Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c32.s1.31

c32.s1.31

**Range of Studies, both Brahmanical and Buddhist.** Accordingly, the courses of study offered by the Nālandā University covered a wide range, almost the entire circle of knowledge then available. They were drawn from the different fields of learning, Brahmanical and Buddhist, sacred and secular, philosophical and practical, sciences and arts. The students at Nālandā, as stated in the *Life* (ib.), "all study the Great Vehicle, and also the works belonging to the eighteen sects, and not only so, but even ordinary works, such as the Vedas and other books, the Hetuvidyā, Śabdavidyā, the Chikitsāvidyā, the works on Magic or Atharvaveda, the Sāṁkhya; besides these, they thoroughly investigate the 'miscellaneous' works" (ib.). Hluen Tsang himself became a student of Nālandā for the study of the Yoga-śāstra, in which the Nālandā Chancellor, Śīlabhadra, was the highest living authority (ib., p. 107). His study of the Yoga-śāstra was followed by his study of other subjects like Nyāya, Hetuvidyā, Śabdavidyā, and the like,-as also of the books of the Brahmans with the wide area of knowledge covered by them including philological, legal, philosophical, astronomical subjects, and the Sanskrit Grammar of Pāṇini (*Life*, p. 121). "Thus he penetrated, and examined completely, all the collections of Buddhist books and also studied the sacred books of the Brahmans during *five* years"¹ (ib., p. 125). Thus Nālandā was the centre of all higher learning in all its branches. And so while it attracted a keen student of Mahāyāna like Hiuen Tsang who, though already a "Master of the Law", and honoured as such in India, yet found it profitable to stay there for some time for further intellectual progress, it equally attracted keen students of Hīnayāna like I-tsing, who took advantage of its education for fully a decade. Verily, Nālandā had the merit of collecting at one centre the available authorities on every subject of learning.