāśmīra, and Nepāla, but his descriptions of these places do not appear to be those of an eye-witness. He was, however, careful to check the accuracy of hearsay accounts received by him. He himself states: “Although I myself did not see all these parts of India, I could nevertheless ascertain everything by careful inquiry” (p. 43).

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At some of the places he spent more time for his studies than Hiuen Tsang. He stayed at Tāmralipti for four months. At Nālanda he stayed for as many as ten years.

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**His collection of Texts in India.** His literary collections from India amounted to a considerable quantity. They comprised some 400 different texts of Buddhist works with the slokas numbering 500,000.

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**His acquisition of knowledge of Sanskrit and its Grammar.** His internal acquisitions in India included a knowledge of Sanskrit and of Śabdavidyā (grammar and lexicography) (p. xxxi). He was thus able to translate on his return home no less than 56 works in 230 volumes. By the literature that he thus introduced into China in which were represented practically the whole texts of the Vinaya belonging to his own Nikāya (the Mūlasarvāstivādin school), he became the founder of a new school in China for the study of that particular branch of Buddhist literature.

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**Strength of Brahmanism.** The predominance of Brahmanism over Buddhism continued in I-tsing’s time. India was known by the name of *Brahma-rāshtra* (pp. 118, 156). Sanskrit, called the *Brahma-language*, became the language of even the Buddhist works and a subject of study of the Buddhist monks. As stated by I-tsing, "a thorough study of Sanskrit Grammar may clear up many difficulties we encounter while engaged in translation" (p. 168). I-tsing refers to the ninety-six heretical schools of thought and mentions the Sāṁkhya and Vaiśeshika systems of philosophy (p. 2). Some of the existing sects of the times are described as follows: "Some think it necessary, in order to get rid of re-birth, to have their body naked (Digambara) and the hair plucked out; others insist, as the means of securing heaven, on anointing their body with ashes or tying up their locks of hair (probably Śaivas called Bhūtas by Hiuen Tsang). Some say life is self-existent, while others believe that the soul becomes extinct on death. There are many who think that existence is a perfect mystery, dark and obscure, and its reality is not to be explored, and it is too minute and complicated for us to know whence we have come into being" (ib.). I-tsing also refers to the Brahmans as being "regarded throughout the five parts of India as the most honourable caste" who do not associate with other castes (p. 182). "The scriptures they revere are the four Vedas, containing about 100,000 verses." "The Vedas have been handed down from mouth to mouth, not transcribed on paper or leaves. In every generation there exist some intelligent Brahmans who can recite the 100,000 verses" (ib.). There is a reference to Brahmanical methods of study, the meaning of which is not clear: "In India there are two traditional ways by which one can attain to great intellectual power. Firstly, by repeatedly committing to memory, the intellect is developed; secondly, the alphabet fixes one's ideas. By this way, after a practice of ten days or a month, a student feels his thoughts rise like a fountain, and can commit to memory whatever he has once heard (not requiring to be told twice). This is far from being a myth, for I myself have met such men" (p. 183).

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**Elementary Education : its Textbooks and Subjects: (1) Alphabets, (2) Grammar (Pāṇini and Kāśikā).** Like Hiuen Tsang, I-tsing gives an account of the general and elementary education of the times prior to specialization and higher education in the monasteries. Education is begun at the age of six years. The first book of reading is called *Siddhirastu*, which gives 49 letters of the alphabet and 10,000 syllables arranged in 300 slokas. This Primer is finished in six months (pp. 170-2).

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The second book of reading is the *Sūtra* of Pāṇini, containing 1,000 slokas which the "children begin to learn when they are eight years old and can repeat in eight months' time" (p. 172). Next follow the book on *Dhātu*, and that on the three *Khilas* which the boys would begin when they are ten years old and master after three years' diligent study (p. 175). The book to be read next is the famous *Kāśikāvṛitti*, "the best" of all the commentaries on Pāṇini's Sūtra, comprising 18,000 slokas, and composed by the learned Jayāditya, "a man of great ability with very striking literary power," who died nearly thirty years before I-tsing's notice of him in his account (i.e. A.D. 661–2). "Boys of fifteen years begin to study this commentary and understand it after years. If men of China go to India for study, they have first of all to learn this grammatical work, then other subjects; if not, their labour will be thrown away."

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**(3) Composition, (4) Logic and Philosophy.** "After having studied this commentary, students begin to learn *Composition* in prose and verse and devote themselves to Logic (Hetuvidyā) and Metaphysics (Abhidharmakosha)." Under Logic, they study the introductory work composed by Nāgārjuna, called Nyāyadvāra-tāraka-śāstra, which teaches how to "rightly draw inferences (Anumāna)" and which was translated into Chinese by I-tsing in A.D. 711, while "by studying the *Jātakamāla* their powers of comprehension increase". Besides the *Jātakamāla* which was compiled under the patronage of the emperor Harsha (p. 163), there was another work which was equally popular and "regarded as standard literature", viz. the *Suhṛillekha*, an epistle in verse, addressed by Nāgārjuna to his patron, king Jetaka Sātavāhana (p. 159), known for the beauty of its style and for its earnest exhortations as to the right way. I-tsing sent in advance to China a Chinese translation of this Epistle of Nāgārjuna (p. 166).

