प्राचीन भारत में शिक्षा (डॉ. ए.एस. अल्तेकर - गुरुकुल एवं बौद्ध विहार शिक्षण इतिहास)

166 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch.
It placed a high incentive before the student world.
It afforded opportunities to intelligent students to
learn the art of teaching, and thus indirectly per-
formed the same function as the Teachers' Training
Colleges discharge today. It increased the efficiency
and decreased the cost of the school by affording
intelligent and free assistance to the teacher. It is
well known that Bell and Lancaster had based
their Monitorial System on what one of them had
observed in contemporary Indian schools.
Conclusion : It will be seen from the above
discussion that the method of teaching followed in
ancient India was on the whole the best suited for
an age, which did not enjoy the advantages of paper
and printing. It developed the powers of memory,
a faculty which is being sadly neglected in modern
times. It did not however encourage cramming,
bacause the texts that were memorised were well
understood by students. Reflection and analysis was
also encouraged especially in the case of those
students who had taken logic, philosophy, poetics or
literature. Lucid exposition was a forte of Indian
teachers, for which they were well known all over Asia
during the first millennium of the Christian era.
Debates were a normal feature of higher education.
Individual attention was paid to the needs of
students, which naturally ensured good results.
The student must however have intelligence.¹
Hindu educationalists have pointed out that the best

1. वितरति गुरुः प्राज्ञे विद्यां यथैव तथा जडे ।
   न च खलु तयोर्ज्ञाने शक्तिं करोत्यपहन्ति वा ॥
   भवति च तयोर्भूयान्भेदः फलं प्रति तद्यथा ।
   प्रभवति मणिर्बिम्बोद्ग्राहे मणिर्न मृदां चयः ॥
   Uttararāmachairt, Act, II.

VI] HIGHER LITERARY EDUCATION 167
method would not produce the ideal scholar at the
end of the course automatically. Time also was
an important factor. Maturity of intellect and
scholarship would become possible only by the lapse
of years properly utilised in reading and reflection
by an intelligent student.¹
EXAMINATIONS
No Annual or Final Examinations : We have
already seen that there were no annual or periodical
examinations in ancient India. New lessons were
given to students only when the teacher was satisfied
after a searching oral examination that the old one
was thoroughly mastered. The end of the education
course was not marked by any lengthy and exhaustive
examination, but by the pupil reciting and explaining
the last lesson.² The modern practice to submit the
student to what is known as Śulākā-parīkṣā, where
he is asked to explain the problems discussed on a page
opened at random, is not mentioned in ancient books.
Even if it goes back to ancient times, it can hardly be
compared to the modern system of examination. At
the end of his education the scholar was presented
to the local learned assembly, where occasionally some
questions were asked.³ This presentation took place
when the Samāvartana (convocation) ceremony was
over.⁴ It is therefore clear that the eligibility of a
student for Samāvartana or receiving the degree did
not depend upon the opinion of the assembly, but
upon the opinion of his teacher.

1. आचार्यात्पादमादत्ते पादं शिष्यः स्वमेधया ।
   पादं सब्रह्मचारिभ्यः पादं कालक्रमेण तु ॥ Subhāshitam.
2. Mil. Pan.. I, p. 18.
3. Br. U., VI, 2, 1 and 2.
4. Dr. Gr. S., III 1, 26; Āp. Gr. S., I, 11, 5.

168 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch.
Literary Tournaments: Rājaśekhara describes
the examinations held in the royal court¹, and Charaka
refers to heated discussions held in learned assemblies
to test the relative merits of the contending physicians.²
These examinations were, however, fundamentally
different from modern degree examinations. Each
participant in these literary affrays was anxious to
prove, not that he possessed certain minimum quali-
fications, but that he was the best poet or physician in
the land, entitled to precedence, honour and annuities
from the royal court What Charaka or Rājaśekhara
have in contemplation is not a routine examination,
but an intellectual combat among the distinguished
physicians and scholars of the age.
No Degrees or Diplomas : Since there were no
degree examinations, there were naturally no degrees
or diplomas. From Tārānātha we learn that the Pāla
kings of Bengal, who were patrons and chancellors of
the Vikramaśīlā University, used to grant diplomas
to students in a convocation held at the end of their
education.³ In medieval Bengal also learned bodies
used to confer degrees like Tarkachakravartī and
Tarkālaṅkāra on very distinguished scholars like
Gadādhara and Jagadīśa. This practice of giving
degrees and titles seems to be a new innovation of
medieval times. Yuan Chwang informs us that
unscrupulous scholars in the seventh century used to
'steal the name of Nālandā' in order to gain more
respect⁴. This would not have been possible if the
Nālandā University were in the habit of granting
regular diplomas to those who had finished their
1 Kāvya-mīmāṁsā, p. 55.
2 Vimānasthāna, 8.
3 Bose, Indian Teachers of Buddhist Universities, p. 61
4 Watters, II, p. 165.

