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

XI] ACHIEVEMENTS AND FAILURES 245
requires. They fear for retribution for sins in other
lives and make light of what conduct produces in this
life. They do not practice deceit and they keep their
sworn obligations."¹ Vast majority of Indians in
Yuan Chwang's time did not share his religious beliefs
and practices and yet they receive the above high
compliment from the Chinese pilgrim.
Arab and Italian Testimony : Al Idrisi's im-
pressions of the Hindu character in western India
during the 10th century A.D. are similar to those of
Yuan Chwang's. Though a Muslim, he says of the
Hindus, 'The Indians are naturally inclined to justice
and never depart from it in their actions. Their good
faith, honesty and fidelity to engagements are well
known and they are so famous for these qualities that
people flock to their country from every side ; hence
the country is flourishing and their conditon pros-
perous.² "In the thirteenth century Marco Polo also
was impressed very highly by the character of the
Brahmanas of Western India. "You must know" says
he, "that these Brahmanas are the best merchants in
the world and the most truthful, for they would never
tell a lie for anything on the earth. If a foreign
merchant, who does not know the ways of the country,
applies to them and entrusts his goods to them, they
would take charge of these and sell them in the most
zealous manner, seeking zealously the profit of the
foreigner and asking no commission except what he
pleases to give."³ When the morality of the trading
classes is so high, the character of the average man
must have been very noble. Ibn Batuta, another
Muslim observer, describes the Marathas of Deogiri

1. Watters, I, p. 171.
2. Elliot, History, Vol. I, p. 88.
3. Yule, Marco Polo, Vol. II, p. 363 (Third edition).

246 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch.
and Nándurbar of the 14th century as 'upright, religious
and trustworthy.¹ The same was the view of
Abul Fazl, the minister of Akbar.
Conclusion : Travellers, pilgrims and merchants
are usually disposed to make caustic remarks about the
culture and character of the foreigners among whom
they have moved ; when so many of them belonging
to different times and climes and professing different
faiths agree in paying a high tribute to Indian
character, we may well conclude that there is no
exaggeration and that the educational system of the
country had succeeded remarkably in its ideal of
raising the national character to a high level. It is
only after the 17th and 18th centuries A.D. that we
come across some foreign travellers, traders,
missionaries and ex-governors passing strictures upon
the Hindu character. Some of them were probably
misled by their prejudices, as we find their testimony
contradicted by others.² It is also possible that the
Hindu character may have suffered deterioration
during the long spell of foreign rule in medieval times ;
for successful falsehood is usually the best defence of
a slave. It is however worth observing that not a
single foreign observer is found passing hostile remarks
about Hindu character and honesty during the ancient
period of Indian history.
Success in developing Personality : The deve-
lopment of personality was the third aim of the
educational system and let us see how far it was able to

1. Ibna Batuta, p. 228.
2. Col Sleeman, for instance, says : 'Lying between members of
   the same village is almost unknown.' I have had hundreds of cases
   before me in which a man's property, liberty and life depended upon
   his telling a lie, and he has refused to tell it.'
   Quoted by M. Muller in India, What It can teach Us, p. 50.

XI] ACHIEVEMENTS AND FAILURES. 247
accomplish it. The available evidence is rather meagre
to form a definite judgment in this connection. We
come across several masterful personalities, in different
walks of life in ancient India, but how far they were
typical of their age we do not know. Hindu achieve-
ments, however, in the different walks of life and
branches of knowledge were fairly of a high order in
ancient India down to the 6th century A.D., and this
would hardly have been possible if the products of the
educational system were not masterful personalities.
Things however changed for the worse from the 6th
century A. D.; Brahmacharya discipline became
nominal when a vast majority of students began to
marry at a very early age; growth of independent
judgment became stunted with the growing veneration
for the past and its time-hallowed traditions. Self-
confidence and self-respect disappeared in a great
measure when society suffered from the convulsions of
sudden foreign invasions and long alien rule, frequently
imposing a hated religion and strange culture with the
aid of the sword. We must not judge the success of the
ancient Indian educational system in building personality
of students by the conclusions based upon its products
at the advent of the British rule.
Success in the Preservation and Spread of Culture
and Literature : Friends and foes have alike admitted
that the ancient Indian system of education has been
eminently successful in its aim of the preservation of
ancient literary and cultural heritage. Very few of the
Vedic works have been lost. It is indeed a wonder
how so vast a literature could have been preserved
without the help of the art of writing for the task.
Among post-Vedic works too, the number of valuable
books lost is not considerable. And here also the losses
would have been practically insignificant if the destruc-

