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Revisiting The Educational Heritage Of India
Long before the first European universities appeared, India already had multi-disciplinary centres of learning that fuelled a knowledge revolution around the world. This book fills a dire need to chronicle the great educational heritage of India. It describes a unique ecosystem which ensured that Gurus and Acharyas handed the lamp of learning to generations of students. As the author puts it, “When swords quenched their thirst and famine ravaged the lands, Indians still held on to their truth that there was nothing more purifying than knowledge.” She has collated information from oral history, local lore, travelogues, surviving literature, inscriptions, salvaged manuscripts and accounts of scholars and laity. Historically, the book covers a vast time span from ancient India’s traditions to the deliberate destruction of its heritage. It also outlines steps that can be taken today to incorporate the most relevant aspects of ancient learning systems into the current structure of school and university education.
- GenresIndiaHistoryNonfiction
308 pages, Hardcover
First published September 16, 2021
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March 27, 2023
A very important book that gives a very good overview of concept and modes of education in India, the rich network of universities that thrived here, the way knowledge was exported from India to the world (the records of Chinese travellers are especially interesting), how education was still thriving till 200 years ago and the impact of Islamic invasions and Christians colonial rule that laid waste the educational institutions prevalent in India. The book is very lucidly written and a good starting point for even those who wish to go deeper into the topic.
There were a staggering number of universities spread across the length and breadth of India. One university that stands out for its academic astronomy output in and mathematics is Ujjaini (also called Ujjain), which was equipped with an elaborate observatory and stood on the zero meridian of those times. Had imperial Europe not colonised the world, perhaps Ujjain, not Greenwich would be today's prime meridian.
Those who thinks Mathematics and Science is origin in Greek or Rome should read this book, all these knowledges were flown from India to West via Arabs or Persian. History was Hellenized during the Crusades. Knowledge was theologically sanitized during the Inquisition, and the accompanying religious intolerance in the rest of Europe. “Pagan” knowledge was again appropriated by Europeans who dared not acknowledge it. The appropriated knowledge was reinterpreted to make also the contents theologically correct. Racist and colonial historians built on this legacy of glorifying themselves and belittling others. For this purpose, they used (and continue to use) double standards of evidence to claim “independent rediscovery” in one direction, and transmission in the other direction.
As Rajiv Malhotra rightly said, "The history of India is not others coming in and invading, giving us things and changing us, but also how Indian knowledge has been exported, how the history of India is present also in the history of Europe and China and so on".
For some reason, modern history books have given very little attention to India's export of knowledge. Textbooks do mention the huge number of commodities that India exported to Arabs such as swords, iron, ivory, pearls, jewels, teak, cane, bamboo, camels, Sindhi fowl, velvet, cotton and silken textiles, camphor, sandalwood, musk, perfumes, toddy, ginger, and a variety of spices and medicines. But the one export which stands out for its massive contribution- the introduction of scientific knowledge-has been largely ignored. The heights achieved by Arabs in maritime trade, geography and chemistry were entirely with the help of Indian sciences, especially astronomy and mathematics.
It is interesting that just like we have summer schools or summer courses today, in ancient India there were special seasonal courses and the student groups were named accordingly. The Vasantika students were those who joined the courses in spring (Vasanta). Similarly, there were short courses in other seasons like Varsha, Sharad, Hemanta and Shishira and the students were called Varshika, Sharadika, Haimantika and Shaishirika.
Also, the students studying the works of a particular Acharya were named after the Acharya himself. For example, male students specialising in the works of Sakatayana, Apisali or Panini were called Apisala, Sakatayaniya and Paniniya. If the students were women, the gender was accordingly applied.
Archaeologists are still coming across the remains of ancient universities close to the already excavated ones. For example, in 2009, the Telhara University was found some 40 km from the ancient Nalanda University and even older than it. Described as Teladhaka by Xuanzang in the seventh century, this Mahavihara was also visited by Yijing. It had 1,000 students and consisted of prayer halls, residential cells and a large platform for students to sit and perhaps listen to lectures. A big cache of stone sculptures of Buddha and Hindu deities as well as seals and pottery from the Gupta and Pala era have been found. There is evidence of the university being burned down by Bakhtyar Khilji.
Ayurvedic students were expected to have knowledge of other arts such as cookery, since diet was a crucial aspect of treatment. They were also required to travel extensively and to know where to collect herbs. While all students were taught general medicine, they were also required to specialise in any of the eight limbs' of Ayurveda namely: internal medicine; surgery; eye, ear and nose; gynaecology, obstetrics and paediatrics; psychology; toxicology; rejuvenation; and virilisation.
