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

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.

Chapter VIII. PROFESSIONAL AND USEFUL EDUCATION. MEDICAL EDUCATION—Its general features—Training in surgery—Arrangements for practical training—Duration of the course and examination—Medical education in later times—Veterinary education—MILITARY EDUCATION—Non-official training agencies— Military schools—professional military coaches—Education of the princes—COMMERCIAL EDUCATION—Its general scope—How it was imparted. TRAINING IN ARTS AND CRAFTS—Society's attitude towards arts and crafts in early and later times—Training given by the apprenticeship system—Workshop atmosphere—Painter's training as an illustration—Efficiency of the training—Was it narrow ? Introduction : In this chapter we propose to take a rapid survey of some of the important branches of useful and professional education and of the ways in which it was imparted. Medical, military and com- mercial education and the training of artists and artisans for sculpture, architecture, painting, smithy, carpentry etc. will principally engage our attention. MEDICAL EDUCATION. Early Progress : Medical science is no doubt of hoary antiquity in India. The Vedic literature refers to the healing feats of Aśvins, who though originally human beings, were later deified by a grateful posterity. This science was fairly well developed by the 4th century B. C., for the Greeks, who had accompanied Alexander the Great, were very well impressed by the skill of Indian doctors in curing the cases of serpent bite. The Jātakas refer to the medical students at Taxila performing operations for cranial abscesses and intestinal displacement.

VIII] PROFESSIONAL AND USEFUL EDUCATION 185 Some general Features : Medical education was usually imparted by private teachers. There was a ri- tual at the admission of students which will be described in Appendix 1, E. The student had to be well grounded in Sanskrit, for most of the books on medicine were written in that language. Learning by rote was condemned ; Suśruta compares a person having only a verbal knowledge of the medical texts to a donkey conscious of the heaviness but not of the quality of the burden it carries. Specialisation was encouraged ; students were expected to master the different branches of learning from different experts.¹ Practical training in surgery and pharmacy and constant discussion of abstruse points among the students and teachers were some of the important features of the training.² **Training in Surgery :—**We can get a fairly good idea of the training in surgery from our sources. The beginners were taught how to hold and use the surgical instruments by practising upon pumpkins, cucumbers, water melons, etc., under the teacher's directions. Puncturing was demonstrated on the veins of dead animals, the manner of holding the probe on dry Alābu fruits, scarification on stretched pieces of leather covered with hair, sewing on thin pieces of cloth or skin, application of bandages on stuffed human figures and the use of caustics on soft pieces of flesh.³ The novice was then gradually initiated in real cases and allowed to extract darts, cleanse wounds, and use the knife in piercing and cutting diseased parts of the body. How surgical wounds are to be made to dry up was also demonstrated. Practice in the adminis- 1 Suśruta, Sūtrasthāna, IV. 4. 4-8 2 Charaka. Vimānasthāna, 8. 4 3 Suśruta, Sūtrasthāna, Chap. 9 4 Mil. Pan., Vol. II, 254-5

186 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch- tration of emetics, purges and enemas was given to all. Suśruta emphasises on the importance of dissection for perfecting the student's knowledge, and points out that mere book learning cannot give a clear idea of the- actual internal constitution of the human body. Corpses used to be decomposed in water and students- were then required to dissect them and visualise the nature of skin, muscles, arteries, bones, internal organs, etc.¹ Anatomical knowledge that was thus imparted. was fairly high when compared with the contemporary standards elsewhere. Unfortunately in the course of time the dissection of human body went out of vogue, causing a setback to the progress of the medical science. Arrangements for Practical Training—Students received practical training in surgery and medicine, usually through private practice of their teachers. In some cases hospitals were attached to colleges. In great cities like Pāṭalīputra there existed big charitable hos- pitals, which must have afforded good opportunities for training medical students. Indian hospitals were well organised, for Hindu doctors were invited by the Abbaside Khalifas to supervise their own hospitals in the 8th century A D. It is to be regretted that Fa Hsien should not have given us detailed information of the hospitals, which he had seen at Pāṭlīputra. If he had done this, we would have probably known a good deal about the hospital management and medical education during the 5th century A.D. ' Duration of the Course and Examination :— The exact duration of the medical course is not known. Charaka and Suśruta do not enlighten us on the point. In the days of the Buddha, the medical 1 Suśruta, Śarīrasthāna, 5.49.