248 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch.
tion of temples and monasteries had not taken place on
a wide scale at the time of the invasions of the
Mahomedans and during their subsequent long rule.
The surprising amount of cultural uniformity that is to
be seen even now over the length and breadth of India
is mainly due to the successful preservation and spread
of ancient culture and civilisation. If there are several
features, common to Hindu life, all over the country,
contributing to Hindu unity, the credit has to be largely
given to the educational system, which has produced
uniformity in the culture and outlook on life of the
Hindu community. The remarkable success of Indian
missionaries in spreading Indian culture in Indian
Archipelago, Siam, China, Japan, Tibet, and Central
Asia must be attributed to the success of the educational
system in enkindling a strong zest in the minds of
students for spreading the national culture and heritage
far and wide, both in India and outside.
Civic Responsibility and Social Efficiency and
Happiness : The success of the educational system in
infusing a sense of civic responsibility and promoting
social efficiency and happiness, which were two of its
important aims, was also remarkable. It was but
natural that the educational system should have taken
the help of the religious feeling and the caste discipline
for infusing the sense of civic responsibility. The
average man in ancient India was always loyal to the
interests of his guild, village and caste. It was the
success of the educational system in promoting social
efficiency, which enabled Hindu society to be in the
vanguard of the march of civilisation for several
centuries. It is true that this ceased to be the case
from about the 10th century A.D. ; but the failure
during the last millennium in this connection should not
blind us to the success in the preceding long period of

XI] ACHIEVEMENTS AND FAILURES 249
more than two thousand years. We shall now proceed
to discuss the causes of the decline in the educational
system and point out its limitations and defects.
DEFECTS AND LIMITATIONS
Introduction : We shall now proceed to point
out the main defects and limitations of the educational
system along with their causes. The period-wise survey
of the educational system, which was taken in the
second section of the last chapter, must have already
indicated to the reader what these defects were and how
most of them arose during the latter half of the first
millennium A. D. We shall discuss them in greater
details now. Attention will also be drawn to some other
limitations of the system, which were more or less
common to almost all systems of education in ancient
times and for which, therefore, the ancient Indian
system alone cannot be blamed.
The Hold of Religion :—Religion had an immense
hold over the Hindu mind and many of the admirable
features of the educational system have to be attribut-
ed to this circumstance, as shown already. It did not
make the educational outlook ‘otherworldly’, as is
supposed in certain quarters. The ideals of the
Vānaprastha and the Sanyāsa were no doubt purely
spiritual, but such was not the case with the ideals of
the educational system. It aimed at producing youths
eminently fit to perform their civic and social duties ; if
any spiritual merit for the life to come was to result from
Brahmacharya, it was to be through the proper
performance of duties, which however were principally
determined with a view to make the student an efficient
and God-fearing citizen.
Secular Studies tend to be neglected :—The
majority of teachers in ancient India were priests, as
was the case all over the ancient world. They did

