Table Of ContentReconstructing Indian History & Culture, no.17
EDUCATION
IN
ANCIENT INDIA
MITALICHATTERJEE
Mitali Chatterjee's study of education in ancient
India focuses chiefly on over two hundred years:
AD 319-550, of the reign of Imperial Guptas,
which has been variantly described as the
Golden Age, Periclean Age, or even the Age of
Hindu Renaissance. It was a time when
literature, arts and sciences flourished in a
degree beyond the ordinary These achieve¬
ments are inconceivable without a well-evolved
system of education.
With its theme like "education", covering such a
large period of time the book traverses a terrain
so far little charted. It is indisputably a work of
painstaking research trying, as it does, to
retrieve the educational set-up of classical India
from an astonishing mass of contemporary
sources, including notably (a) Puranas like
Markandeya, Matsya, Vayu, Visnu and
Visnudharmottara; (b) Smrti texts like Vyasa-
smrti, HarTta-samhita and Pitamaha-smrti;
(c) literary classics of Kalidasa, Visakhadatta,
Kumaradasa and others; (d) Jaina and Buddhist
works of scholars like Vasubandhu and
Dinnaga; (e) astronomical/scientific treatises of
Aryabhata and others; (f) foreign travellers'
narratives; and (g) other miscellaneous writings
on grammar, linguistics and polity — besides
inscriptional and numismatic material.
Notwithstanding the ethical-cum-religious
overtones of ancient Indian education, the
pathasalas (schools) and universities taught
Sanskrit, literature, arts, sciences, philosophy,
laws, and even rituals. In conclusion, the author
demonstrates how the educational system of the
Imperial Guptas, in certain ways, anticipated
some of the fundamental theories given by great
modern educationists.
A useful work for anyone involved with
education; whether as a historian, a professional
or a scholar.
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2020 with funding from
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Education
in
Ancient India
Reconstructing Indian History & Culture
(ISSN 0971-3824)
1. Society in Ancient India; by Sures Chandra Banerji.
2. Political Thought in Ancient India; by G.P. Singh.
3. Early Indian Historical Tradition and Archaeology; by G.P. Singh.
4. Vasantotsava: Tire Spring Festivals of India; by Leona M. Anderson.
5. Ecological Readings in the Veda; by M. Vannucci.
6. Vrndavana in Vaisnava Literature; by Maura Corcoran.
7. Social History of the Tamils (1707-1947); by P. Subramanian.
8. Ancient Indian Coinage; by Rekha Jain.
9. Buddhism and Socio-Economic Life of Eastern India; by Bimal Chandra Mohapatra.
10. Chandragupta Maurya; by P.L. Bhargava.
11. Mrtyu: Concept of Death in Indian Traditions; by Gian Giuseppe Filippi.
12. Yama: The Glorious Lord of the Other World; by Kusum P. Merh.
13. Sacred Complex of Ujjain; by D.K. Samanta.
14. Vedic View of the Earth; by S.R.N. Murthy.
15. Society in the Atharvaveda; by B.S. Kharade.
16. Orissan History, Culture and Archaeology; by S. Pradhan.
17. Education in Ancient India; by Mitali Chatterjee.
13. Sura: The Liquor and the Vedic Sacrifice; by M.B. Kolhatkar.
19. Human Ecology in tire Vedas; by Marta Vannucci.
20. Governance in Ancient India; by Anupa Chandra Pandey.
21. The Cultural Glory of Ancient India: A Literary Overview; by Sures Chandra
Banerji.
22. Kautilya's Arthasastra in the light of Modern Science & Technology; by Sunil Sen
Sarma.
23. History of Jainism — With Special Reference to Mathura; by V.K. Sharma.
24. Cultural Tourism in India: Museums, Monuments & Arts — Theory and Practice;
by S.P. Gupta; Krishna Lai; Mahua Bhattacharya.
25. Ancient Indian Historiography — Sources and Interpretations; by G.P. Singh.
26. Republics, Kingdoms, Towns and Cities in Ancient India; by G.P. Singh.
27. Facets of Ancient Indian History and Culture — New Perception; by G.P. Singh.
28. Kamakhya — A Socio-cultural Study; by Nihar Ranjan Mishra.
29. History and Culture of Tamil Nadu as Gleaned from the Sanskrit Inscriptions Vol.
1 (up to c. ad 1310); by Chithra Madhavan.
30. Lifestyle of the Vedic People; by Pranati Ghosal.
31. History and Culture of Tamil Nadu as Gleaned from the Sanskrit Inscriptions Vol.
2 (up to c. ad 1310 - c. 1885 ad); by Chithra Madhavan.
