EDUCATION in ANCIENT INDIA - Part 1

One would wonder how our ancient Indians would have studied, most of us kind of know in thin air that Ancient India had top educational institutions, invented new methodologies in science and mathematics, exported the numeric system to the whole world etc. Our Indian history books never published such articles and strangely the British Indian education system more or less agrees to a fact that "India was never Civilized", the so called Indian intellects of today puts you as backward, uncivilized if you don't speak "English" ,Winston Churchill went a step ahead and called India a "Barbaric nation".

  

To clear those allegations, the professors of Indian History wrote many books about Ancient Indian Education system. I am going to point out a few from which i have read.

Religion - Religion played a larger role in the education. "Spirit of Piety and Religiousness" was the first and foremost aim of education.
The aim of education was not to induce the student to renounce the world but a sense of religiosity was a mandatory thing in approaching towards life. 

The direct aim of education whether literary or professional was to make student fit to become a useful and pious member of Society.

Character - "Character" was the second aim of the education. It reminds me a quote from my childhood - "When character is lost, everything is lost". It is evident that Character building was an important thing.

From the snippet below:

Teacher(Guru) played a major role in defining the character not only intellectually but moral behavior too. The role of Guru in student's life is very much significant.

Personality - Personality was the third aim of the education. Student is considered to be a representative of the culture he belonged to.

Uncertainty of the future prospect didn't disturb the student's self-confidence. There was no over-crowding or cut throat competition on the profession, system was well defined. Influence of Self-restraint and simplicity in life and habits is all that insisted upon. Development of personality through liberal education specializing in logic, law, philosophy, poetry and literature. The branches of study bristled with controversies, student has to understand both the side to develop his conscience in defending his judgement(तर्कशास्त्र ).

Social Duties - Social duties was the fourth aim of the education. The goal was not to lead a self centered life, he has to share his knowledge to the rising generation. Responsibility was the key here, he has to perform his duties as a Son, Father, Husband, Guru effectively and efficiently. His wealth was not to be utilized for his own self and family, he should be charitable.
The concept of "वासुदेवा कुटुंबकम" was taught to the students from their childhood.

Here is the interesting snippet.

Social Structure was  independent of government, contrast to what we have today.

Social Efficiency and Happiness - The fifth aim of the educational system. Every Individual was given a chance to choose his professions. Society had accepted the division of work. Exceptional talent could choose the profession they like. 

From the snippet below:

It was a flexible system, though our history textbooks dont accept this fact because the system we follow today was given by a person called Lord Risley, a British Scholar who defined the existing varna system.

Preservation and Spread of Culture - The sixth and most important aim of Ancient Indian education. Social and Culture continuity will fail its purpose if the knowledge didnt get passed through the rising generations.

From the snippet below:

Theory of 3 debts: Its interesting to know that every individual when born in this world, will incur 3 debts which he can discharge only by performing his duties.

• 1st Debt - Debt to God: He can discharge it by performing services, sacrifices to the God like pooja, offerings etc. Religious traditions are thus to be preserved.
• 2nd Debt - Debt to Rishis/Guru: Can discharge by studying their works to continue the literary and profession.
• 3rd Debt - Debt to Ancestors: Raising Progeny and imparting proper education.

Body, mind, spirit, intellect were the key to the education, not only emphasized social duties but also social happiness.

Note: The above written article is solely for the informational purpose, doesn't reflect anybody views and its purely written as a personal interest.

Sources 

Ancient Education in India by A.S.Altekar.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Hope_Risley

Dharma vs Religion.

I happened to find this document in one the google groups. This work was put forward by Toronto Dharma Study group. One of the lucid and crisp document that explains the difference between Dharma and Religion. 