250 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch.
not exploit their position for promoting any selfish ends
of their own, but they had the natural limitations of
their class. When the even balance that was for a
long time successfully held in Hindu society between
the claims of religious and secular life (Dharma-Moksha
versus Artha-Kāma) was disturbed, religious and semi-
religious studies got undue predominance in the
educational system. Secular sciences like history,
economics, politics, mathematics and astronomy did not
receive as much attention as theology, philosophy,
ritualism and sacred law. Commerce and industry
and fine and useful arts made no appreciable progress
during the last 1500 years or so, because those in
charge of education showed no keen interest in them.
It may however be pointed out that down to the 18th
century, educationalists in Europe also regarded religious
studies as the most important constituents of the educa-
tional course ; many of them like Franke and Comenius
held that all children should be instructed above all
things in the vital knowledge of God and Christ.¹
Reason not held at a Discount in early Times :—
A greater defect produced by the hold of religion over
the Hindu mind was the tendency to hold reason at a
discount, which became prominent a few centuries after
the Christian era. Such was not the case in earlier
times, when society used to value intellectual freedom
highly. Upanishadic thinkers have, for example,
advocated bold and original theories of philosophy
without showing any anxiety whatever to prove that
their views were in consonance with those of the
Vedic sages. In the days of the Buddha there were as
many as sixty three systems of philosophy, very few of
which cared to rely on Vedic authority for their
premises or conclusions. Systems of philosophy like
1 Greaves, Educators, pp 72—3,

XI] ACHIEVEMENTS AND FAILURES 251
the Sāṁkhya and the Mīmāṁsā, which did not recognise
a Creator-God, were admitted within the fold of
orthodoxy. Buddhism and Jainism were not summarily
dismissed as athiestic or heterodox ; their scriptures
were carefully studied in order to prove that their
theories were unsound. For a long time society was
successful in reconciling its reverence for the past with
its regard for the advance of knowledge ; it used to
silently abandon exploded views and quietly accept new
theories and doctrines.
The changed Attitude of later Times : Unfortu-
nately for the progress of learning and scholarship
Vedic literature was canonised some time about
600 B.C. An almost equally high reverence came to
be paid to the Smṛitis and Purāṇas in course of time.
The authorship of these works came to be attributed to
divine or inspired agency, and it was averred that what
they contained could not be false, what they opposed
could not be true. Theories began to be accepted or
rejected according as they were in conformity with or
opposed to the statements of thesacred books on the
point. Intellectual giants like Śaṅkara and Rāmānuja had
to spend a disproportionate amount of time and energy
to prove that their systems of philosophy were in
conformity with and the natural outcomes of the Upa-
nishadic hypotheses. If the hold of the Srutis and Smṛitis
were not so exacting, there would have been freer
development of philosophy. At any rate many of the
remarkable intellects of the Middle Ages would have
found it possible to write independent works on their
own systems of philosophy instead of being compelled
to present it unsystematically, while engaged in the
ostensible task of writing commentaries on the revealed
literature. Instead of Nibandha compilations, we
would have possessed original Smṛitis of the later times.

252 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch.
A concrete Instance and its Moral: Under such
circumstances, there was not much scope left for
research and originality in those matters where opinions
were expressed in sacred texts. A concrete case may
be given to illustrate the point. In the infancy of
astronomy, the eclipses were explained by the mytho-
logical stories about Rāhu and Ketu attacking and
temporarily overpowering the moon and the sun. It
was an evil day for the advance of astronomy when
this mythological version got a canonical sanction by
its inclusion in the Purāṇas. Hindu astronomers like
Āryabhaṭa, Brahmagupta, Varāhamihira and Bhāskarā-
chārya knew the true causes of eclipses, but felt powerless
to carry vigorous propaganda to explode their popular
and mythological explanation canonised by the Purāṇas.
Nay, Brahmagupta, with a view to win cheap
popularity, went to the extent of advocating that the
popular view was correct, when he knew full well
that such was not the case. In Chapter I of his
Brahma-siddhānta, he gives both the popular and
scientific theories about the eclipses, but advocates
the cause of the former. "Some people think that the
eclipse is not caused by the Head (of Rāhu or Ketu).
This, however, is a foolish idea. The Veda, which
is the word of God from the mouth of Brahman, says
that the Head eclipses, likewise Manusmṛiti and Garga-
saṁhitā".¹ What is, however, most lamentable is that
Brahmagupta, who knew full well the real cause of
eclipses, should have proceeded to condemn Āryabhaṭa,
Varāhamihira, Śrīsheṇa and Vishṇuchandra for
expounding the unorthodox but scientific theory that
eclipses are caused by the shadow of the earth. It
is important to note that Brahmagupta becomes guilty
of intellectual and moral dishonesty because he was