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**The Five Vidyās.** Here ends the course of elementary and general education. Properly speaking, it comprised the study of the five subjects or Vidyās, viz. (1) Śabdavidyā (grammar and lexicography), (2) Śilpasthānavidyā, "arts"; (3) Chikitsāvidyā, "medicine"; (4) Hetuvidyā, "logic"; and (5) Adhyātmavidyā, "science of the universal soul," philosophy. I-tsing gives us the details of study as regards (1), (4), and (5) in the foregoing extracts. Elsewhere he gives details regarding (3) or medical science (p. 127).

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**Medical Science.** Of Medical Science, he mentions eight sections treating respectively of (1) sores, inward and outward, (2) diseases above the neck, and (3) below it, or bodily diseases, (4) demoniac diseases due to attack of evil spirits, (5) the Agada medicine, i.e. antidote or medicine for counteracting poisons, (6) diseases of the children from the embryo stage to the sixteenth year, (7) the means of lengthening life, and (8) the methods of invigorating the legs and body. “These eight arts formerly existed in eight books, but lately a man epitomized them and made them into one bundle. All physicians in the five parts of India practise according to *this book*, and any physician who is well versed in it never fails to live by the official pay.” I-tsing himself claims to have made “a successful study in medical science”, but finally gave it up as it was not his proper vocation. But he explains why this subject was a part of the compulsory course of elementary studies for all, including those intended for monkhood. “Is it not a sad thing,” he asks, “that *sickness* prevents the pursuit of one's duty and vocation? Is it not beneficial if people can benefit others as well as themselves *by the study of medicine?*” (p. 130). I-tsing mentions the principal medical herbs in India (p. 128) and the “rules on giving medicine” (ch. xxviii), which insisted on fasting as an effective cure (p. 133), by practice of which “each man is himself the king of physicians, and anyone can be Jīvaka” (ib.). There is a reference to the use of Tea (p. 135) and the *universal* disuse of any kind of onions in India (p. 137) which, because they “have a foul smell and are impure”, are not to be eaten “except in case of illness” (p. 138). The surgical processes of cauterizing with fire or applying a puncture are also referred to (p. 129).

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I-tsing does not give us any details of the studies or curriculum under that part of compulsory elementary education which went by the name of Śilpasthānavidyā, “arts,” the second of the five Vidyās as stated above.

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The completion of the study of the five Vidyās completes the course of elementary and general education. Then follows bifurcation of studies or specialization.

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**Higher and Specialized Study : (1) Of Grammar : Its Textbooks.** There is a course of specialized and advanced studies in *Vyākaraṇa* which was “the name for the general secular literature” (p. 169). The following textbooks were prescribed : (1) The *Chūrṇi*, which is the name of Patañjali’s famous commentary on Pāṇini’s Sūtras, usually called the *Mahābhāshya*, containing 24,000 slokas (p. 178). It cites the *Sūtras*, explains the obscure points, analyses the principles involved, and clears up many difficulties. "*Advanced scholars learn this in three years.*" (2) The *Bhartṛihari-Śāstra*, which was a commentary in 25,000 slokas on the former work by the great scholar Bhartṛihari, who "*was very famous throughout the five parts of India*" and who "*became seven times a priest and seven times returned to the laity*". He died in A.D. 651-2 (p. 180). (3) The *Vākyapadīya*, another work of Bhartṛihari, with 700 slokas and a commentary portion in 7,000 slokas. It is a "*treatise on the Inference, supported by the authority of the sacred teaching and on Inductive arguments*" (ib.). (4) The *Pei-na* (probably Sanskrit Beḍa or Veḍa), a grammatical work of 3,000 slokas composed by Bhartṛihari, with a commentary portion in 14,000 slokas attributed to his contemporary, Dharmapāla. It treats of "*the secrets of heaven and earth and of the philosophy of man*".

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Students completing this advanced study were regarded as masters of grammatical science and earned the title of *Bahuśruta* ("much heard" or "knowing much of the Śruti"). This course of specialization in Grammar was open to both priests and laymen (p. 180).

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**(2) Of Religion.** There were again courses of specialization in religious or priestly studies which were organized and offered by the monasteries. The most famous of such seats of higher learning in the time of I-tsing's visit to India were "the Nālanda monastery in Central India" and that "in the country of Valabhī in Western India" (p. 177).