VI] HIGHER LITERARY EDUCATION 169
courses there. Passing examinations and getting
degrees, which dominate the present system of educa-
tion, played hardly any part in ancient India. It was
not the allurement of the degrees or the prizes but the
thirst of knowledge or the desire to preserve the
national heritage which was the main spring of the
educational effort and activity.
Competition kept within Limits : The absence
of annual examinations with prizes and scholarships
for the top boys naturally kept the element of competi-
tion within proper limits. Bright and promising
students were however selected as monitors and
entrusted with the teaching of lower classes. So they
also got their reward. The absence of alluring prizes
and scholarships however naturaly did not make them
burn midnight oil, often to the great detriment of
their health.
No Degree to serve as a Shield : Students in
ancient India had not to pass through the fiery ordeal
of examinations ; their lot, however, was by no means
more enviable than that of the modern students. Armed
with his irrevocable degree, the modern graduate can
afford to forget all that he had learnt, and no one can
question his competence. The scholar in ancient India
could not take shelter behind the buttress of a degree.
He had to keep his scholarship fresh and up-to-date,
for he was liable to be challenged at any moment for
a literary affray (Śāstrārtha), and society used to
judge his merit by the way in which he aquitted
himself in such discussions. All that he had learnt,
he had to keep ready at the tip of his tongue ; he
could neither point to his diploma nor ask for time to
refer to his note-books.

CHAPTER VII.
PRIMARY EDUCATION.
Primary education why not important in early times—It did
not include the 3 R's before c. 1000 B. C.—Reading and writing
included in it in the first millennium B. C.—Obligatory Upanayana
helps the spread of literacy—The curriculum and agencies of
primary education—The time of its commencement—Methods of
teaching—Primary schools and teachers—Extent of literacy—
Vernacular education—Literacy at c. 1800 A. D.
Primary Education not important in Ancient
Times :—Having finished our survey of higher literary
education in the last chapter, let us now turn to
primary education. Primary education in the sense of
the knowledge of the 3 R's has become important only
in the modern age. At a time when paper and
printing were unknown, the ability to read and write
was not a very valuable or useful attainment for the
smith, the carpenter or the agriculturist. Today it
is rightly held that even the ordinary labourer or
the artisan should receive primary education, for it
enables him to utilise his spare time in reading useful
literature which increases his knowledge, widens his
outlook and makes him a more useful and intelligent
member of society. Literacy however did not serve
this purpose in ancient times both in the East and the
West. Paper and printing being both unknown,
books were fragile, costly and beyond the means of
the average workman or the agriculturist. The
ability to read and write did not thus afford the means
of a wider intercourse with the thoughts and ideals of
the best minds of the race, as far as the ordinary man
was concerned. He could obtain access to the best
wisdom of his nation rather by attending Kathās and

VII] PRIMARY EDUCATION 171
Kīrtanas (popular religious sermons) delivered by
religious preachers, than by trying to reach the doors
of a library, which was a rather rare institution.
Primary education as an end in itself therefore did not
appeal to ancient Indians ; they could look upon it
only as a step to higher education. It therefere natur-
ally does not much occupy their thoughts ; Sṛmitis
say next to nothing about it.
Kindergarten Stage : Problems connected with
the Kindergarten stage of education did hardly
engage the attention of ancient Indian thinkers. This
need not surprise us, for in the West too they have
been only recently tackled by educationalists. Our
educationalists held that education was a serious
affair and they were not very enthusiastic about com-
bining it with play and games. They felt that a
skilful teacher can make his lesson interesting by
taking the help of the story and held that the use of
the rhime was quite sufficient to make uninteresting
things like multiplication tables quite attractive to the
child. Like ancient thinkers in all other lands, they
have not proposed any devices of the kindergarten
type to make lessons attractive to the young child.
PRIMARY EDUCATION IN EARLY TIMES
(Upto c. 1000 B. C.)
Modern Primary Education Non-existent :—
It is a moot point whether the art of writing was
known in the early Vedic period. Even if it was
known, we must remember that its use for the
preservation of sacred literature was tabooed for a
long time. The latter continued to live only in the
memory of scholars for several centuries. Secular
literature had not yet come into existence, grammar
and arithmetic were yet to be developed and