1. As quoted by Alberuni, Vol. II, pp. 110-1. The original work
   has been lost.

XI] ACHIEVEMENTS AND FAILURES 253
anxious to win cheap popularity by supporting the
popular view that what was contained in the Vedas
and Manusmṛiti could not be untrue. It is interesting
to note that Varāhamihira first combats the Rāhu-Ketu
theory,¹ but then immediately succumbs to it.²
Āryabhaṭa alone has perhaps the moral courage to be
consistent with his intellectual convictions. But he
also only hints that the popular theory is wrong, but
does not dare to attack it openly.³ If the Rāhu-Ketu
theory of eclipses has continued to retain its hold over
the popular Hindu mind for the last 1500 years and
more, inspite of the scientific discovery of the true
cause of eclipses, the reason is that Hindu scholarship
of later times was too much in the leading strings of
religion to carry on active propaganda against its
hypothses. Similarly astronomers continued to
subscribe to the view that the constellation of the Great
Bear moves from one lunar mansion to another in
a hundred years, even when they had discovered that
such was not the case. The discontinuance of dissection
in the medical training and the abandonment of
agriculture by the Brahmanas, Buddhists and Jains
are also to be attributed to the hold of the progressively
puritanical notions over the popular mind.⁴
Similar Hostility to Rationalism in Europe also :

1. Bṛihat-saṁhitā, V. 4 ff. यदि मूर्तो भविचारी शिरोथवा भवति
   मंडली राहुः । भगणार्धेनान्तरिते गृह्णाति कथं नियतचारः ॥ ४ ॥
   अथ भुजगेन्द्ररूपः पुच्छेन मुखेन वा स गृह्णाति । मुखपुच्छान्तःसंस्थं
   स्थगयति कस्मान्न भगणार्धम् ।
2. Ibid, v. 13 एवमुपरागकारणमुक्तमिदं दिव्यदृग्भिराचार्यैः । राहुः
   कारणमस्मिन्नित्युक्तः शास्त्रसद्भावः ॥
3. Golabhāga, v. 49 यदसज्ज्ञानसमुद्रात्समुद्धृतं देवताप्रसादेन ।
   सज्ज्ञानोत्तमरत्नं मया निमग्नं स्वमतिना वा ।
4. I-tsing, p. 62.

254 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch.
It is, however, but fair to observe that in Europe too,
reason had to beat a hasty and precipitate retreat
when in conflict with the dicta of scriptures down to
the beginning of the modern age. Galileo had to
suffer for his astronomical discoveries. Throughout
the Middle Ages, educationalists were more anxious
to impart traditional theories and formulæ than to
train minds, capable of forming their own conclusions.
Medieval philosophers and commentators were utilising
reason only to prove that the scriptural hypotheses were
correct. It was Lüther who first vindicated the cause
of reason by declaring that what is contrary to reason
must be certainly much more contrary to God. But
Lüther too became a renegade towards the end of his
life and declared, 'The more subtle and accurate is
the reason, the more poisonous is the beast, with many
Dragon's heads is it against God and all his work.'
The truth was that the Reformers were unwilling to
concede to others the right to interpret scriptures, which
they claimed for themselves. If therefore reason was
at a discount in India from the beginning of Middle
Ages, (c. 500 A.D.) we must also note that the same
was the case in Europe down to the beginning of the
modern age. We should not further forget that reason
was given full scope by the Hindu scholars and thinkers
for more than about 1500 years, when it was superseded
by the exigencies of the religious situation. The his-
torian, however, cannot help regretting that supersession
of reason should have taken place among a people, who
had given full scope to it for several centuries.
Intellect Creative in the earlier Period : Enrich-
ment of the culture of the past along with its preservation
continued to be the goal of the Indian educational system
for several centuries. Intellect and reason were for a
long time given full scope, originality was encouraged,