VIII] PROFESSIONAL AND USEFUL EDUCATION 187 course at Taxila was fairly long; for his physician Jīvaka was permitted to go home very reluctantly by his teacher, though he had spent seven years at that University. Charaka observes that no one can obtain a real all round efficiency in Āyurveda; this would also suggest a very long course. We may well presume that the student had to spend at least eight years, before he could get mastery in the subject. The completion of the course was followed by an examination. This is implied by the observation of Charaka¹ and Suśruta² that it is the king's fault, if incompetent doctors practise the medical profession. Śukra also prohibits a person to practise as a doctor without possessing the king's license.³ None of our authorities however discloses the conditions under which the royal permission was granted under efficient administration. Very probably it must have been given to students who were certified to have finished their course either by superintendents of state hospitals, principals of colleges or famous private practitioners. High ideals placed before the Medicoes : The convocation address before the medical graduates exhorted them to follow a very high ideal of profes- sional conduct.⁴ They must relieve distress in all quarters. They must strive for the welfare of all humanity. They must not desert a patient, even when their own life was in danger. They must continue study and research throughout their life. Achievements in the Medical Science : The above advice seems to have been followed in a very large number of cases. India continued to be famous

1. Sūtrasthāna, 29.8
2. Sūtrasthāna, III. 52; X. 3
3. I. 804
4. See Appendix III

188 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch. for its medical skill throughout the ancient period. Her doctors could perform surgical operations for cataract, hydrocele, abscesses, extraction of dead embryos, etc.¹ They were in demand in Messo- potamia and Arabia for guiding and training the physicians there. Khalifa Harun sent several scholars to India to study Hindu medicine and pharmacology and induced about 20 doctors to come to Baghdad to become chief medical officers of state hospitals and to translate Sanskrit medical work into Arabic. Most celebrated among them was Manakā (Māṇikya), who was originally invited to cure an ailment of Sultan Harun, which defied the skill of Arabian physicians. He succeeded in his treatment and was later induced to become the director of state hospitals and translate the work of Suśruta into Arabic.² Arabic system 1 Sītā apprehended that Rāvaṇa might kill and dissect her limb by limb like a surgeon extracting a dead embryo; cf. तस्मिन्ननागच्छति लोकनाथे गर्भस्थजन्तोरिव शल्यकृन्तः । नूनं ममांगान्यचिरादनार्यः शस्त्रैः शितैश्छेत्स्यति मानवेन्द्रः ॥ • Rāmāyaṇa, V. 28. 6 Non-discovery of anaesthetics aad sterilisation processes was stauding in the way of progress. Wine was administered as a partial anaes- thetic. The Bhojaprabandha refers to an anæsthetic called mohanichūrṇa: but since it is mentioned in connection with a miraculous cure effected by the divine physicians Aśvins, we may doubt its general knowledge or use. cf. ततस्तावपि राजानं मोहचूर्णेन मोहयित्वा शिरःकपालमादाय तत्करोटिकापुटे स्थितं शफरकुलं गृहीत्वा कस्मिंश्चिद्भाजने निक्षिप्य संधान- करण्या कपालं यथावदारचय्य संजीवन्या च तं जीवयित्वा तस्मै तददर्शयताम् ॥ Bhojaprabandha, after v. 318 2. S. K. Nadvi. Arab aur Bharat ke sambandha, pp. 108-28 ; Alberuni, Introduction, p. XXXI. Saleh bin Bahala and Dahan (Dhanvantari ?) were two of the famous colleagues of Manaka, who accompanied him to Baghdad.

