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

164 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch. Other Devices in Teaching : The use of parables was often made in expounding obscure principles, as would appear from the plot of the Hitopadeśa and the Pañchatantra, where principles of politics are taught under the guise of telling stories about animals. The dialogue method was followed by many a philosopher, as would appear from the evidence of the Upanishads and the Buddhist Sūtras.¹ It enabled the teacher to ascertain the reactions in the student's mind to his own observations. The value of comparison and observation was also realised by many teachers who used to develop the power of understanding of dull students by asking them to carefully observe new facts and compare them with those already known.² Individual Attention : We have already shown at pp. 82-3 how the classes in ancient India were usually small ones, consisting of not more than 15 or 20 students. It was therefore possible to give individual attention to each student. This was one of the strongest points in the ancient Indian system of education. Lectures to large classes of 100 or 200 students, which are unintelligible to some, superfluous to others and partially useful to the rest, were unknown in ancient India. Students could not afford to go to the class room without thorough preparation. There was a daily examination of every student and no new lesson was given until the old one was thoroughly mastered.³ There were no annual examinations and mass promotions at fixed intervals.

1. It is interesting to note that many of the commentaries are in the form of a dialogue between the teacher and the student. The earlier part advances a view such as a student may be expected to hold as plausible, the later part contains its correction or refutation, as may be done by a teacher in his lecture.
2. Jātaka No. 124.
3. Mil Pan., I, p. 18.

VI] HIGHER LITERARY EDUCATION 165 Clever students were not compelled to mark time for their dull companions as under the modern system of education. The educational system ministered to the needs and individual capactity of each student. If a student was intelligent and industrious, he could finish his education much earlier than is possible in modern times. The idle and careless student had not as pleasant a prospect of a merry college life as he has in the present age. Yuan Chwang says, ‘When disciples, intelligent and accute, are addicted to idle shirking, teachers doggedly persevere in repeating instructions until their training is finished’.¹ The Chinese traveller was very favourably impressed by the capacity of Indian teachers to rouse their students to activity and urge them to progress. Monitorial System: In order to make personal supervision effective, the cooperation and help of advanced students were enlisted in the cause of education. They used to guide the studies of the juniors under the general supervision of their teachers. About the Valabhi college students, I-tsing observes that they used to pass two or three years, ‘instructed by their teachers and instructing others’.² This system also obtained at Taxila; for instance, the Kuru prince Sutasoma, who aquired proficiency earlier, was entrusted with the teaching of his brother prince, the heir apparent of Benares.³ Senior students at Taxila were often put in charge of their schools during the temporary absence of their teachers.⁴ This method of entrusting teaching work to brilliant students had a great educational value.

1. Watters, I, p. 160.
2. P. 177.
3. Sutasoma-Jātaka, No. 537.
4. E. g., Sukha-vihārī Jātaka, No. 10.

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.