Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c31.10

c31.10

**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).