The Ayurvedic physician's oath at the end of training is long list of rules of conduct that a physician must follow, a including not demanding money from a poor patient. The oath was administered in a formal ceremony where the king gave permission to a doctor to practice his profession, after which the doctor could call himself a Vaidya (one who knows). The Hippocratic Oath which was traditionally taken by medical doctors in the western world appears to be borrowed from the Charaka Samhita.The exact duration of medical courses in ancient India is not known but it might have been as long as eight years. When Jivaka went home after seven years of study in Takshshila, his professor was not too pleased.
Jivaka, a Takshashila alumnus is mentioned in the Jatakas as having cured Emperor Bimbisara of fistula and, as a result, was appointed a physician to the King and to the Buddhist sangha. He is also credited with curing King Pradyota of Ujjaini of jaundice. Jivaka was noted to be a skilled surgeon. A case has been described where a merchant suffering from a head disease, was treated by Jivaka by tying the patient to his bed, cutting through the skin of his head, drawing apart the flesh on each side of the incision, pulling two worms out of the wound, then closing up the sides of the wound, stitching up the skin on the head and anointing it with salve. He is also said to have successfully cured cases of twisted intestines.
In 1822, the Native Medical Institution was set up in Calcutta (now Kolkata) to train Indians in both indigenous and western systems of medicine. Twenty Indian students who enrolled were taught in Bengali. European texts on medicine were translated into local Indian languages. However, when the Anglicists overruled the Orientalists and Vernacularists to get the English Education Act passed in 1835, the official patronage to indigenous systems of medicine was stopped. Western-style medical institutions became the norm and were conferred the label of modernity while Ayurveda was relegated to pseudo-science. You can imagine the level of colonial rule have done.
Yijing mentioned 56 students from China, Japan and Korea who studied in Nalanda in the interim period of 40 years between Xuanzang's visit and his own. It is interesting that many scholars from China first visited Indonesia where they spent some years learning Sanskrit and other subjects in order to gain enough competency to seek admission in famous Indian universities. Indonesia was like a mini- India. Yijing has noted the presence of more than 1,000 scholars in one city in Indonesia where they studied all the subjects that were taught in India."
Takshashila made great contributions to world culture and Sanskrit language. It is said to have had students from Babylon, China, Greece and Syria. It is associated with Acharya Chanakya, also known as Kautilya. His path- breaking Arthashastra is said to have been composed in Takshashila itself. The renowned physician Charaka to whom the medical world is eternally indebted, also studied there. He later became a professor in the same institute. Jivaka, another famous physician and surgeon studied here, according to Pali texts. The ancient grammarian Panini, who codified the rules that would define classical Sanskrit, was also of the Takshashila alumni. Clearly, a part the institute produced some formidable scholars whose contributions reverberated across generations.
Revisiting the Educational Heritage of India, a rich reservoir of the chronological development (and decline) of India's education system.
There were a staggering number of universities spread across the length and breadth of India. One university that stands out for its academic astronomy output in and mathematics is Ujjaini (also called Ujjain), which was equipped with an elaborate observatory and stood on the zero meridian of those times. Had imperial Europe not colonised the world, perhaps Ujjain, not Greenwich would be today's prime meridian.
Those who thinks Mathematics and Science is origin in Greek or Rome should read this book, all these knowledges were flown from India to West via Arabs or Persian. History was Hellenized during the Crusades. Knowledge was theologically sanitized during the Inquisition, and the accompanying religious intolerance in the rest of Europe. “Pagan” knowledge was again appropriated by Europeans who dared not acknowledge it. The appropriated knowledge was reinterpreted to make also the contents theologically correct. Racist and colonial historians built on this legacy of glorifying themselves and belittling others. For this purpose, they used (and continue to use) double standards of evidence to claim “independent rediscovery” in one direction, and transmission in the other direction.
As Rajiv Malhotra rightly said, "The history of India is not others coming in and invading, giving us things and changing us, but also how Indian knowledge has been exported, how the history of India is present also in the history of Europe and China and so on".
For some reason, modern history books have given very little attention to India's export of knowledge. Textbooks do mention the huge number of commodities that India exported to Arabs such as swords, iron, ivory, pearls, jewels, teak, cane, bamboo, camels, Sindhi fowl, velvet, cotton and silken textiles, camphor, sandalwood, musk, perfumes, toddy, ginger, and a variety of spices and medicines. But the one export which stands out for its massive contribution- the introduction of scientific knowledge-has been largely ignored. The heights achieved by Arabs in maritime trade, geography and chemistry were entirely with the help of Indian sciences, especially astronomy and mathematics.
It is interesting that just like we have summer schools or summer courses today, in ancient India there were special seasonal courses and the student groups were named accordingly. The Vasantika students were those who joined the courses in spring (Vasanta). Similarly, there were short courses in other seasons like Varsha, Sharad, Hemanta and Shishira and the students were called Varshika, Sharadika, Haimantika and Shaishirika.