XI] ACHIEVEMENTS AND FAILURES 255
and as a result we find remarkable creative activity in
the domain of theology, philosophy, philology, grammar,
logic, astronomy, mathematics, medicine, etc., down to
about 500 A.D. Indian achievements in many of these
fields were remarkable, judged either by the contem-
porary or by the absolute standard Scholars from
China, Korea, Tibet and Arabia used to visit India in
order to learn what she had to teach in the realms of
religion, medicine, mathematics and astronomy.
It Becomes Receptive and Imitative later : To-
wards the beginning of the 9th century A.D., the
creative vein in the Indian intellect got fatigued after
an intense activity of more than 2,000 years.¹ Hindu
intellect had probably become old and no longer possess-
ed the energy necessary to open out new paths of
thought and action. Probably the heritage of the past
became so great that all the ability of scholars was
engrossed in preserving it. As also was the case in
Europe down to the 16th century A.D., the habit of
looking back to the past for inspiration and guidance
became quite common ; it began to be instinctively felt
that not much could be expected from the present. The
golden age of inspiration had gone, no new achieve-
ments were possible, the best that the age could do was
to preserve, expound or comment upon the masterpieces
of the past. Hindu educational system was unable to
create minds powerful enough to rise above the influence
of these theories. For the last one thousand years and
more, the Hindus have been writing only digests and
commentaries on the works of earlier periods. Creative
activity has come to a practical standstill.
Similar Condition in Europe : Here also we have
to add that the spirit of the times was unfavourable for
the formation of independent minds and intellects both

1. The creative phase of the Greek or the Roman intellect
   lasted for about 1,000 years only.

256 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch.
in the West and in the East. In Europe too the Middle
Ages were a period of intellectual repression. Jesuitical
education also produced not creative or original but
receptive and imitative minds. The Renaissance and
Reformation movements, however, eventually succeed-
ed in establishing an era of intellectual independence
and originality in Europe; in India, on the other hand
the foreign rule and its natural consequences continued
the spirit of the Middle Ages down to the time of the na-
tional reawakening towards the end of the 19th century.
Intellect ceases to be assimilative :—Owing to its
excessive reverence for the past, the Hindu intellect
ceased to be assimilative from about 800 A. D. Hindu
sculptors assimilated Greek methods and enriched
Indian art. Early astronomers like Āryabhaṭa and
Varāhamihira were keeping themselves in touch with the
activities and achievements of the workers in the same
field outside India. Varāhamihira (c. 500 A. D.) pays
even a handsome compliment to Greek astronomers and
observes “The Greeks are no doubt Mlechhas (impure),
but they are well grounded in astronomy and are
therefore worshipped and honoured like the Ṛishis.”¹
A remarkable change for the worse took place in the
Hindu attitude towards foreign scholarship within a
couple of centuries or so after Varāhamihira’s death.
Implicit faith in the past and in the correctness of its
canonised tradition made the Hindu scholar narrow,
bigotted and conceited. Of the Hindu men of letters
of the 11th century A. D., Alberuni observes, “They
are haughty, foolish, vain, stolid and self-conceited.
According to their belief, there is no country on the
earth but theirs, no other race of men but theirs, and no
created beings beside them that have any knowledge

1. म्लेच्छा हि यवनास्तेषु सम्यक्शास्त्रमिदं स्थितम् । ऋषिवत्तेऽपि
   पूज्यन्ते······॥ Brihatsamhitā, II 14.