172 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch.
commerce was in a primitive condition not requiring
any account keeping. Primary education in the sense
of the knowledge of the 3 R's was thus impossible.
It is significant to note that early times knew of no
ritual to mark its commencement.¹
**The Nature of preliminary Training :—**What the
boys and girls were taught in their early school stage,
was not how to read and write the Vedic Mantras
(verses), but how to pronounce them properly. During
this period they were trained to realise the difference
between short and long vowels, study the varieties
of accents and to master the rules about the
conjunction and coalescence of vowels and
consonants. At a slightly later stage they were
enlightened about the changes that took place in
original words when they were combined together
in Vedic stanzas.² This was the nature of ‘primary
education’ imparted to students in the Vedic period.
Such education will appear to us in modern times as
rather strange, but we should remember that students
could, when equipped with it, successfully prosecute
their Vedic studies, which then constituted the higher
·1. Appindix I. A.
2. Cf गुरुत्वं लघुता साम्यं ह्रस्वदीर्घप्लुतानि च ।
लोपागमावकाराश्च प्रकृतिर्विकृतिः क्रमः ॥ ४ ॥
स्वरितोदात्तनीचत्वं श्वासो नादोऽगमेव च ।
एतत्सर्वं तु विज्ञेयं छंदोभाषामधीयता ॥ ५ ॥
पदक्रमविशेषज्ञो वर्णक्रमविचक्षणः ।
स्वरमात्राविभागज्ञो गच्छेदाचार्यसंसदम् ॥ ६ ॥
Taittirīya Pratiśākhya, Chap. 24.
The view of Sāyaṇa, that the last verse refers to the approach
of the Vedic scholar to heaven is untenable. The student's departure
to the preceptor's house, and not to heaven, is referred to in the verse.

VII] PRIMARY EDUCATION 173 ·
education. The nature of primary education naturally
varies with the nature of the higher education that is
to follow it.
PRIMARY EDUCATION FROM
C. 1000 B. C. to C. 200 B. C.
**Introduction of Reading and Writing :—**There is
ample evidence to show that the art of writing was
well known to the Aryans at least from c. 1000 B. C.,
if not from an earlier date. Reading and writting must
therefore have gradually begun to form an integral
part of primary education. It is true that the cus-
todians of the Vedic literature still continued to
disdain the aid of the art of writing for its preserva-
tion. But the new sciences that developed during
this period, like grammar, etymology, metrics, etc., had
no prjudice against it. As a matter of fact a proper
grounding in these subjects, which were taught to all
Vedic students, necessitated the knowledge of reading
and writing. When once the alphabet came into
general use, it is difficult to imagine how scholars, who
intended to devote themselves to the study of the
Vedic literature, grammar or phonology could have
ignored its help. From the early centuries of the
Christian era, writing and arithmetic were regarded,
to quote the words of the Tamil thinker, Tiruvalluvar,
as the two eyes of the soul, very useful in perfecting
its insight into the nature of things. It may be
passingly observed that reading and writing were
introduced in Greek schools in c. 600 B. C. ; in India
the event has to be placed much earlier.
Obligatory Upanayana helps the Spread of
**Literacy :—**During this period, Upanayana became
an obligatory Sanskāra (ritual)¹ for all the Traivarṇikas

