The University of Nalanda c13.61

c13.61

The reason why the Indian student willingly underwent so much subjection, while his European brother was almost immune from such hardships, nay, on the contrary enjoyed unimaginable luxuries is to be found in the fact that the Indian paid no fees to his teacher. After the completion of his education, the student paid whatever he liked, and whatever he could to his preceptor. All preceptors, we think, did not pitch their demand so high when the pupil humbly asked the preceptor as to what he should pay him, as the preceptor of Kālidāsa’s Kautsa.¹ The teacher, in his turn, as he took no fees, made the student to work in his āśrama or vihāra, as his domestic life must be carried on. So, very often besides doing the work of the preceptor as shown above, the student had to go for alms. This was true of the Buddhist saṅghas and monasteries also. For, in the beginning, when the saṅgha was started by Buddha, gifts of land, corn and other household requirements were not coming so freely as when the kings and wealthy people accepted Buddhism as a faith and made rich gifts to the saṅgha, built monasteries and equipped them with all the necessities of life. The custom of serving the preceptor, introduced by Buddha, was handed down from generation to generation and we find it being followed even in the time of I-Tsing.