XI] ACHIEVEMENTS AND FAILURES 257
or science whatever. Their haughtiness is such that if
you tell them of any science or scholar in Khūrāsān or
Persia, they will think you to be both an ignoramus
and a liar. If they travelled and mixed with other
nations, they would soon change their mind, for their
ancestors were not so narrow-minded as the present
generation is¹". In proof of the last assertion Alberuni
quotes the tribute of Varāhamihira to Greek astronomers,
quoted above. Hindus in Alberuni's time had very
good reason to feel a very deep prejudice against
Muslim scholarship; Alberuni's picture may have been
to some extent overdrawn. But the contemporary
Hindu attitude towards the Śrutis, Smṛitis and Purānas
and other works of the past, which has been discussed
above, would show that Alberuni's account of the
mentality of the contemporary Hindu scholar is
substantially true. Hindu education had ceased to
remove prejudices, explode superstitions and broaden
the mind, so as to keep it capable of receiving instruc-
tions from all quarters by the beginning of the 9th
century A. D. Hindu colonising activity, necessitating
travel abroad, had also come to an end by this time.
Some Hindu doctors are no doubt known to have
proceeded to Baghdad at the invitation of Khalifa Harun
(786 A.D.—808 A.D.) to act as chief physicians in his
hospitals²; we however do not know whether public
opinion approved of their conduct, whether they returned
home and were readmitted to Hindu society. Foreign
travel for the purpose of education and the broadening
of views became impossible when the sea voyage was
prohibited. Whether it was undertaken in earlier days
also for these objects is doubtful. There are no books
in Sanskrit literature descriptive of geography, manners
and climate of the countries adjacent to India. Nor do
the Pauranic geographers seem to have been in touch with

1. Sachau, Alberuni, I, pp. 22-23. 2. Idid, Introduction, p. 81.
   17

238 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch.
the traders and colonisers, who were familiar with
Babylon, Arabia. Ceylon, Java, Sumatra, Burma and
Borneo.
Arts and Crafts become plebian Professions :
Skill in manual training and industrial arts was highly
appreciated in early times. Liberal and useful
education was usually combined among high class
workers. Brahmanas used to be skilled in mining and
metallurgy, medical and military sciences. Weavers
were often amateur students of literature, folk lore,
astronomy and the art of war. This combination of
liberal and useful education began to become
progressively rare after the Gupta age. The status of
the Vaishya became assimilated to that of the Śūdra
as early as the 1st century A.D. and talented persons
among the intellectual classes began to think it below
their dignity to follow useful and industrial arts. Like
European classical scholars of the Renaissance period,
Indian scholars became fascinated by the charms of
the classical literature. Absorbed in the beauty of
words and ideas, they neglected the world of Nature.
Mathematics and astronomy, sculpture and architecture
ceased to attract them. The level of intelligence
among the industrial classes therefore became lowered
down when their education became rigidly confined
to the technique and processes of their own professions
from about the 9th century A. D. As a natural
consequence of such a state of affairs, the growth and
development of the fine, useful and industrial arts
became arrested in India from about the 8th century
A.D. No advance is to be seen after that date in the
realms of sculpture, painting, mining, surgery, etc. The
old type of learning became stereotyped and it soon
began to degenerate. It is true that India continued
to retain her dominating position in the weaving
industry down to the beginning of the last century; but

XI] ACHIEVEMENTS AND FAILURES 259
it is doubtful whether any progress was made in the
technique or processes of manufacture during the last
one thousand years.
Education of Masses neglected in later Times: At
the time when India was making rapid strides in the
different domains of knowledge, her education was
broad-based. In ancient Athens one in ten and in
ancient Sparta one in twenty five received education,¹
and women's education was altogether neglected. The
case was much different in India down to the com-
mencement of the Christian era. Literacy among the
Aryans was probably as high as 60 per cent in the days
of Aśoka. Anxious thought and care were also bestowed
on female education. Things, however, gradually
changed for the worse in the first millennium of the
Christian era. The education of women began to be
neglected. Kshatriyas and Vaishyas began to become
progressively illiterate. It is true that in Europe also
the masses were little more than barbarous and took
more naturally to warfare than to schooling down to
the end of the Middle Ages.² We can, however, hardly
derive any consolation from this comparison, for the
prevalent illiteracy in India was due to degeneration
from a more creditable condition, obtaining in earlier
centuries.
The neglect of Vernaculars : Hindu educational
system was unable to promote the education of the masses,
probably because of its concentration on Sanskrit and
the neglect of the vernaculars. The revival of Sanskrit
that took place early in the first millennium was un-
doubtedly productive of much good; it immensely
enriched the different branches of Sanskrit literature
which began to reflect the ideals and ideas of the
individual and the race. But owing to the deep fascina-
1 Monroe, A Text Book, pp. 26, 29.
2 Ibid, p. 261.

