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A passage for editorial review. MINISr^ A flS'-ool HISTORY OF EDUCATION !N ANCIENT INDIA n y NOGENDRA NATH MAZUMDER, M.A., B.T. Professor, Dacca Training College WITH AN INTRODUCTION I3Y E. E. BISS, I.E.S. Principal , Dacca Training College. MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd. CALCUTTA, BOMBAY, MADRAS, LONDON I 4)6 VIQUVi 0 ' ■l t ,j]) lyo^st/ot PRINTED BY iVOTISH CHANDRA GHOSH AT THE COTTON PRESS 57 , HARRISON HOAD, CALCUTTA. THE AUTHOR’S NOTE. The general outline of the book was first worked out in class-room lectures. It has subsequently developed into the present work. The subject-matter of the book is so complex that I feel it should have been undertaken by abler hands. The main object of this publication is to meet the demand for a small Hand-bool that will give a clear and systematic account of the ideal and the system of education in ancient India, and also to remove some grave misapprehension that seems to exist about the Hindu ideals of education in the minds of some eminent foreign writers. Dr. Graves of the Ohio State University follow¬ ing Mr. Davidson remarks that ‘‘despite all the Hindu’s fineness of intellect and his idealistic religion, India seems typically ‘barbarian’ ”. It is really unfortunate that such a remark should have come from such a man. The following pages, I hope, will THE AUTHOR’S NOTE. show clearly how hasty, unjust and unfound¬ ed his remarks are. The book has been read in manuscript as well as in proof by Mr. Evan. E. Biss, I. E. S., Principal, Dacca Training College, to whom my gratitude is due for writing the Introduction and for helping me with many valuable criticisms and suggestions. My thanks are also due to Professor Satyendra Nath Bhadra, M.A., for the permission he lias kindly given me to reprint those portions of the book which appeared in his Review and to my friends who have helped me with their suggestions. Nor must I omit to express my obligation to the various authorities whom . I have consulted and quoted from. Training College, Dacca [ N. N. MAZUMDER August , 1916. INTRODUCTION. Stung to indignation by the remark of an American writer, and supported by the feeling that the world’s enormous debt to India should at least be acknowledged, the author of this little book has done good service to the cause of education by setting forth in a compact form an account of the ideals and practices of the ancient Hindus in relation to the immature portion of their community. Of the correctness of his reading of the ancient authors to whom ne has referred I cannot pretend to judge, but it is a comfort to feel, amid the many diffi¬ culties that confront us while the thought of the West is spreading in the aged East, that the grand if shadowy figures of the mighty Rishis of the past can look without dis¬ approval on the principles and methods of modern education. Indeed a perusal of these pages reminds us that truth is never old and never new, that it is not of this INTRODUCTION. place nor of that nation, but that it ever is and is the rewarder of those who diligent¬ ly seek it. We must not be concerned with “English’* or “Vernacular,’* or “Sanskrit,” or “Arabic” Education, but going beyond these external limitations, we must seek to introduce the children of modern India to the widest possible experience of their world, so that having become heirs of the past and the present they may become the possessors of the future. However far the education of the present day child may look around and ahead, it must be rooted in the traditions of the past, and Mr. Mazumder’s hook should be of great assistance to the High School teachers of to-day as a guide and a safe guard in this respect. In studying the history of education in ancient India one cannot but be impressed with the attention that was paid to physical training, to music and to manual arts. It is to he hoped that this book may prove an encouragement to teachers of to-day to experiment in these directions in their INTRODUCTION. VI1 schools so that the work of the boys may have in it not less of abstract ideas, but more of that direct experience upon which they may base their own abstractions. I trust Mr. Mazumder will find his reward for his enthusiastic interest in the subject and for his keenness to discover an Indian basis for the modern education of Indian children in a wide study of the work he is now offering to his colleagues of the teaching profession and to the reading pub¬ lic generally. Training College, ) Dacca 29th August, 1916. Evan E. Biss. MIN ISTfy contents. Chapter Pact: I. Factors in Education u II. The Different Periods and their General Characteristics 4 ^ III. The Caste Svstem and its Peda- gogical Significance 25* IV. Evolution of Vedic Religion and its Pedagogical Aspects 46 V. Different T^pes of Education ... 