                     DHARMA*               is much more than          RELIGION

1.  Universal;   Applies to:  All Entities in Existence                                         All Times                                         All Places                                         No Exclusions	Applies to:    Believers only                      From the time of the Prophet                      All places                      Non-believers excluded
2.   Eternal; Without Beginning and Ending, with the entities in      existence ever Forming and Reforming	One Historical Beginning and Ending;  Religions rise & fall
3.   Eternal Principles (as in Shruti)	Historical Commandments, Canons and Dogmas
4.   Definition: That which upholds                       That without which nothing can stand                         That which maintains the stability & harmony	That which relates man by faith and belief to a  transcendental God
5.   Innate & Natural Order;       Inner Order Participating in the Larger Order	Organized & Institutionalized order
6.    One; All Inclusive, All Encompassing	Many; Each one Excusive
7.   Genuine Pluralism with Mutual Respect	Exclusive with Tolerance
8.   Principles Unchangeable;          Application Contextual (Flexible) leading to the best Dharmic       Actions in different circumstances	Commandments & Canons Unchangeable and Final;      Application must conform
9.   Realized by many Seers (Male & Female); No specific Founder	Founded by specific Prophets
10. Inherent part of the Infinite Reality that is both Transcendent &         Immanent	Dependent on unique conceptions of God
11. Many Ways to Practice (Sva-Dharma)	Each one has exclusive Way of Practice
12. Understanding/Self-realization	Belief
13. Justice is Win-Win as per Principles of Dharma	Justice as Punishment or Reward by God
14. Interpretations Propositional & Open for Self-Discovery	Interpretations are forbidden
15. No conflict with Science, as it is integral to Dharma	Always in conflict with Science
16. Dharma provides for adhyatma-vidya (First-Person Empiricism)	Practices must conform to scriptures
17. All Human (Male & Female), Plants, Animals, Matters are Sacred	Human and  All other entities lack divinity
18.  Goal: Liberation from All Limited Views                Self-Realization; Moksha; Nirvana; Enlightenment	Goal: Salvation/Paradise
19.  Inquiry & Questioning encouraged	Beliefs are immutable, and cannot be questioned
20.  Idea of Conversion absent; Understanding encouraged	Conversion is mandated; Understanding is not sufficient
21.  Dharma nurtures & enriches All Traditions	Religions digest the local traditions
22. Allows many freedoms: freedom to learn from within oneself, freedom from conditioning and karma, freedom from historyand institutional authority, freedom to choose own personal path, freedom of choice of personal deity.	Burden of sin and guilt; controlled by institutional authority, historical precedent, and religious exclusivity

Need for Indian Identity

After 800 years of Islamic Rule and 200 years of British rule, India lost its own heritage under this siege. After 15th Aug 1947, though we got independence from foreign rule but there was a disorientation with respect to Civilizational values, Culture, knowledge etc. It was never a moment of joy from the India's identity point of view. Our mind was filled with British thought process, our core development values were twisted, misleaded and lacked clarity. Nevertheless, British bequeathed India with

• English Language.
• Consititution.(Influenced by it)
• Secularisation.
• Legal System.
• Knowledge Systems, Education. etc.

Indian institutions are largely based on British institutions adapted to Indian framework. There is a clear separation between Legislative, Judiciary and executive branches of government. Civil service is modeled on the British India, even Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) modeled on London.

GLOBALIZATION VIEWPOINT
Today we are very deep rooted in our minds with western thoughts, the western model of development and there is hardly any Indian thought that is left except the (food, family values, festivity. etc) which i think will get digested in the long run for the next generations to come.The need for today is to understand between Modernization vs Westernization and to value ourselves with IDENTITY on the global platform.

Why do we need an Identity in this Globalization era?
What is a relevance of identity, does it have any benefits today?
Instead of fighting on the differences, why cant we agree on equality?
Who cares if its a western thought or eastern or Modern as long as it works.

The above are the typical questions most of us debate today. Before ignoring the fact of identity lets understand few things here. As we all know the world power is in the hands of America and Europe, they are the one who decides the concept of Universalism. I would call this as "Western-Universalism" . They super-impose in such a way that rest of the communities feel inferior and tend to follow the very same culture which the super nations project. So lets study these cultures and then we can decide whats good for us.  

