Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c32.s6.17

c32.s6.17

There are some interesting facts recorded about the University of Nadia in the January issue of the *Calcutta Monthly* for 1791. It states that the University possessed three chief centres of learning at Navadvīpa, Śāntipura, and Gopālpārā, patronized by the Mahārājā of Nadia. Navadvīpa alone counted 1,100 students and 150 teachers. In the time of Rājā Rudr aof a.d. 1680, the number of students was 4,000 and teachers 600. It appears that all these schools were for advanced post-graduate studies and that students seeking them spent even twenty years at these schools. They generally got by heart the texts they studied. These schools were conducted like seminars or colloquiums. Their method of work was for two teachers to start a debate on an abstruse topic, which the students had to follow and could supplement by their own questions. The advancement of knowledge by means of learned open debates has been India's indigenous traditional educational method through the ages.