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**Rules of Admission to Monkhood.** We shall now consider the rules governing the education and organization of the monasteries as given by our pilgrim. It would appear that the rules laid down in the Vinaya texts regarding admission to monasteries, to priesthood or ordination, were substantially followed in the days of I-tsing, whose evidence based upon first-hand observation is thus another welcome confirmation of that of the sacred texts whose precepts are otherwise liable to be supposed as merely *ideal* in their character. The student who wants to become a priest (i.e. homeless) first finds a teacher to whom he relates his wish. The teacher through some means or other inquires whether he has any moral disqualification, such as patricide, matricide, and the like. If he is eligible, the proposed teacher accepts him as a candidate for orders and leaves him at leisure ten days or a month and then imparts to him the five precepts (prohibiting murder, theft, lying, adultery, and intoxication). The candidate is now called an *Upāsaka*, which is his *first step* into the Law of the Buddha. Then the teacher, getting for him a triple clothing, a bowl, and a filter, addresses himself to the Saṁgha and relates that the candidate has a desire to be a priest (i.e. homeless). When the Saṁgha has admitted him, the teacher on his behalf asks the *Āchāryas* to conduct the ceremony. After this the candidate has hi hair and beard shaven, bathes, and, putting on the priestly cloak, receives the bowl and becomes a *Pravrajita*. Next, in the presence of his teacher (*Upādhyāya*), he *Āchārya* imparts to him the ten precepts by reciting or reading them. After the priest has been instructed in these precepts, he is called *Śramaṇera*. The Śramaṇera is eligible for full ordination on his attaining the required age of twenty years. Then his *Upādhyāya*, arranging for him the six requisites [viz. the triple clothing or *tichīvara*, the bowl, the *nishīdana*, and a water-strainer (but the Pāli texts mention some different requisites, eight in number)], gets up a meeting of the Saṁgha of at least nine other members before whom he presents the candidate who pays respects three times to each member. After this ceremony, the candidate is instructed three times to learn the Mahāśīlas. Then the *Upādhyāya* invests him before the assembly with the garments, and the bowl which has to be approved by them and then accepted by the candidate. After this the Āchārya imparts to him the Mahāśīlas and he then becomes an *Upasampanna* Bhikshu. The exact hour, date, month, and season of the ordination are then written down so that his seniority might be determined. The last act of the ceremony is the gift by the candidate of some such thing as a girdle or a filter to the teachers or members of the Saṁgha ordaining him as a token of his gratitude to them (adapted from ch. xix).

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**Studies of Monks.** Then begins the regular course of monastic education and discipline. The Upādhyāya imparts to his pupil the contents of the *Prātimoksha* as the first lesson, explaining to him the character of the offences and how to recite the precepts. "These having been learnt, the candidate begins to read the larger Vinaya-piṭaka; he reads it day after day, and is examined every morning, for if he does not keep to it constantly he will lose intellectual power. When he has read the Vinaya-Piṭaka, he begins to learn the Sūtras and Śāstras. Such is the way in which a teacher instructs in India" (p. 104). I-tsing also refers to the Vinaya practice of requiring for each priest under training two teachers called the *Upādhyāya* and the *Karmāchārya* (ib.), the former being "the teacher of personal instruction" (adhyāya = lit. "teaching to read" and upa = "near"), and the latter "the teacher of discipline" who "teaches pupils rules and ceremonies" (p. 118).

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To the ordinary and traditional curriculum of specialized priestly studies in the monasteries which included the Vinaya works, the Sūtras and the Śāstras (p. 181), some new works seem to have been added in course of time. Among these, I-tsing mentions the two hymns of 150 and 400 verses attributed to Mātṛicheta (the former of which was translated by I-tsing during his stay at Nālanda). "Throughout India," says our pilgrim, "everyone who becomes a monk is taught Mātṛicheta's two hymns as soon as he can recite the five and ten precepts (*śīla*). This course is adopted by both the Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna schools" (p. 157). "After one is able to recite them, one proceeds to learn other Sūtras" (p. 158). These two hymns were valued not merely for their contents but also for their language showing "how to compose verses". Next to them I-tsing mentions the *Buddhacharitakāvya* of Aśvaghosha which "is widely read or sung throughout the five divisions of India, and the countries of the Southern Sea" (p. 166), as well as the two other works already mentioned, viz. Nāgārjuna's *Suhṛillekha* and the *Jātakamālā*.¹ Advanced studies and specialization were also carried on in a few other subjects on which considerable literature had been developed, as described by I-tsing. Thus some Bhikshus might elect to study the *Yoga* system for which the curriculum included, as the first book of study, the *Yogāchārya-Śāstra*, to be followed by Asaṅga's Eight Śāstras, which are named. If a priest wanted to distinguish himself in the study of *Logic* he was to master Jina's Eight Śāstras, which are also named. Similarly, six Pādas or treatises are mentioned in connection with the study of the Abhidharma or Metaphysics and four Nikāyas or classes of works in connection with the Āgamas. The mastery of the Abhidharma and Āgama works was regarded as essential for any Bhikshu who wanted to successfully combat heretics and disputants (pp. 186-7).

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¹ I-tsing also mentions two other recently composed works which were also widely used. The first was the story of the Bodhisattva Jīmūtavāhana versified by King Śīlāditya, who popularized it by having it sung with dancing and acting, and the second was a poetical song about the Visvāntara-Jātaka composed by a learned man in Eastern India, Chandradāsa by name (p. 164).