260 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch.
tion for Sanskrit, society began to identify the educated
man with the classical scholar as was the case in the
Europe of the Renaissance period. But when the best
minds became engaged in expressing their thoughts in
Sanskrit, Prakrits were naturally neglected. As long as
Sanskrit was intelligible to the ordinary individual, this
was not productive of much harm. But from about
the 8th century A.D. Prakrits and vernaculars became
widely differentiated from Sanskrit, and those who were
using them began to find it difficult to understand
the latter language. Hindu educationalists did not
realise the importance of developing vernacular litera-
tures in the interest of the man in the street. Alberuni
observes, “The language in India is divided into a
neglected vernacular one, only in use among the common
people, and a classical one, only in use among the upper
and educated classes, which is much cultivated.” 1
We no doubt come across a few cases from the 13th
century onwards where provision was made for the
teaching of Telugu, Canarese and Marathi in some of
of the schools and colleges of South India, but the
general impression produced by a survey of the edu-
cational system and institutions is that society was not
alive to the importance of the teaching and development
of vernaculars in the interest of the spread of education
among the masses. Things in India were however quite
on a par with what they were in contemporary Europe,
where Latin continued to be the medium of instruction
down to the 17th century A.D. The classics dominated
the curriculum of the Public Schools in England down
to c. 1850 A.D., boys could write better Latin than
English. In the 16th century school boys were
punished for using the mother tongue, and its study
could be started in Jesuitical schools only with the
1 Sachau, I, p. 18. Some poems and dramas were written in
Prakrit, but their number was very small.

XI] ACHIEVEMENTS AND FAILURES 261
special permission of the Provincial.¹ India however
could have been much in advance of the world ideas in
this matter if the impetus that was given to the cultiva-
tion of vernaculars by the two gifted Seers, Mahāvīra
and the Buddha, had not died down owing to the
revival of Sanskrit.
Depth at the cost of Breadth : Hindu education
was thorough, but it was not sufficiently broad. Each
branch was thinking of its own problems. Education-
alists do not seem to have bestowed much thought on
the relative utility of the study of the different branches
like grammar, literature, logic, philosophy, mathematics
and fine arts for the development of the intellect, the
mind and the imagination. Specialisation was started
too early. A broad-based secondary course embracing
a study of grammar, literature, mathematics,
astronomy and history did not exist.² Subjects of
æsthetic value like music and painting did not form part
of the general course, as they did in ancient Greece.
An undue emphasis was laid on grammar, literature
and logic at the cost of history, mathematics and
astronomy. Here again the impartial historian has to
point out that this defect of the Hindu educational
system was not peculiar to India, but was to be seen
all over the civilised world. In Europe all the energies
of teachers and students were concentrated on
grammar, rhetoric and dialectics down to the 13th
century ; only that much knowledge of arithmetic was
given which was necessary to calculate Church
festivals. Geography was ignored altogether till an
incentive to its study was given by the discoveries
of Columbus and Vasco de Gama. Natural sciences
1 Quick : The Essays, p. 81.
2. Many sided interests were not created probably because it
was difficult to maintain them in after life in an age when cheap
books were unknown. Crowded curriculum also has its own evils as
. the Matriculation student knows to his cost.