1. See Appendix I, B.

174 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch.
i. e. Brahmanas, Kshatriyas and Vaishyas. Even in
modern times when this ritual has become a mere
formality, we find that the percentage of literacy is
fairly high among those castes which still go throug hits
formality. We may therefore well conclude that the
case was similar, if not much better, in the past.
Since Upanayana of both boys and girls was universal
among the Aryans at c. 600 B. C. we may well
conclude that the percentage of literacy among them
must also have been very high. It may have been as
high as 80 percent. We can now understand the
proud claim of an Upanishadic king that there was
no illiterate person in his kingdom.¹ This was a
natural consequence of an obligatory Upanayna being
followed by genuine Vedic and literary studies.
The Curriculum of Primary Education : Grammar,
philology, arithmetic, astronomy and metrics were well
developed in this period, and a good grounding in
them was not possible without a knowledge of the art
of writing. Reading and writing must have been
included in primary education, although there was
still a prejudice against committing the Vedas to
writing. Elementary arithmetic and grammar,
phonology and metrics also formed part of the
primary curriculum. Sanskrit was still the spoken
language and Prakrits were yet to be developed.
Primary education was therefore mainly confined to
the preliminary stage of the cultivation of Sanskrit.
Agencies of Primary Education : We have but
scanty information as to how primary education was
imparted. It must have been given in the family as
long as it continued to be the centre of education.

1. न मे स्तेनो जनपदे....नानाहिताग्निर्नोबिद्वान् ।
   Ch. Up., V. 11. 5.

VII] PRIMARY EDUCATION 175
When this ceased to be the case, the family priest or
the preceptor, to whom students were sent for Vedic
education, may have imparted the primary education
as well; for primary education at this time was a
more integral part of higher education than is the case
now. Primary schools also existed in some localities;
we sometimes get references to rich boys going to
attend them, when their wooden slates were carried by
their servants.¹ But who conducted these primary
schools, or how they were financed is not known.
Public institutions even for higher education had not
yet been evolved, as we have seen already. Primary
schools also must therefore have been private institu-
tions. Literacy was very wide spread at this time;
it is but natural that some of the members of the
Brahmana, Kshatriya and Vaishya classes may have
taken to primary education as a career.
PRIMARY EDUCATION DURING
c. 200 B.C. to 800 A.D.
The Time of Commencement :—Primary education
was assigned a definite place in the educational system
during this period by the exaltation of its beginning
into a religious ritual known as Aksharasvīkaraṇa (see
Appendix I A), which was performed at about the age
of five or six. This was the time for the beginning
of primary education. Authors of this period represent
the Buddha, Raghu, Lava and Kuśa as beginning their
education at about this age.² The Chinese pilgrim
I-tsing also found that primary education used to
begin at the age of six.
Scope of Primary Education :—Boys began their
study with the primary and compound alphabets and
1 Kaṭāhaka Jātaka, No. 125.
2 Lalitavistāra, Canto 10; Raghuvaṁśa, Canto III, Uttara-
Rāmacharit, Act II.

176 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch..
used to spend about six months in mastering them.
Then about a year was spent in mastering elementary
arithmetic. Down to c. 250 A.D. Prakrits were in
ascendancy ¹ and so students must have spent some
time in mastering them. After about 250 A. D. Sans-
krit regained its position and even primary education
became to some extent influenced by it. During
the later stages of primary education boys used to
study the Sūtras of Pāṇini and some other simple
grammatical works from the age of 8 to 11.²
**The Method of Teaching :—**The present generation
cannot easily imagine the methods of teaching in
primary schools in an age when paper and cheap text
books were unknown. Boys of the rich used to
write on wooden boards in some kind of colour.
There is a sculpture in the Peshawar Museum
representing the Buddha in his primary school as
holding a rectangular board in his hand and engaged
in writing upon it.³ Poorer students used to write on
ground, covered with sand or dust. There was no
pencil ; they used pointed sticks or their own fingers
for writing the alphabet. The latter method incidently
trained the muscles, the necessity of which is advocated
in the Montessori method. The teacher used to write
1 During the period c. 250 B.C. to c. 250 A D. most of the
public documents are seen to be composed in Pali or Prakrits. Sans-
krit appears in inscriptions very rarely. So this period is regarded
as a period of the ascendancy of Prakrits ; there is a tradition to the
effect that the Sātavāhana kings of the Deccan had decreed that all
their public documents should be in Prakrit alone (Kāvyamīmāṁsā,
p. 50). This tradition is confirmed by the inscriptions of the house.
The Guptas were champions of Sanskrit and had decreed that Sans-
krit should be spoken even in their harems, (Ibid, p. 50). Their
records are all in Sanskrit.
2 I-tsing, chap. XXXIV.
3 A. S. R., 1903-4, pp. 246-7 and Pl. LXVI, 1.