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**Daily Duties.** As education in the monasteries aimed at both intellectual and moral growth, the rules regulating the daily life of the inmates were framed with a reference to both the aims. What I-tsing observed of the relations between teacher and pupil is on the lines of the Vinaya rules on the subject already discussed. The day begins with the pupil supplying his teacher with tooth-wood, basin with water, and towel. He then walks round the temple and, worshipping the image, returns and makes inquiries of his teacher about his health. "Next, the pupil goes to salute his seniors who are in neighbouring apartments. Afterwards he reads a portion of the scripture and reflects on what he has learnt. He acquires new knowledge day by day and searches into old subjects month after month without losing a minute" (p. 117). The new knowledge is, of course, acquired with the help of the teacher who, "selecting some passages from the Tripiṭakas, gives a lesson in a way that suits circumstances, and does not pass any fact or theory unexplained" (p. 120).

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The entire daily conduct of the pupil is inspected by the teacher who "warns him of defects and transgressions. Whenever he finds his pupil faulty he makes him seek remedies and repent" (ib.). The pupil serves his teacher as best as he may, such as rubbing his body, folding his clothes, and sweeping the apartment and the yard. "Thus, if there be anything to be done, he does all on behalf of his teacher. This is the manner in which one pays respect to one's superior." But the spirit of this loving and devoted service was met by its due response: for instance, "in case of a pupil's illness, his teacher himself nurses him, supplies all the medicines needed, and pays attention to him as if he were his child" (ib.). Thus the entire system of Indian education, whether Brahmanical or Buddhist, was based upon the principle of a personal touch or relationship between the teacher and the taught, whether the sphere of its working lay in the individual household of the teacher or in the collective establishment of a monastery. Both the domestic and monastic systems of education worked upon the basis of a common pedagogic principle, though they differed as regards the manner of its application as determined by their respective backgrounds or environments.

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**Grading of Monks.** The monks of the monasteries, like the students of colleges, were suitably graded according to their capacities and the level of advance they attained. Within the community of monks, the lowest grade is that of the *Śramaṇera* who is promoted, after his Upasampadā ordination, to the grade of the *Dahara*-(small) *Bhikshu*. Higher than him is the *Sthavira* (elder), the Bhikshu, who has seen ten summers or passed ten summer retreats in that capacity, and who, for his standing, "can live by himself without having to live under a teacher's care" (p. 104). In another place (p. 119) I-tsing tells of a preliminary stage of Sthavirahood and of the mastery of the Vinaya, and not mere seniority, as the standard of such gradings. Thus he states: "After the lapse of five summers from the time that the pupil masters the Vinaya, he is allowed to live apart from his Upādhyāya. He can then go about among the people and proceed to pursue some other aim. Yet he must put himself under the care of *some teacher* wherever he goes. This will cease after the lapse of ten summers, i.e. after he is able to understand the Vinaya." Thus, according to this statement, it is the independence of the teacher, the cessation of *nissaya* (to use the Vinaya word), attained by a ten years' standing after graduation in Vinaya, which entitles a Bhikshu to the degree or rank of a *Sthavira*. A *Sthavira* necessarily attains the position of an *Upādhyāya* and an *Upādhyāya* must be a *Sthavira*. A higher rank probably belonged to the other classes of teachers, like the Karmāchāryas and others who could officiate in the ordinations, but the basis of the distinction is not defined. "The age of a Karmāchārya and private instructor, and of other teachers who are witnesses, is not limited; they must be fully acquainted with the Vinaya, being themselves pure" (p. 105). The highest grade for a Bhikshu was that of the *Bahuśruta*. This high title was conferred only on one who was "learned both in the sacred and secular literatures and famed as virtuous" (p. 104). We have already noticed what was the course of study in secular literature that was prescribed for this coveted degree and distinction of the *Bahuśruta*.

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**Privileges according to Grades.** But the gradations of the monks in a monastery were indicated not merely by titles, but also by privileges. To venerable monks, if very learned, or those who had thoroughly studied at least one of the three Piṭakas were assigned some of the best rooms of the monastery and servants. "When such men gave daily lectures, they were freed from the business imposed on the (ordinary) monastics." They were given the further privilege of being permitted, when they went out, "to ride in sedan-chairs but not on horseback" (p. 64). These facts were observed by I-tsing at the Varāha monastery in Tāmralipti.

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**Admission of non-Buddhist Students: Provision of Secular Education.** We have now considered the classification of the monks in a monastery in accordance with their educational needs and capacities. But it should be noted that these monks were students belonging to the religious section of the monastery, i.e. that section which imparted instruction in sacred literature only. But a Buddhist monastery had also a secular section. To this section were admitted students who were called *Brahmachārins*, and had no intention of renouncing the world and becoming Buddhist monks. That this section was highly popular in I-tsing's time is apparent from his following statement: "In the monasteries of India there are many 'students' (Brahmachārins) who are entrusted to the Bhikshus and instructed by them in secular literature" (p. 106). That the Bhikshus in those days made themselves masters of both religious and secular literature has been already shown. As we have already noticed, proficiency in both was, indeed, insisted upon as the distinguishing distinction of a *Bahuśruta*, while we even read of monks who sought the king's service in practical administration by proving their talents at the intellectual contests organized for the purpose at the king's House of Debate. In fact, as we have already seen, monks under the Buddhist system were free to return to secular life. We read, for instance, of the famous scholar Bhartṛihari, who "became seven times a priest, and seven times returned to the laity" and wrote in self-reproach:

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"Through the enticement of the world I returned to the laity.
Being free from secular pleasures again I wear the priestly cloak.
How do these two impulses
Play with me as if a child?" (p. 179).