66 VI. Hindu Education-General Characteristics 80 VII. Universities in Ancient and Medleval India 8.9 Appendix i. Subjects cultivated by the ancient Hindus 101 ii. Arts and accomplishments current among men at the time of Buddha... 114 iii. Sixty-four arts or Kalas 116 IV. Rules regulating the conduct of the disciple towards his preceptor 121 MIN/Sr^ EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA. i2sQ\S> I INTRODUCTION : FACTORS IN EDUCATION. The nature of the education of an in¬ dividual is determined not only by his inherited powers and capacity but also in -a great measure by the environment in which he grows up. Hence in determining the nature of the education of the Aryans in Ancient India we shall have to consider, on the one hand, the original nature of the people who first entered it and on the other, the nature of the country in which their inherited capacities were called into active development. Effect of Environment :—The Aryans who first entered India were remarkable for their manly virtues and strength of intellect. The Vedic Rishis not only composed hymns, and performed sacrifices but fought their wars and ploughed their fields. Their martial spirit was for a long time kept alive by the necessity of holding their own against the enemy. When this had been effected and resistance was broken, there was left very little scope for the development of the manly virtues. The mild climate and fertile soil of the country bringing the means of subsistence within easy reach made the struggle for existence in India an ‘easy’ one. Besides, the lofty mountains and the seas shutting the country off for a long time from outside influences gave the Hindu culture a unique character. Thus while in Europe long cold winters, barren soil and conflict of interests between small countries have developed in the Aryans there ‘the instinct of self-preservation’ to the highest pitch and made them comparatively more ‘active,’ ‘combative’ and enterprising, the peculiar envii’onmental conditions of India have tended to make her people more FACTORS IN EDUCATION. ‘passive,’ ‘meditative’ and ‘philosophical’. Besides, the fusion of the Aryan element with the pre-Aryan population in the two continents has brought about changes in the original nature of the Aryan people. Hence owing to differences in the condi¬ tions of the countries the people in the two continents, though they originally belonged to the same stock and possessed similar virtues, now present such marked distinctions in the development of the human character. The different conditions of the two continents have thus not only affected the nature of the people but have influenced their sciences, arts and literature as w r ell ; and hence while in Europe the various sciences and arts have been developed, more or less, to meet the material needs of the people and to enable them to hold their own in their political and economic relations, in India they had had their origin in the ‘exigencies of religion.’ ^References : —1. Max Muller—India, What can it teach ua ’ 2. A. A. Macdonell—A Hiatory of Sanskrit Literature. MINIS II THE DIFFERENT PERIODS AND THEIR GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS. The history of India, like the history of Europe, broadly divides itself into three parts,—Ancient, Mediaeval and Modern History. Ancient History begins from about b. c. 2000 and extends to about the middle of the seventh century a. d. Mediaeval History embraces the period lying between the fall of the kingdom of Harsha (647 a.d.) and the rise of the British power in India which took place somewhere about the middle of the eighteenth century. The modern period commences with the close of the mediaeval period and extends to the present time. l. The Ancient Period Here two main epochs can be distinguished in tbe history of ancient Indian literature * the one extending from 2000 b. c. to 200 b. c. ; the GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS. other embracing the rest of the period. The first epoch produced only religious works and reached a high standard of merit in lyric poetry. It also saw the highest development in law and philosophy. It is the period which produced successively the 1 edic Hymns , the Brahmanas with their sequels, viz. the Aranyakas, the Upanishads and the Sutras} The latest development is noticed in the Sutra literature which became perfect about the time of .Buddha (6th century b. c.). The Upanishads show that the Indian mind even then attained the highest pitch of its marvellous fertility.