Dr. B. R. AMBEDKAR OPEN UNIVERSITY LIBRARY HYDERABAD-BOO O33. Dr. B.R. AMBEDKAR OPEN UNtVERSITY LIBRARY CallNo. Accession NoJ-'- Author. U , V- f- Title This book should be returned on or before the date last marked below. THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN INDIA. FART I ( ARYAN P.5R1OD. ) BY V, P. BOK1L M. A., S. T. C. D. I'ROPRSSOR. XECOJTDJLXr COLLEGE, BOMBA K. AH right* re*rv*d ) ) 925 CONTENTS. .......- Chapter I Introductory Times ...... ^ Do __ II The Vedic - 42 Do HI The Epic Time* Times '21 QO _ IV The Rationalistic 221 D _ V The Puranic Times 258 Do _ VI The General Characteristics A J" .. Appendix ...... BIBLIOGRAPHY - - 1 Rig Vedic India A. C. Da 2 History of Civilisation in ancient India -R. C. Cuit. 3 History of Aryan Rule in India Havell- - 4 Dnyanakosha Edited by S. V. Ketkar. 3 The Conclusion of the Mahabharata C V. Vaidya. 6 Sacred Books of the East Series a) Digha Nikaya b) tvCilinda Panna. c) Sutta Nipata. d) Dhamma Pada. - e) The Rig Veda Samhita. f) Shata Patha Brahman a. g) The Code of Manu. h) The Upanishads. 7 The Thirteen Principal Upanishads Translated by Hume. - 8 The Religion and Philosophy of India Deussen. 9 A History of ancient Sanskrit Litera- ture - Max Muller. 10 Classical Sanskrit Literature Keith. - 1 1 A History of Hindu Chemistry P. C Ra y . * \ 2 Indian Philosophy Radhakrishtian, 13 The age of Shankara Narayanshastri !4 Ind'an Wisdom Monier Williams. - !5 1 hr Hindu Realism Jagadish Chatterji '6 Indian l.opic and atomism Keeth. 17 Vicissitudes of Aiyan civilisation in India - M. M Kunte. 18 A History of Education (a) Before the middle ages ^ 't) During the middle ages Graved. 19 The Hindu Mind Training an Anglo- .^xon Mother with an introduction by 5. M. Mitra. 20 Arcient Indian Education Keay. J I Education in ancient India Muzumdar - T2 History of Education Davidson. 23 5>rsl;rit C lassies. 24 A number of articles by Achoiamlike Messrs, Pavagi, Miukerji, fiodaf, Ogalft* and others in different periodicalsv CHAPTER I. Introductory. *** India has been an attraction to many in differ- ent lights at different times. As a land of gold was the of an invader's shot; as a it^ target many country of natural beauty it was visited by many an adventurer; as a flourishing market many a tradesman frequented it by different routes; as a seat of learning and religion many a student from Chaldea to China, and from Greece to Germany spent years of his life in it. People have expressed quite a variety of opinions about India from pre- historic times to the present day, and in particular European scholars of Sanskrit and of Indian philosophy or theology, either in the original or through translations, have said and written so much about it that their words have become an eye- ' opener to its own people. Some call them f un- ' progressive', while others^ class them with barba- rians* and a third group* look down upon them as ' superstitious heathens'. There is also a fourth t The philosophy of the Upanishads by Gough. J History of Education- vol. T.-by Graves. * "History of Education by Davidson. 2 THE HISTORY OF class of scholars who go deep enough and form a proper estimate of Indians, their literature and religion. Hearing all such dis- cordant notes, the Indian is naturally led to enquire into his own nature, the nature and education of his forefathers; he pauses a while and asks himself ' ' if he is really barbarian or if his ancestors were so all the while, if his society has been really stag- nant and contained all meek followers of the existing order all the time, or if he is actually superstitious to the present day. < To speak of Indians in general terms and referring to any period is far from truth. Firstly, India is such a vast country that its area is nearly equal to that of Europe without Russia. Secondly, the geographical conditions are such that many parts of it have very little in common with others so as to let the inhabitants feel that they belong to one and the same nation. Thirdly, the languages and customs in different provinces are, and have been, different from each other so much so that the idea of nationality never took a firm root in this land. Lastly, at different times waves of different people entered India and either held sway over it or left their own impressions on the society there to a more or less lasting degree. To speak of ' Indians as sages who have given up all the worldly EDUCATION IN INDIA. 