America's Identity History
American is a land of Identities, early people were called Pilgrims ,they called themselves ENGLISH MEN as they came from England and others were Native Americans(INDIANS). After a while few other people immigrated to the country - Germans, Irish, Italians etc. they no longer called themselves Englishmen because of various other language groups, so their identity became CHRISTIAN, later Native Americans got converted, they changed their Christian identity to WHITE (in 1630 - 1640). There were White laws, White Privilege, White marriage etc. and others were Non-White.
The Irish, Italian and Catholics were excluded, they had fights and violence for their privileges, the American religion shifted from Protestants to Christianity as the Catholics were included. Then, the Irish became White(Read the book "How Irish became White") and later Jews became White (read the book "How Jews became White").
Until 1930s Jews didn't think of becoming White because their ancestors never thought they were white and neither the whites thought.
This is the trajectory of Identities in America. All those people got assimilated to the White race of America.
Blacks didn't enjoy the same privileges because they couldn't assimilate. So Black kept their identity for themselves
Hispanics were Christian but didn't assimilate in to White because of the Spanish language. They wanted their Spanish language to live, so they kept their identity seperate
Currently, there is an identity fight going on for Muslims, Chinese, Asians etc. So, its not us who made America the land of identities, its just the character of America. America expect me to define my Identity. I can deny it in which case they will define my identity.
The choice in America is not an identity-less society because rest of America is not Identity-less. As a realistic person i accept what it is and positively project, define and live with it.

In the same way, America uses the same Identity lens to see the world. The theory of Post modernism may show America in favor of equality and it may appear as Identity-less but the deep-root culture is very strong in favor of Identity.

India's Goal
India's Goal is not to get assimilate in this global phenomena rather be different and acknowledge our core Dharmic and fundamental values. Unfortunately our education system never talks about our Dharmic Studies like (Bhagvad Gita, Vedas etc). You will be surprised to know that our Vedas have been used for writing the German literature and transforming Europe to what it is today. I shall write a separate blog on that soon. We acknowledged lot of Western research works and theories but hardly did the poorva-paksha of our own theories.

In Contrast, China countered the western framework without loosing its civilizational values, it preseved it language, culture and yet challenged the west. Russia on the other hand is super-power which countered the West, Japan for instance is a very small country but their country is deep rooted with their core fundamental values and advanced a lot in all areas of development. Japan is the only Asian country which escaped Colonization from the west.

The need for today for India is to re-align its framework and project Indian-ness towards development. Rather than fighting for Equality, human rights, caste etc, lets accept the differences and live with it in a pride. Mutual-Respect is the need of the hour.

Long Live India. Jai Hind.

Sarve Jana Sukhino Bavantu. !

Dharmic Digestion.

Today most of the Western Scholars, Young Indians, Post modern Indians are habituated to translate our Indian traditional methods to Western (not modern) frameworks. This process is enriching the Western Culture in India by large scale.This is highly problematic.One cannot conclude by saying Tiger killing a Goat or rather eating a Goat 'changed for better' by the digestion, the food of the tiger becomes a part of its own body, breaking down in to pieces and thereby completely destroying the Goat DNA and becomes the Tiger's own DNA.

All the languages including Sanskrit, Cultures, traditions in India, most importantly encode a specific and unique cultural experiences, the sound and manifestation of the language carry effects that cannot be separated from their conceptual meanings. Sanskrit is such a sacred language that our Rishi's of our ancient past discovered the inner sciences of the nature and defined a spiritual experience. Our traditions are scientifically proven to bring peace and harmony not only for humanity also for our Mother Earth.

The non-translatable nature of these traditions and cultures and all that it implies are compromised by the Cultural Digestion of Dharma in to the West. In this Course of Digestion, crucial importance and understandings are lost.

We need to remove the artificial western lens and be a very Indian by following the Dharma practises and challenge the west by creating our own Identity.