Eternal India Encyclopedia

EDUCATION

Eternal India

encyclopedia

Before 1947, Government colleges, especially in Princely States,

were predominant in number. It was difficult to establish and run a

private college because financial assistance or grant from the

Government was not adequate. After Independence, the situation

changed vastly. Demand for higher education increased rapidly even in

rural areas because of the link between education and the glamour of

Government jobs. Secondly, for political and social leaders, it became

a matter of local prestige to have a college in their own constituency. A

fillip to their aspiration came when Government grants increased to

more than 80% of expenditure. This was further boosted in States like

Karnataka and Maharashtra where the scheme of 100% salary grants

(equal to salaries of staff in Government colleges) was introduced in

about 1970. As a result of this, power of making appointments of staff

and admission of students passed into the hands of local leaders who

were Presidents or Secretaries of Managements of Private Colleges.

Proliferation of private colleges started. While private colleges

prospered, Government colleges, which were filled with mostly

poor students and first generation learners, were plagued by

transfers and non-filling of posts of staff as well as the financial

crunch for infrastructure. Due to vast number of colleges to be

controlled and supervised, the State Directorates of Collegiate

Education who have the overall administrative control over both

Government and Private Colleges have not been able to see that

standards are maintained. Nor have the universities which deal

with courses' and examinations been able to control and guide

teaching standards. This dual control has led to deterioration in

standards.

EDUCATION FROMVEDIC TIMES

TO THE PRESENT DAY

ORIGIN

Education in India in the early Vedic period began when the

seers (

rishis

) started imparting to their sons, daughters and others

who joined them the knowledge they had of the

Rig Veda

and,

later, the other three

Vedas

and

Vedangas

and

Upanishads.

The

instruction was imparted in the homes or

ashrams

of the

guru

(teacher). No fees were levied. The students were expected to beg

for food and what was received was shared by everyone in the

gurukula.

The method of teaching was oral and discussion and debate

were the chief modes of learning and clearing doubts. The students

repeated the verses of the

Veda

after the teacher until they

mastered them. The purpose of

Rig Vedic

education was to pre-

serve contemporaneous religious texts through oral transmission

by the teacher to his pupil who after memorising them, reflected on

them and participated in discussions and learned assemblies.

In the early Vedic age this education was open to women.

Women sages were called

Bhramavadinis.

The names of 72 women

rishis are mentioned in the Rig Veda.

In the later Vedic period, ritualistic and sacrificial religion

began to be emphasised with the composition of the

Yajurveda.,

which contained sacrificial formulae in prose and verse. Conse-

quently, the external, material and mechanical aspects of worship

and sacrifice became the principal subjects of study. The caste

system took shape and crystallised during the later Vedic period.

Consequently, education was monopolised by the upper castes,

especially the

Brahmanas.

Women were no longer as prominent

as they were in the educational sphere in the

Rig Vedic

age. The

names of only a few women rishis like

Gargi

and

Maitreyi

are

mentioned in the later Vedic period. At the same*time, areas of

learning got widened to include Ayurveda, warcraft especially for

princes, astronomy, arithmetic, statecraft (politics) etc.

Ashrams

continued to be centres of learning.

Gurudakshina

at the end of the

course (generally 12 years of

brahmacharya

life) came into vogue.

The post-Vedic period (600B.C. to 300 B.C.) is marked by

detailed rituals for the various stages of student life. A ceremony

called

Vidyarambha

was performed when the student began learn-

ing the alphabets. This was followed by

Chudakarna

or tonsure.

The formal beginning of education was after the

Upanayanam

sacred thread ceremony. The period of formal education ended

with the

Samavartana

or graduation ceremony. After this the

student was called a

Sanataka.

The

Sushruta Samhita

provides

details about medical education which came into vogue during the

post-Vedic period. Kautilya's

Arthashastra

(400-300 B.C.) pro-

vides details about the education of a prince. He had to study

religion, philosophy, agriculture, trade and statecraft. At the age

of 16 he had to get married. Yet there was no institution or centre

of learning comparable to the modern university or college in

terms of infrastructure, fees, building, administration etc.

BUDDHIST INFLUENCE

For the first time in India and perhaps the world a type of

institution under Buddhist influence comparable to the organised

university of modern times came into being. Buddhist monasteries,

instead of the home of the individual teacher, became organised

institutions of higher learning. Taxila (or Taksasila) in North-

Western India, now in Rawalpindi in Pakistan, was the most

famous Buddhist seat of higher learning. Students from distant

places like Banaras, Mithila and Kosala came to Taxila. Among

the scholars connected with Taxila were Kautilya (Chanakya),

master of the science of statecraft and author

of Arthashastra

who

was the Minister of Chandragupta Maurya, Charaka, the great

physician and Panini, the grammarian of the 4th century B.C.

Jivaka, the great surgeon, studied at Taxila for seven years. The

Buddhist monastery of Nalanda, near modern Patna in Bihar,

which was founded in the Gupta peirod (4th century A.D) was

another important centre of learning in Northern India. Nalanda

attracted students from China and South-East Asia. It was

supported by the income from a number of villages which the

monastery had acquired. Residential facilities were provided to

most of the students.

Other centres of learning were Vallabhi in Gujarat and

Vikramshila in the present-day Bhagalpur district of Bihar.

The principal subjects taught at Taxila were the Vedas,

grammar, philosophy and a wide range of crafts which included

medicine, surgery, archery and allied military arts, astronomy, ac-

countancy, agriculture, magic, the art of finding treasure, music,

dancing and painting. Nalanda did not confine itself to Buddhist

theology but also taught the Vedas, Hindu philosophy, logic,

grammar and medicine.