VII] PRIMARY EDUCATION 177
one alphabet on the board and the boys used to shout
out its name, as they went on writing it on wooden
boards or sand-covered ground. This method is
graphically described in a book of the early centuries
of the Christian era¹ and prevailed down to recent
times. The multiplication tables were recited
similarly by the whole class, following the lead given
by the teacher or the monitor. Boys had no primers
or text books with them down to the middle of the last
century, and guardians had not to meet a never ending
demand of the school for fresh exercises and copybooks.
The practice in writing was not given on paper, for
none existed. Boys first acquired the mastery in writ-
ing the alphabet on the sand board. When this
was done, teachers used to write on a palm leaf with
an iron style and hand over the leaf to the pupil for
tracing the letters on the same leaf with charcoal ink,
which was rubbed out at the end of the day. The
same palm leaf thus served as a model for several
days and several boys. When the fingers of boys had
acquired the necessary suppleness, they were then
asked to write on plaintain leaves. When they were
well practised in writing on plaintain leaves, they
were taught to write on the palm leaf.² More practice
was given in writing than in reading, as books were
rather rare.
Primary Schools and Teachers : Only occasionally
our sources refer to primary schools and teachers ; they
are usually described as lipiśālās (alphabet schools) and

1. Cf. तत्र बोधिसत्वाधिष्ठानेन तेषां दारकाणां मातृकां वाच्यतां यदा
   अकारं परिकीर्तयन्ति स्म तदा अनित्यः संस्कारशब्दो निश्चरति स्म ।
   Lalitavistāra, Chap. X.
2. Stark, Vernacular Education, pp. 28-48.
   12

178 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch.
dārakāchāryas (teachers of little children) respectively.¹
Public schools even for higher education did not exist
down to c. 400 A. D,; it is no wonder that they
should have been very scarce also for primary education
for a long time. Education was thus mostly imparted
by private teachers in private schools. Family priests
continued to impart primary education for a fairly
long time. From about the 5th century A. D. a great
impetus was given to higher education by the founding
of a number of public schools and colleges. This must
have given an indirect impetus to primary education
also; for the less capable products of these institutions
may have taken to primary education as a career.
Primary teachers, by no means highly qualified for
their task, figured in Kashmir society during the 10th
century A. D.;² the same may have been the case
elsewhere also. Sometimes primary teachers were
employed by the rich to educate their family children
and the children of other villagers were also allowed
to read along with them. If a village had not a rich
person to engage a teacher on his own account, a
number of guardians used to cooperate in engaging the
services of a teacher, each paying according to his
ability. In the majority of cases, however, private
teachers used to start schools on their own initiative,
relying upon the uncertain income of voluntary fees and
contributions from the guardians of students. The
average income of a teacher in Bengal just before the
advent of the British rule was more or less equal to
the emoluments of the village accountant :³ the same
1 लिपिशालामुपनीयते स्म कुमारः । तत्र विश्वामित्रो नाम
दारकाचार्यः । Lalita-vistāra, Chap. X.
2 Rājataraṅgiṇī, Vol. I, pp. 134 & 196 (Eng. Tr.)
3 Stark, Vernacular Education in Bengal, pp. 28 ff.

VII] PRIMARY EDUCATION 179
may have been the case throughout the earlier history.
In some localities in Madras presidency teachers used
to receive grain-shares at the time of harvest just like
carpenters or smiths ; this system does not seem to
have been universal,¹ for the services of a teacher
were not required by every villager, as was the case
with those of a smith or potter. Primary teachers
usually belonged to the families of the village
accountants, priests, writers (Kayasthas) or traders,
which were invariably literate. Like the teachers of
the Vedas, they were not exclusively Brahmanas.
This was the case even in the Smṛiti period ; for some
of the Smṛiti writers refer with disapproval to the
custom of non-Brahmanas being the teachers of
Brahmanas.
Extent of Literacy at c. 800 A. D. :—Upanayana,
which had given an indirect inpetus to the spread of
literacy, gradually ceased to be performed in the case
of the Kshatriyas and Vaishyas during the first five
centuries of the Christian era. Automatic initiation
into the 3 R’s, which was ensured by this ritual, thus
ceased gradually to be a reality with the majority of
the Aryans. This gave a setback to the spread of
literacy during this period. Vaishyas engaged in trade
were literate and often cultured ; the members of the
guild of weavers at Mandsore in Malva were well
versed in folklore and astrology during the 5th century
A.D.² The same may have been the case with better
class traders and merchants during this period.
Kshatriyas engaged in administrative work were of
course literate. It is however doubtful whether the
ordinary agriculturist or soldier, who had inherited no
¹ Report of the Madras Provincial Committee, Evidence, pp. 20,
154, 173.
² Fleet, Gupta Inscriptions, p.p. 80-7.