3 * ' greed or as warriors who look upon death on f the battle-field as the best reward or as savages ' who know not the ordinary rules of morality is a vain attempt to give a correct idea of the people. Indians included, and do include, sages, warriors and savages among them, but they are none of them exclusively. Anthropological enquiries have revealed that Indians have among them four main types of races distinguished, viz*, Dravidian, Aryan, Scythian and Mongolian. Besides these at differ- ent periods of history there have been introduced into India in smaller numbers Parsees, Arabs, Tijrks, Afghans, Moghals and European Christians* The four main types are not to be traced as distinct from each other, but there has been a fusion of them all on a large scale. The Dravidians repre- sent the earliest known inhabitants of India; but it is the Aryans who have carried the lion's share in controlling the destiny of the country. The history of India divides itself into three main periods : ( 1 ) The Aryan period, extending from times immemorial to the 1 1 th century A. D. Nobody knows exactly when the Aryans entered India. Various theories ranging from 800 B. C. to 80,000 B. C have been set forth by different scholars, of whom the westerners* have dis- * History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature Maxmuller- HISTORY OF played a tendency to prove the later date, while the nativest seem to try for the earlier date. It is clear that recent scholarship and research- work has been able to trace the presence of the Aryans in India backwards step by step, till at last* geological theories about glacial periods have come surprisingly near to the calculations given in Indian calendars. It is sufficient for our purpose here to say that the Vedic times range from an unknown date to about 3000 B. C., which is now accepted as the probable year of the Bharati war $ between the Kauravas and the Pandavas. The second epoch may be styled as the Epic times from about 3000 B.C. to 1000 B.C., including the compilation of the four Vedas, Brahmanas, Aranyakas and some of the Upanishads. To these times belong the historical poems, namely, Ramayana and Mahabharata and the six sciences known as Vedangas phonetics, ritual, gram- mar, etymology, prosody and astronomy. During t The Arctic Home of the Vedas B. G. Tilak. Aryavartic Home and its Arctic Colonies; Vedic Fathers of Geology N. B. Pavagi. Great Ice Age Geikie Climate and Cosmology Croll. J Conclusion of the Mahabharata C. V. Vaidya. The Age of Shankara-Narayana Shastri. Indian Astronomy S, B. Dikshit. EDUCATION IN INDIA. 5 all these years the Aryans went on spreading to the east and south of the Punjab, the place of their original settlement in India; various dynasties of kings ruled in different provinces that were brought under their power, each carving out a principality for itself. The fusion of the Aryans with the Dravidians, who were conquered and held under sway by them, also commenced at this time. Negotiation, industry, learning and arts pro- gressed a good deal, both the races combining their qualities in a peculiar division of labour, and then evolved the Rationalistic times, which saw the composition of the Sutras, the origin of the six systems of philosophy and the birth of Bauddha and Jain religions. This rationalism prevailed in India from about 1000 B. C. to the first century A. D. The Buddhist and Jain religions reached their zenith at that time and by the latter date they were on the eve of decline. The Aryan clans quarrel- led with each other and there was never an idea of nationality among them. The internal feuds of that type were the most welcome opportunities to foreign conquerors, of whom Alexander visited India and defeated Porus during this epoch and the reigns of Chandragupta, Asoka and Vikramaditya were the outstanding features of the same. With the fall of Buddhism, Brahminism was again 6 THE HISTORY OF revived by philosophers like Shankara and Kumaril Bhatt, a number of Puranas were written and the caste-system was again made as rigid as ever. Idol worship and Bhakti cult dates with these works* These may be called Puranic times, of which clas- sical Sanskrit writers and Harsha Vardhana have been the prominent figures 100 to 1000 A. D. (2) The Mahomedan period extends from about 1000 A. D. to about 1800 A. D. In Asia, Europe and Africa the Mahomedans, being inspired by the teachings of Mahomed the Pro- phet, carried on their successful arms and occupied large territories. For about four or five centuries the Mahomedan name was a terror to the Hindus, Christians and Negroes alike. In India the Ma- homedan power was ushered by the successive twenty-four invasions of Mahmud, the Sultan of Gazni, and was later on established at Delhi first by the Afghans and then by the Moghals.