VIII] PROFESSIONAL AND USEFUL EDUCATION 189 of medicine owes a great deal to the Ayurvedic system. Medical Education in Later Times :—Training in the medical profession was fairly efficient in India down to the 10th century A. D. Ayurvedic doctors were keeping themselves in touch with the discoveries and developments taking place elsewhere, and also experimenting upon new preparations as better medicines for ailments and diseases. The use of mer- cury, opium and metallic preparations was introduced into the pharmacopeia in the medieval times. Dis- continuance of dissection and consequent decline in surgery however gave a setback to the system. Owing to the prevalence of stricter notions of ceremonial purity, the touch of the corpse became a taboo and dissection was consequently given up. This became fatal to progress in surgery, the practice of which gradually died down. The medical profession began to be held in low esteem as the doctor had to deal with filthy diseases and touch dying patients. In the earlier period famous doctors like Aśvins and Dhan- vantari were deified; now the followers of the profession began to be regarded as defilers of the company at a dinner table.¹ Purāṇas state that medicine became the profession of the descendants of the illegiti- mate son born to sage Gālava from his maid-servant Ambā.² Occasionally we no doubt come across grants of villages given to doctors by kings; there can be however no doubt that society as a whole looked down

1. Manu, III. 152.
2. Some of the Smṛtis also e. g. B. D. S., I. 8. 9. assign the medical profession to the children of a mixed caste sprung from the union of a Brahmana father and Vaishya mother.

190 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch. upon the medical profession, which could not but have told upon its efficiency and progress.¹ Veterinary Education :—The veterinary science had been developed in India fairly early. Śālihotra is its traditional founder and two of the Pāṇḍava heroes, Nakula and Sahadeva are said to have been experts in it. In the 3rd century B. C. veterinary doctors were fairly common ; Asoka could find them in necessary numbers to man his hospitals for animals throughout the country. The army authorities used to employ them in army to treat the ailments of horses and elephants (Arthaśāstra, II. 30-2). There were special books also dealing with these subjects.² We however do not come across any veterinary schools or colleges, nor do we possess any information as to how veterinary doctors were trained. Probably army authorities used to organise their own schools to meet their own needs. In villages the profession may have been hereditary in some farmers' families, which may have occasionally taken some outsiders also to be trained as apprentices. MILITARY EDUCATION Vedic Period : During the Vedic period the military profession must have been a popular one, as

1. An incidental observation in the Mitāksharā would show that the medical course was finished in four instead of eight years during the 12th century A. D. ; of :— अन्तेवासी गुरोर्गृहे कृतकालं वर्षचतुष्टयमायुर्वेदशिल्पशिक्षार्थे त्वद्गृहे वसामीति । On Yāj. II. 184. 2 Aśvavaidyaka of Jayadatta, Aśvachikitsā of Nakula and Hastyāyurveda of Pālakāpya (published in A.S. series) are the important works on the veterinary science. Some of these works in their present form are not later than c. 800 A.D., but they had their precursors, now unfortunately lost.

VIII] PROFESSIONAL AND USEFUL EDUCATION 191 the Aryans were engaged in subjugating the non- Aryans (dasyus) and establishing their supremacy in the country. We have however no information as to how military education was imparted. The superiority in horsemanship and chariot-fighting constituted the key to the Aryan success; considerable time must therefore have been devoted to give proper training in these subjects to the members of the fighting force. Chariot races, which were very popular in the age, must have played an important part in increasing the military efficiency of the chariot corps. Practice in the use of the bow and the arrow, the shield, the mace and the spear, which were the main offensive and defensive weapons of the age, must have played an important part in the training of the infantry. Non-official Training Agencies: In modern times military training is usually given only by the state authorities when recruits join the army. Such was not the case in ancient India. The average citizen and villager was expected to be able to defend his own hearth and home; the Arthaśāstra expressly lays down that every village ought to be able to defend itself (II. 34). Villagers and citizens therefore had to make their own arrangements to get the necessary facility in the use of the weapons of the age in order to be ready for any eventuality. There were no military schools as such for this purpose; with the voluntary help of the elderly experts in the village, most of its youths could be trained in the use of the bow and the arrow, the lathi and the lance. That such was actually the case in several parts of India would become quite clear from the accounts of Alexander’s invasion, as given by the Greek historians. In several places the Macedonian hero was opposed not so much by state forces as by the whole population