262 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch.
were introduced very reluctantly only by the middle of
the last century.¹
An unfair Comparison : Some of the defects
noted above like the neglect of the education of
women and the masses crept into the Hindu
Educational System only in later times; others like
the non-existence of a broad-based secondary course
and the neglect of the vernaculars were common to all
the contemporary systems. The twentieth century
critic often forgets that the West has gone on
progressing rapidly during the last 300 years owing to
the impetus it has received from the Renaissance, the
Reformation and the Scientific Movement, while India
has gone on deteriorating ever since 1000 A.D. owing
to the almost continuous foreign rule and its natural
consequences. The Muslim conquerors no doubt became
domiciled in India, but they were on the whole unable
to appreciate and encourage Hindu culture and
education to any appreciable extent. The effects of the
Muslim rule on the learning and scholarship of the
Hindus can be described in the words of a Muslim
himself. While describing the state of Hindu learning
after the invasions of Mahmud of Ghazni, Alberuni
observes, ‘The present times are not of this kind ; they
are the very opposite, (because there is no royal support
or encouragement to learning), and therefore it is quite
impossible that a new science or any new kind of research
should arise in our days. What we have of sciences is but
the scanty remains of byegone better times'² Bernier, while
describing the state of Hindu education in Benares

1. In Germany, science was introduced in secondary education
   in 1816 A.D. When the Royal Commission on Education apologeti-
   cally pleaded for the inclusion of science in the secondary courses in
   1856, 10 or 12 lectures began to be given annually in some of the
   Public Schools in England. The Faculty of Science was established
   in the London University only in 1860.
2. Sachau, I, p. 252.

XI] ACHIEVEMENTS AND FAILURES 263
towards the middle of the 17th century, observes,¹
"Students stay for ten or twelve years during which the
work of instruction proceeds but slowly. Feeling no
spirit of emulation and entertaining no hope that honour
or emoluments may be the reward of extraordinary
attainments as with us, the scholars pursue the studies
slowly, without much to distract their attention." The
Report of the Bengal Provincial Committee, Education
Commission, 1882, observes, 'The Mahomaden conquest
proved disastrous to all indigenous educational institu-
tions. The proprietary rights in land changed hands.
The language of the court was changed. Indigenous
learning lost most of its support ; and after the classes
had settled down, the well-to-do classes of the Hindus
took gradually to the cultivation of foreign language,
literature and manners. The tols were more and more
deserted and left to those only, who wanted to learn
the Hindu rituals. In course of time the Musalman
teachers and schools drew off the largest portion of the
upper and the middle classes of the community and
the tols and the pathaśālās either died or barely managed
to survive.'²
A general Estimate : It is therefore hardly fair
to compare 'the scanty remains of bye-gone better
times' with the tremenodus advance the West has
made during the last century and half under very
favourable circumstances³. The impartial historian
will have to note that in the heyday of her glorv.
education in India was broad-based, women and a large
section of the masses being admitted to its privileges and

1. Bernier, Travels in Moghul Empire, p. 334.
2. P. 2.
3. The historically correct procedure would be to compare
   Hindu Sanskrit learning at the advent of the British rule with the
   scholarship of the Christian monks who kept the lamp of learning
   burning during the Dark Ages. If such a comparison is instituted,
   India will have nothing to be afraid of.

264 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA
advantages. It was able to develop character and
personality, to inculcate civic virtues, and to turn out
citizens well qualified to follow their professions and
discharge their duties in life. It introduced a high
standard of culture and emphasised the necessity of
self-imposed discipline and stern regard for duty. It was
not only able to preserve the heritage of the past, but
also to enrich it from generation to generation. It
produced a galaxy of able scholars and thinkers from
age to age, who made important contributions to the
advancement of knowledge in the spheres of philosophy,
logic, mathematics, astronomy, medicine and chemistry.
It enabled India to achieve high material prosperity
by the excellent arrangements it made for training
young men in commerce, industry and fine and useful
arts. The general principles, which underlay the
system,—e. g. intellectual freedom, individual attention
to students, the monitorial system, gurukula ideal, plain
living and high thinking, mass education, combination of
useful and liberal education, the locating of educational
institutions away from the din and dust of the city-life,
etc.—are inherently sound and capable of yielding
excellent results even in modern times, if applied with
due regard to changed circumtances