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Indeed, after finishing their education, monks "can follow whatever occupation they like" (p. 178).

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**Admission of unordained Students.** Besides organizing secular courses of study and throwing them open to non-Buddhist students or students from the Buddhist lay public, the monasteries still further widened their scope and sphere of usefulness by admitting to their religious sections even unordained students. These were called *Māṇavas* who might be potential, but not actual, monks with whom they only agreed in seeking instruction in the Buddhist scriptures. They come in the white robes of laymen but they cherish "the intention that they may one day become tonsured and black-robed", i.e. become ordained (p. 105).

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This interesting institution of not confining the monasteries only to monks was recommended on several grounds. On the one hand, the secular students served under the priests as pages, "bringing them the tooth-woods or serving them at the meals," and, on the other hand, their instruction might kindle in them pious aspirations, so that both parties are benefited in this way.

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**Breadth of Culture in these Monasteries.** Both these classes of secular students, the *Mānavas* and the *Brahmachārīs*, were also permitted to be in residence in the monasteries instead of being compelled to attend them as day-scholars. But they had, of course, to bring their own boarding expenses, for they could not under rules be fed from the property of the Saṁgha unless they had done some laborious work for the Saṁgha, who might then pay for it in the shape of feeding them according to their merit (p. 106). It was, of course, open for the monasteries to receive special grants of food for these classes of students (ib.).

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Thus the Buddhist monasteries of the times became the seats and centres of both sacred and secular learning, and, being freely resorted to by both Buddhist monks and laymen, and even by non-Buddhists, materially aided in the diffusion of learning and culture in the country. The Buddhist monks also who cam practically to have the monopoly in this learning and culture were catholic and generous enough to impart them to persons not belonging to their way of life. Not confining their sympathies and valued services within the limited boundaries of their own church and faith, they thus became the Directors of Public Instruction in the country. They recognized in a noble spirit of toleration that the country was above creed, and culture above church! In disowning the divisions and distinctions of caste in the external organization of their brotherhood, the Buddhist monks could not consistently apply the same principle in another and more important sphere of their activities.

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**Unsuccessful Teachers and Pupils.** Not all the teachers and the taught in the monasteries were always successful. We read of monks unable to understand the Vinaya and thus compelled "to live under another's care during the whole of their life-time". Sometimes the failure may be due to the want of a really able teacher. "If there be no great teacher, he must live under the care of a sub-teacher." From such a sub-teacher he may arrange to receive instruction twice a day in the morning and evening but with all this it may so happen that the meaning of the Vinaya text is not understood as it ought to be. The incapacity of a teacher is condemned by the Vinaya thus: "Rather be a butcher than be a priest who gives others full ordination and leaves them untaught" (p. 120).

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**Unsuccessful Monasteries.** There were also not only individual failures among the monks, whether teachers or students, but also collective failures among them as brotherhoods, among the monasteries regarded as educational institutions. I-tsing speaks of some monasteries giving themselves. up wholly to "unlawful life", violating the principal injunctions of the Vinaya (p 194).

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**Successful Monasteries and their best products.** As regards their successes, the monasteries produced some of the highest types of intellect and character. One of their principal aims was to produce successful preachers and dialecticians. Such persons were needed for the purposes of a proselytizing religion which had, moreover, to maintain its position against the numerous sects that were ready to challenge its supremacy in India in those days. Accordingly, the highest honour in the Buddhist world of scholarship was accorded to those who would "oppose the heretics as they would drive beasts (deer) in the middle of the plain and explain away disputations as boiling water melts frost" (p. 181). The successful disputants "become famous throughout Jambudvīpa (India) and receive respect above gods and men". Men of such international reputation are, of course, rare, "only one or two appearing in every generation." I-tsing mentions some of them belonging to the different periods of Buddhist history. "Such were Nāgārjuna, Deva, Aśvaghosha, of an early age; Vasubandhu, Asaṅga, Saṁghabhadra, Bhāvaviveka, in the Middle Ages; and Jina, Dharmapāla, Dharmakīrti, Śīlabhadra, Siṁhachandra, Sthiramati, Guṇamati, Prajñāgupta, Guṇaprabha, Jinaprabha of late years" (ib.). To these names he elsewhere (p. 183) adds those of Kāśyapa-mātaṅga and Dharmaraksha (who were the first Indian Buddhists in China, which they visited in A.D. 67); of Paramārtha (who came to China in A.D. 548 and translated thirty-one works), whose fame "reached even to the Southern Ocean (i.e. Nanking)"; of Kumārajīva (who came to China about A.D. 401 and translated fifty Sanskrit books into Chinese), who "supplied a virtuous pattern to the foreign land".