180 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch.
cultural tradition and who had discontinued Upanayana
at this time, were literate. Literacy among the males
of the three higher castes must have been hardly more
than about 40 percent towards the end of the 8th century
A. D. The Shudras, who formed the bulk of the
labouring classes, and the untouchables were all
illiterate. As a class, women also had ceased to be
literate towards the end of the 8th century, as has been
shown already.
PRIMARY EDUCATION DURING
C. 800-1200 A. D.
Vernaculars and Primary Education :—Verna-
culars began to develop during this period and ordinary
men ceased to understand Sanskrit. This must have
produced a great change in the curriculum of primary
education also. Those who intended to specialise in
Sanskrit must have continued to spend a part of their
time in early childhood in memorising dictionaries
(Koshas) and verbal conjugations and nominal declen-
sions. Those however who had no such ambition
must have concentrated on the study of vernaculars
in the primary stage. Some inscriptions of this period
refer to the arrangements made for the teaching of
vernaculars in the schools and colleges. A school at
Talgund in Mysore state had made provision for the
teaching of Canarese in the 12th century A.D.;¹ a
college at Narsipur in the same state was providing for
the teaching of the vernaculars,—Canarese, Telugu and
Marathi,—in 1290 A. D.² If higher colleges were
making provision for the teaching of the vernaculars
of other provinces also, we can well conclude that
1 E. C., VII, Shikarpur, No. 185.
2 Ibid, Vol. III, Narsipur, No. 27.

VII] PRIMARY EDUCATION 181
primary education at this time was almost entirely
dominated by vernaculars.
The Scope of the Vernacular Education :—When
Sanskrit was the spoken language in earlier days,
primary education was intended to become an integral
part of the higher Sanskritic studies. When Sanskrit
became a dead language as far as the masses were
concerned, primary education became Vernacular
education and developed a self-contained course.
Vernacular education of the masses was organised not
with a view to enable them to develop into good
Sanskrit scholars, but with the object of making them
efficient in their ordinary walks of life. Reading
writing, commercial arithmetic, accountancy, good
knowledge of vernaculars with perhaps a smattering of
Sanskrit, and moral training through the stories of
epics constituted the curriculum of the vernacular
education at about 1200 A. D. The same continued
to be the case during the subsequent centuries as well.
In the case of Brahmana boys, who intended to take
to Sanskritic education later, elements of Sanskrit
grammar were included ; but agricultural and com-
mercial arithmetic dominated the courses intended
for students hailing from agricultural and commercial
classes. How to measure the area of fields, how to
deduce monthly wages from the daily ones and vice
versa, how to find the prices of corn per maund when
those per seer were given, etc,—questions like these
engaged the attention of the teachers and students in
primary schools.
The extent of Literacy at c. 1200 A. D. With the
levelling down of both the Kshatriyas and Vaishyas
to the position of the Shudras, the extent of literacy
must have further gone down during this period.
The average farmer at this time was illiterate and

182 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch.
members of commercial and industrial guilds were no
longer as educated and cultured as those of the
weavers' guild at Mandsore in c. 400 A. D. We have
however no sufficient evidence to compute the extent
of literacy at c. 1200 A. D. We may perhaps utilise
the data about the state of affairs at the advent of
British rule in this connection. The village teacher
was not usually one of the grain-sharing servants
supported by the village community ; his services
therefore were clearly required not by the whole
community, but only by certain sections of it ; literacy
must have been confined only to them. In the
second decade of the 19th century Sir Thomas Monroe
found a primary school in every village ; 'I am
inclined' says he, 'to estimate the proportion of male
population receiving education to be nearer one third
than one fourth'.¹ In Bengal at this time most
villages possessed schools for primary education, but
the percentage of boys attending them varied in
different places. In some districts² as many as
18 percent of the boys of the school going age attended
schools, in others the percentage was only 3. In
Malva, which for more than half a century was suffer-
ing from anarchy, Malcolm found a school in almost
every village with more than 100 houses.³ It would
therefore appear that about 15 percent of the boys of
the school-going age were attending schools towards
the beginning of the 19th century. If in spite of the
prevailing unsettled conditions, about 15 percent boys
were attending schools at the beginning of the 19th
century, we may well conclude that the percentage
may have been at least twice this figure at the end of

1. Quoted by Sen in History of Elementary Education, p. 78.
2. Ibid, p. 76
3. Malcolm. Memoirs of Central India and Malva, p. 158.

