Education in Ancient India

She is study of education in ancient India focuses chiefly on over two hundred years: AD 319-550, of the reign of Imperial Guptas, which has been variantly described as the Golden Age, Periclean Age, or even the Age of Hindu Renaissance. It was a time when literature, arts and sciences flourished in a degree beyond the ordinary, these achievements are inconceivable without a well-evolved system of education.

With its theme like education covering such a large period of time the book traverses a terrain so far little charted. It is indisputably a work of painstaking research trying, as it does, to retrieve educational set-up of classical Indian from an astonishing mass of contemporary sources, including notably (a) Puranas like Markandeya, Matsa, Vayu, Visnu and Visnudharmottra; (b) Smrti texts like Vyasa-smrti, Harita-samhita, and Pitamaha smrti; (c) literary classics of Kalidasa, Visakhadatta, kumaradasa and others; (d) Jaina and Buddhist works of scholars like Vasubandhu and Dinnage; (e) Astronomical scientific treatises of Aryabhata and others; (f) Foreign travelers narratives; and (g) Other miscellaneous writings on grammar, linguistics and polity-besides inscriptional and numismatic material.

Notwithstanding the ethical-cum-religious overtones of ancient Indian education, the schools and universities taught Sanskrit,  literature, arts, sciences, philosophy, laws and even rituals. In conclusion, the author demonstrates how the educational system of the Imperial Guptas, in certain ways, anticipated some of the fundamental theories given by great modern educationists.

A useful work for anyone involved with education; whether as a historian, a professional or a scholar.

About the Author

Mitali Chatterjee is Jadavpur university PhD holding in addition master degrees in Sanskrit and library and information Science, a bachelor degree in education, and proficiency in German and Hindi languages. Currently, she is Library In-charge with the Asiatic Society Calcutta.