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The institutions most successful in producing this kind of intellectual eminence in I-tsing's time were the monasteries at Nālanda and Valabhī. "There eminent and accomplished men gathered in crowds, discussed possible and impossible doctrines, and after having been assured of the excellence of their opinions by wise men became far-famed for their wisdom" (p. 177). The friction of the best minds that collected at those two famous centres of Buddhist learning was the best possible means of developing and sharpening the wits and powers of debate.

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**Learned Assemblies at the Courts of Kings who rewarded merit.** But these learned disputations which thus formed the characteristic feature of Indian intellectual life were held not merely in the monasteries but also at the courts of kings under the encouragement of the State. The kings even in I-tsing's time, as in the days of old, were fond of organizing intellectual tournaments at which superior knowledge might be tested, rewarded, recognized, and proclaimed. "To try the sharpness of their wit they proceed to the king's court to lay down before it the sharp weapon (of their abilities); there they present their schemes and show their talent, seeking to be appointed in the practical government" (p. 177). I-tsing also tells us of the House of Debate in the royal palace where the literary tournaments were held. Those who emerge victorious there will at once achieve an international reputation: "the sound of their fame makes the five mountains of India vibrate, and their renown flows, as it were, over the four borders." (p. 178). The king rewards their talent by grants of land and advancing them to a high rank and also by having their famous names written down in white on the lofty gates of his palace¹ (ib.).

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¹ The Chinese passage is differently interpreted by Mr. K. P. Jayaswal [*JASB.*, June, 1911, p. 312]. According to him, it means that those who are victorious in debate are called upon to discourse upon the great systems of philosophy and not that their names are inscribed "on the lofty gates".

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**Literary Celebrities of the Times.** I-tsing also mentions the literary celebrities of India in his time. He refers to them either as his contemporaries or personal acquaintances who were all alive between A.D. 670-700. He says: "The following are the most distinguished teachers who now live in the West. Jñānachandra, a Master of the Law, lives in the monastery Tiladha (in Magadha); in the Nālanda monastery Ratnasiṁha (who was teacher of Hiuen Chao when he was at Nālanda about A.D. 649); in Eastern India Divākaramitra (of whom Bāṇa's *Harsha-charita* gives an interesting account too); and in the southernmost district, Tathāgatagarbha. In Śrībhoga of the Southern Sea resides Śākyakīrti who travelled all through the five countries of India in order to learn, and is at present in Śrībloja (in Sumatra) " (p. 184). To these names are to be added Rāhulamitra (p. 63) and Chandra (pp. 164, 183). The former belonged to the Tāmralipti monastery when I-tsing visited it. He was then about thirty years old; of "excellent" conduct and "exceedingly great" fame; thoroughly conversant not only with the three Piṭakas, but also with "the secular literature on the four sciences"; who "was honoured as the head of the priests in Eastern Ārya-deśa"; who had never spoken with women face to face except his mother and sister, and when questioned on this puritanism by I-tsing, answered in all humility: "I am naturally full of worldly attachment and without doing thus I cannot stop its source. Although we are not prohibited (to speak with women) by the Holy One, it may be right (to keep them off), if it is meant to prevent our evil desires." Every day he used to "read over the Ratnakūṭa-sūtra, which contains 700 verses" (p. 64). Mahāsattva Chandra lived in Eastern India and "was still alive when I-tsing visited that country". He was "like a Bodhisattva endowed with great talent" (p. 183). We have already referred to his authorship of the poem about Viśvāntara-Jātaka.

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All these men, says I-tsing, were renowned as much for their character as for their learning, in both of which they aspired after the highest ideal. In character they were "anxious to follow in the footsteps of the Sages"; in learning, if it was Logic (Hetuvidyā) they studied, "they aspired to be like Jina," and if it was Yoga, they had Asaṅga as their model. In discourse, they followed Nāgārjuna, and, in philosophical exposition, Saṁghabhadra. With these distinguished scholars, our pilgrim had the benefit of a personal contact. Says he: "I, I-tsing, used to converse with these teachers so intimately that I was able to receive invaluable instruction personally from them. I have always been very glad that I had the opportunity of acquiring knowledge from them personally which I should otherwise never have possessed, and that I could refresh my memory of past study by comparing old *notes* with new ones" (p. 185).

