Education in Ancient India

“I have dealt with four stages in the education of a boy, and I have dealt with the advanced academic activities of scholars. The four stages are the elementary education at home, the education in the household of the teacher in a lower and in a higher stage, and the highly specialised education. I have also tried to clear the question of the duration of the various courses of study. I have made an effort to show the unity and continuity of tradition relating to education from the early Vedic times to even recent times, through the periods of the Brahmanas, the Aranyakas, the Upanisads, the Sutras the Smrtis, etc. I have also explained the obligatory and universal nature of the
education of a high standard, in the country. This obligatory education was meant to equip the boys to be worthy citizens of the State. The prominence given to Yogas and to Brahman-knowledge as the sole objective kept in this obligatory education is a later phase. It was only one of the objects in the study at the teacher’s household. Towards the end I have dealt with certain minor points like the life of the students, the forest institutions and women’s education. Practically the lectures form a cursory commentary on the prescription, “One shall study what has been prescribed for one’s own study” in the Taittiriyaranyaka. I have considered this prescription in the light of the Grhya-Sutras besides citing passages from the Bruhmanas the Aranyakas and the Upanisads. I have also discussed the scope of the opening Sutras in the Mimamsa and the Vedanta systems in the light of the general tendency of the instruction given by the teacher to the student at the end of his study course, found in the Taittiriyopanisad. I have made use of relevent remarks in the Bhasya of Sabarasvamin, the Vartika of Kumarila Bhatta and the Sastra-Dipika of Parthasarathi Misra, in the Mimamsa Sastra”. — Extract from the Author’s Introduction

CONTENTS
Preface
Lecture I
I. Preliminary
II. Samhitas
III. Svadhyayadhyayana
IV. Elementary Education
V. Brahmanas
VI. Learning the Meaning
VII. Education Universal and Obligatory
VIII. Subjects Studied
Concluding Remarks

Lecture II
I. True Purpose of Education
II. Obligatory and Optional Courses
III. Higher Stages in the Acquisition of Wisdom
IV. Closing Comments on the Main Issue
V. Nature of the General Life of a Student
VI. Forest Institutions for Education
VII. Education of Women
VIII. Conclusion