VII] PRIMARY EDUCATION 183
the Hindu period. For during the Muslim rule the
government educational effort for a long time was
confined only to the Muslim section of the population ;
Hindus also could not continue to get the same state
patronage for their education and literature, which
was possible under their own rule. This must have
affected the spread of education and the extent of
literacy in the population as a whole, which was
predominently Hindu. If therefore the percentage
of literate male population among Indians as a
whole was about 15 at the beginning of the 19th
century, it may as well have been about thirty
towards the end of the 12th century A. D. At the
time when Upanayana was a reality with the whole of
the Aryan community, we have already seen that the
percentage of literacy in it must have been as high as
80. Towards the end of the 8th century A. D. it had
declined to about 40, as shown already. It further
went down by about another 10 percent by the 12th
century A. D. These percentages however refer to
male population only and are exclusive of the Shudras
and Untouchables, who were as a rule all illiterate.

Chapter VIII.
PROFESSIONAL AND USEFUL
EDUCATION.
MEDICAL EDUCATION—Its general features—Training in
surgery—Arrangements for practical training—Duration of the course
and examination—Medical education in later times—Veterinary
education—MILITARY EDUCATION—Non-official training agencies—
Military schools—professional military coaches—Education of the
princes—COMMERCIAL EDUCATION—Its general scope—How it was
imparted. TRAINING IN ARTS AND CRAFTS—Society's attitude
towards arts and crafts in early and later times—Training given by the
apprenticeship system—Workshop atmosphere—Painter's training as
an illustration—Efficiency of the training—Was it narrow ?
Introduction : In this chapter we propose to take
a rapid survey of some of the important branches of
useful and professional education and of the ways in
which it was imparted. Medical, military and com-
mercial education and the training of artists and
artisans for sculpture, architecture, painting, smithy,
carpentry etc. will principally engage our attention.
MEDICAL EDUCATION.
Early Progress : Medical science is no doubt of
hoary antiquity in India. The Vedic literature refers
to the healing feats of Aśvins, who though originally
human beings, were later deified by a grateful posterity.
This science was fairly well developed by the 4th
century B. C., for the Greeks, who had accompanied
Alexander the Great, were very well impressed by the
skill of Indian doctors in curing the cases of serpent
bite. The Jātakas refer to the medical students at
Taxila performing operations for cranial abscesses and
intestinal displacement.

VIII] PROFESSIONAL AND USEFUL EDUCATION 185
Some general Features : Medical education was
usually imparted by private teachers. There was a ri-
tual at the admission of students which will be described
in Appendix 1, E. The student had to be well grounded
in Sanskrit, for most of the books on medicine were
written in that language. Learning by rote was
condemned ; Suśruta compares a person having only
a verbal knowledge of the medical texts to a donkey
conscious of the heaviness but not of the quality of
the burden it carries. Specialisation was encouraged ;
students were expected to master the different branches
of learning from different experts.¹ Practical training
in surgery and pharmacy and constant discussion of
abstruse points among the students and teachers were
some of the important features of the training.²
**Training in Surgery :—**We can get a fairly good
idea of the training in surgery from our sources. The
beginners were taught how to hold and use the surgical
instruments by practising upon pumpkins, cucumbers,
water melons, etc., under the teacher's directions.
Puncturing was demonstrated on the veins of dead
animals, the manner of holding the probe on dry
Alābu fruits, scarification on stretched pieces of
leather covered with hair, sewing on thin pieces of
cloth or skin, application of bandages on stuffed human
figures and the use of caustics on soft pieces of flesh.³
The novice was then gradually initiated in real cases
and allowed to extract darts, cleanse wounds, and use
the knife in piercing and cutting diseased parts of the
body. How surgical wounds are to be made to dry
up was also demonstrated. Practice in the adminis-
1 Suśruta, Sūtrasthāna, IV. 4. 4-8
2 Charaka. Vimānasthāna, 8. 4
3 Suśruta, Sūtrasthāna, Chap. 9
4 Mil. Pan., Vol. II, 254-5