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**Worship of Images, Chaityas, and Stūpas.** Direct worship of images, chaityas, and stūpas set up in connection with the monasteries was a part of the religious training they provided. We read of the installation of the holy image of the Buddha, of which the ablution was celebrated daily with great pomp by all the monastics, who were summoned for the ceremony by the Managing Priest, Karmadāna, striking a *ghaṇṭā* or bell (p. 149). I-tsing also refers to images being installed even "in individual apartments of a monastery" (ib.). Besides the image of the Buddha, there were installed "in great monasteries in India" (p. 38) the images of Mahākāla, of the Nāga Mahāmuchilinda (seen by I-tsing in the Mahābodhi monastery at Gayā), and of Mother Hāritī in the dining-hall (p. 37). Besides worship of images, there was also the worship of Chaityas (the sacred buildings containing the relics of the Buddha or saints) and Stūpas (p. 152). Every afternoon the monks were to come out of the gate of their monastery and walk three times round a stūpa, offering incense and flower, and then kneeling down, while one of them chanted hymns. Then the assembly returned to the monastery to hear a Sūtra being read by a Sūtra-reciter. The Sūtra usually selected was the "service in three parts", compiled by Aśvaghosha. When this is ended, all the assembled priests exclaim "Subhāshita" or "Sādhu". Then the priests, in the order of their rank, salute the Siṁhāsanam as well as the seats of the saints (p. 154). The performance of these rites was observed by I-tsing at Tāmralipti. In the Nālanda monastery, where it was difficult to assemble its numerous monks in one place for congregational worship, the worship could only take place separately as most convenient to each member (ib.).

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**Change of Monasteries by Monks.** Monks could change their monasteries. A stranger monk on arrival at a monastery would be first treated as a guest for five days and given the best of food so that he might recover from his fatigue, after which he was treated as a common monastic if he was not learned. If he *was*, and bore a good character, he was assigned his proper rank and treatment with his name "written down on the register of the names of the resident priests" (p. 64). All visitors were cordially welcomed by the word *svāgata* and by the word *susvāgata* if they were strangers (p. 124). The ceremonies of receiving them varied according as they were teachers, pupils, strangers, or friends (p. 125).

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**Physical Exercise.** Along with the needs of mental and moral training, the monasteries, strange as it might appear, were not unmindful of the needs of physical health for which regular exercises were prescribed. I-tsing tells us that "in India both priests and laymen are generally in the habit of taking walks, going backwards and forwards along a path, at suitable hours, and at their pleasures. . . The walking hours are in the forenoon and late in the afternoon. They either go away (for a walk) from their monasteries, or stroll quietly along the corridors". This physical exercise was expressly undergone "for the sake of taking air" so as "to keep oneself in good health or to cure diseases". The Buddha himself took this exercise: "there are cloisters where he used to walk, on the Vulture-Peak, under the Bo-tree, in the Deer Park, at Rājāgriha, and in other holy places" which were two cubits in width and fifteen in length (p. 114). The Vinaya often speaks of monks preferring to walk up and down as an aid to meditation itself!

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**Self-government in Monasteries.** Apart from their studies and discipline, which were controlled by their teachers, the monks had other matters in their own collective control. If we may generalize on the basis of what I-tsing says of a particular but a typical monastery (viz. that at Tāmralipti), the monasteries in his time were democratically governed and not governed by a bureaucracy of the kind described in the Vinaya. The bureaucratic element in their management was represented by the solitary official called *Karmadāna*, the managing monk, but his powers seem to have been very limited, being only to announce the commencement of any ceremonies or service, etc., by striking a bell and to superintend the preparation of food (p. 148). At the Tāmralipti monastery, "no principal office was appointed; when any business happened, it was settled by the assembly; and if any priest decided anything by himself alone, or treated the priests favourably or unfavourably at his own pleasure without regarding the will of the assembly he was expelled from the monastery" and dubbed a *Kulapati* (householder). In the case of any improper and immoral act done by any monk, a special investigation was instituted by the monks meeting in an assembly where the culprit, his accomplices, and the witnesses were subjected to a cross-examination, and the due punishment was pronounced. "Thus all the priests submitted to their own laws without giving any trouble to the public court" (p. 63).

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**Names of Monks admitted or expelled entered in a Register.** The expulsion from the monastery of the offending monk was recorded by his name being struck off its roll. For every monastery had, as we have seen, its own register-book. When a layman was admitted as a monk to a monastery, his name was written down on the register-book of the monastery and "thenceforth his name had no concern with the register of the State" (p. 65).

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**Self-government at Nālandā.** The monastery of Nālanda was also democratically governed. I-tsing observed there that it was the great assembly of priests who assigned rooms every year (p. 86) there, for instance.

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**Menial and Administrative Staff.** Among the staff appointed to manage the affairs of the monasteries, there are mentioned, besides the Karmadāna, officers called Vihāra-pālas, such as the keeper, the warder of the gate, and he who announces the affairs of the Saṁgha (p. 148), as also "the lay servants" who do not belong to the order of the monks, but might be professed Upāsakas. Their functions are indicated in the accounts of the Chinese travellers. Fa-Hien refers to them as attending at meals; Hiuen Tsang refers to them as attending on a venerable monk, while I-tsing gives us more details about their work. The "monastic lay servant" carries a chair and utensils when a monk goes to a reception (p. 36); he carries away the remnant of food eaten by the monk (p. 47); he carries incense and flowers in accompanying the precentor going round from one apartment of the monastery to another, chanting hymns (p. 154); the time-drum of the monastery is beaten by him, but he is not entitled to strike the gong announcing the beginning of the Service (p. 145); he had also to watch the clepsydra (p. 144); he is also employed to cultivate the fields belonging to the monasteries which the monks themselves could not directly cultivate under rules (p. 61); while lastly, as we have seen, he had to render menial service to a very learned priest or one who has mastered one of the Piṭakas, who was given the privilege of being attended by such servants.

