Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c32.s1.46

c32.s1.46

**Democratic Management.** According to I-tsing, the rules and regulations governing life in the monasteries were more strict at Nālandā than elsewhere (p. 65). We have already given I-tsing's account of them. We may only here repeat that, in spite of its size and numbers, the affairs of the University, from the annual assignment of rooms to the trial and punishment of offences against the fraternity and expulsion of recalcitrants, were administered on democratic principles by the entire body of the students. The recognition of the principle that the cause of discipline among students is best promoted by boldly leaving it in their hands is in accordance with up-to-date pedagogic ideals, while as regards the other important matter of the assignment of rooms according to seniority, the same method, as observed by I-tsing, was the most efficacious in the prevention of heartburnings and petty-mindedness, and it was so graceful for seniors to place themselves in the hands of the juniors as regards the details of their physical life and comforts. Thus the harmony of the establishment was secured by the due combination of the principles of autocracy and democracy in its management, the former principle applying only to the spheres of the intellectual and moral training of the alumni where guidance and direction were indispensable. The harmony of relations among the vast numbers of the teachers and the taught at Nālandā became an established tradition marking the entire course of its history, so that Hiuen Tsang could observe that during seven centuries there was not on record a single instance of that harmony being marred by a guilty rebellion.