32. Matrimonial Alliances and Ancient Indian Polity (c. 600 bce to c. 650); by Preeti
Prabhat.
33. Artisans and Craftsmen of Northern India; by Kuldeep Singh Thind.
34. The Evolution of Historiographical Tradition in Ancient and Medieval India; by
G.P. Singh.
35. Warfare in Ancient India, Theory and Practice by Soma Basu.
36. Sanskrit Education and Literature in Ancient and Medieval Tamil Nadu by Chithra
Madhavan
Reconstructing Indian History & Culture, no. 17
Education
in
Ancient India
(From Literary Sources of the Gupta Age)
Mitali Chatterjee
PRINTWORLD
Cataloging in Publication Data — DK
[Courtesy: D.K. Agencies (P) Ltd. <[email protected]>]
Chatterjee, Mitali, 1951 -
Education in ancient India.
(Reconstructing Indian history & culture ; no. 17).
Includes bibliographical references (p. ).
Includes index.
ISBN 13: 9788124601136
1. Education, Ancient — India. 2. Education — India
— History. 3. India — History — 324 bc - 1000 ad. I. Title.
II. Series: Reconstructing Indian history & culture; no. 17.
ISBN 13: 978-81-246-0113-6
First published in India in 1999
Second impression published in 2014
© Author
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Preface
The present work is an honest attempt to estimate highly developed
educational system followed by people during the time of the Gupta
monarchs (ad 319 to 550). The golden age of the Guptas sometimes has
been described as the Periclean Age of India. During this period India
witnessed a wonderful emergence of culture. With inscriptional and
other literary records we can detect the fortunes obtained by the people
of a single dynasty. India had experienced a unique political unity as
well as cultural interest under the supreme banner of the Guptas. India
saw the extensiveness of the Gupta civilisation. The intellectual and
cultural activities that India experienced during this period continued
for centuries mainly through vast literary records produced under the
patronage of the Gupta monarchs.
Many aspects of political, social, religious and cultural history of
the Guptas have been the topics of researches of various eminent
scholars. But so far my knowledge goes scholars have not seriously
taken the educational system of the Gupta Age as the subject of their
study. Various literary works including Puranas, poems, dramas,
Sanskrit inscriptions and coins belonging to this period furnish us with
valuable documents relating to the history of the Guptas. In these
works though details about educational system of that period have not
been elaborately dealt with by any prominent author of that age, yet
there remain scattered a good number of materials concerning education
in innumerable works of this period. The educational system practised
by people of later Gupta period sometimes helps us to imagine as to how
the system of education was nurtured by the people of the Gupta age.
In any case like the political and social condition religious toleration,
development of art and architecture, the educational system of this age
Education in Ancient India
VI
was also in a highly developed condition. For this reason an attempt has
been made in this work to evaluate the educational system of the Gupta
age and this would certainly help the present generation to think over
the academic atmosphere created in India several centuries back.
The present study has been distributed over six chapters.
In the first chapter an account of the prominent Sanskrit works
written and revised in this period, has been presented.
In the second chapter an elaborate study of the educational system
revealed in the Puranas and Smrti literature has been made. Though
it is not possible to definitely determine the age of the Puranas, and
Smrti texts some of the reputed scholars of Indology have tried to place
some of the principal Puranas in or near the time of the Guptas. Only
those Puranas and the Upapurana, Visnudharmottara have been
taken for study. Regarding the Smrti texts their actual age cannot also
be determined. But as Manu-smrti and Yajnavalkya-smrti had extensive
influence over the social structure of ancient India and as there are
several stray references to utterings of Manu and Yajnavalkya in the
Sanskrit works of the Gupta age, the elements on education that are
occasionally discussed by Manu and Yajnavalkya have also been
incorporated in this chapter. Incidentally some of the aspects of
education that have been discussed in Kautilya’s Arthasastra and
Kamandaka’s Nltisdra have also been dealt with.
In the third chapter classical Sanskrit works that are believed to
have been composed during the Gupta age have been discussed and
therefrom many elements of educational system have been detected.
Among the classical authors of this period, most probably Kalidasa was
the foremost one. So his works have been given special emphasis. In this
period Kumaradasa, Visakhadatta and some other prominent authors
are believed to have been born. So these authors have been taken up for
detecting educational pattern of that age. Some classical authors like
Banabhatta and Bharavi who most probably flourished at the periods
later than that of the Guptas, have touched some of the important
points on education. Their works have been discussed in this chapter to