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**Diet.** The diet of the monks in I-tsing's time corresponded to the rules of the Vinaya and comprised the *Pañchabhojanīyas*, viz. rice, a boiled mixture of barley and peas, baked corn-flour, meat and cakes, and the *Pañchakhādanīyas* consisting of roots, stalks, leaves, flowers, and fruits (p. 43). There are mentioned also gruel made of dried rice and bean soup which "is served with hot butter sauce as flavouring", melted butter and cream to be "partaken of to any extent" (p. 40), and ghee, oil, milk which were abundant everywhere (p. 44). These articles of diet varied with the countries. "In the north wheat-flour is abundant; in the western district baked flour (rice or barley) is used above all; in Magadha wheat-flour is scarce but rice is plentiful; and the southern frontier and the eastern borderland have similar products to those of Magadha" (p. 43). None of the people of all the five parts of India ate any kind of onions (pp. 45, 138).

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We gather from I-tsing that the monk's breakfast consisted of rice-water, his lunch, rice, butter, milk, fruits, and sweet melons, ending in light evening meal or supper [Takakusu, pp. 117, 26, 44].

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**Its excess at Invitations.** At invitations to monks for meals it was usual to have the supply of food very much in excess of the requirements. I-tsing was duly warned of this practice when he gave a feast to the priests on a small scale one fast day at Tāmralipti (p. 40).

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**Measurement of time for regulating the day's duties.** As a large part of the daily life of the monks was regulated according to time, the monasteries had to provide themselves with the means of measuring time. This was done by means of sun-dials called *Velāchakras*, time-wheels. Since the rule fixing the time for meals could not be violated, monks were expected to take such a dial with them even when they were travelling, whether on land or by sea. Besides, clepsydræ were also installed in the larger monasteries. These were usually gifts from kings together with the boys who watched them. The regulation of the clepsydra was somewhat different in the monasteries of Mahābodhi and Kuśinagara, where it was arranged that the smaller bowl should be immersed in the larger water-vessel sixteen times between morn and midday, while at Nālanda there were to be only four such immersions during the same interval (p. 145).

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**Monks helped to spiritual life.** It was the duty of the monasteries to supply their inmates with all their necessaries of life as prescribed by the Vinaya, so that "one can be much freer, if one lives in the monastery engaged simply in meditation and worship, without needing to take thought about procuring clothes and food" (p. 194). This is the reason why monasteries were permitted to own large properties, while individual monks were denied that right.

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**Monasteries owning too much wealth.** But "it is unseemly", as observed by I-tsing, "for a monastery to have great wealth, granaries full of rotten corn, many servants, male and female, money and treasures hoarded in the treasury, without using any of these things, while all the members are suffering from poverty" (ib.).

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**Monasteries following unlawful practices.** I-tsing also refers to "some monasteries which do not supply food for the residents, but divide everything among them, and make them provide their own food", and which "do not admit a stranger to reside there" (p. 195).

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No doubt such monasteries are to be condemned and avoided as following unlawful practices (*ib.*).

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**Problem of cultivating the lands owned by Monasteries.** As has been already stated, though the monks individually were not allowed to own property (except a few personal articles of daily use), they could own it collectively. Monasteries thus became owners of large properties by gifts and were able to maintain the monks from their own resources. The usual form of these properties was land. The lands in the possession of the Nālanda monastery gifted by "kings of many generations" "contained more than 200 villages" (p. 65).

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But though the monasteries owned lands, it was not for the monks to cultivate them directly. A monk might sow or plant but could not till, as that involved injuring life. Thus the utilization of its lands had to be arranged by the Saṁgha either with its own staff of servants or with other labourers. Under such arrangements, the Saṁgha could claim only a sixth of the produce, though "providing the bulls and the ground for cultivation". In the Tāmralipti Monastery, however, as stated to I-tsing by its chief, Mahāyānapradīpa, the share of the produce was one-third. Some monasteries again violated this practice by themselves supervising the farming as carried on by their own servants, male or female, so as to appropriate the whole produce instead of sharing it with others.

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As observed by I-tsing, though a monk could not till land for himself, he could do so for the Saṁgha. But the ideal monk "hates the cumbersome work of a farmer and permanently keeps away from it". Such a one would prefer to sit "still in a place in a quiet forest and takes pleasure in company with birds and deer; being free from the noisy pursuit of fame and profit, he practises with a view to the perfect quietude of Nirvāṇa" (p. 61). In the Tāmralipta monastery, for instance, the monks did not engage in farming themselves. "Thus they live their just life, avoiding worldly affairs and free from the faults of destroying lives by ploughing and watering fields" (p. 62).

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It was allowable for monasteries to supply their monks with clothing from the produce of their lands, though the lands might be earmarked by their donors as gifts for food (p. 193). "Thus the church can make use of the benefaction as it likes, without any fault, as long as it carries out the original intention of the giver" (p. 194).

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