Also, the students studying the works of a particular Acharya were named after the Acharya himself. For example, male students specialising in the works of Sakatayana, Apisali or Panini were called Apisala, Sakatayaniya and Paniniya. If the students were women, the gender was accordingly applied.
Archaeologists are still coming across the remains of ancient universities close to the already excavated ones. For example, in 2009, the Telhara University was found some 40 km from the ancient Nalanda University and even older than it. Described as Teladhaka by Xuanzang in the seventh century, this Mahavihara was also visited by Yijing. It had 1,000 students and consisted of prayer halls, residential cells and a large platform for students to sit and perhaps listen to lectures. A big cache of stone sculptures of Buddha and Hindu deities as well as seals and pottery from the Gupta and Pala era have been found. There is evidence of the university being burned down by Bakhtyar Khilji.
Ayurvedic students were expected to have knowledge of other arts such as cookery, since diet was a crucial aspect of treatment. They were also required to travel extensively and to know where to collect herbs. While all students were taught general medicine, they were also required to specialise in any of the eight limbs' of Ayurveda namely: internal medicine; surgery; eye, ear and nose; gynaecology, obstetrics and paediatrics; psychology; toxicology; rejuvenation; and virilisation.
The Ayurvedic physician's oath at the end of training is long list of rules of conduct that a physician must follow, a including not demanding money from a poor patient. The oath was administered in a formal ceremony where the king gave permission to a doctor to practice his profession, after which the doctor could call himself a Vaidya (one who knows). The Hippocratic Oath which was traditionally taken by medical doctors in the western world appears to be borrowed from the Charaka Samhita.The exact duration of medical courses in ancient India is not known but it might have been as long as eight years. When Jivaka went home after seven years of study in Takshshila, his professor was not too pleased.
Jivaka, a Takshashila alumnus is mentioned in the Jatakas as having cured Emperor Bimbisara of fistula and, as a result, was appointed a physician to the King and to the Buddhist sangha. He is also credited with curing King Pradyota of Ujjaini of jaundice. Jivaka was noted to be a skilled surgeon. A case has been described where a merchant suffering from a head disease, was treated by Jivaka by tying the patient to his bed, cutting through the skin of his head, drawing apart the flesh on each side of the incision, pulling two worms out of the wound, then closing up the sides of the wound, stitching up the skin on the head and anointing it with salve. He is also said to have successfully cured cases of twisted intestines.
In 1822, the Native Medical Institution was set up in Calcutta (now Kolkata) to train Indians in both indigenous and western systems of medicine. Twenty Indian students who enrolled were taught in Bengali. European texts on medicine were translated into local Indian languages. However, when the Anglicists overruled the Orientalists and Vernacularists to get the English Education Act passed in 1835, the official patronage to indigenous systems of medicine was stopped. Western-style medical institutions became the norm and were conferred the label of modernity while Ayurveda was relegated to pseudo-science. You can imagine the level of colonial rule have done.
Yijing mentioned 56 students from China, Japan and Korea who studied in Nalanda in the interim period of 40 years between Xuanzang's visit and his own. It is interesting that many scholars from China first visited Indonesia where they spent some years learning Sanskrit and other subjects in order to gain enough competency to seek admission in famous Indian universities. Indonesia was like a mini- India. Yijing has noted the presence of more than 1,000 scholars in one city in Indonesia where they studied all the subjects that were taught in India."
Takshashila made great contributions to world culture and Sanskrit language. It is said to have had students from Babylon, China, Greece and Syria. It is associated with Acharya Chanakya, also known as Kautilya. His path- breaking Arthashastra is said to have been composed in Takshashila itself. The renowned physician Charaka to whom the medical world is eternally indebted, also studied there. He later became a professor in the same institute. Jivaka, another famous physician and surgeon studied here, according to Pali texts. The ancient grammarian Panini, who codified the rules that would define classical Sanskrit, was also of the Takshashila alumni. Clearly, a part the institute produced some formidable scholars whose contributions reverberated across generations.
Revisiting the Educational Heritage of India, a rich reservoir of the chronological development (and decline) of India's education system.
January 6, 2022
This is elaborative version of author's previous book 'Educational Heritage of Ancient India'. This book gives genuine accounts of Bharat's educational heritage. The dreadful destruction by muslim invasion and establishment of clerk making equipment by british may spellbound readers.
Author presents glorious history of ancient Bharatvarsha's art, architecture, medicine, intellectual debate, science, yoga so on and so forth. Whatever dimension human can think, this land contributed immensely and reached pinnacle of intellectualism. This is based on travelogue of Chinese scholar Xuanzang, Yijing, Fa-Hien, Alberuni, Garcia D’Orta (portugese) etc. It can be said from their account entire education of middle-east, Greece and Europe was built from India's manuscripts.
This book shatters the myth that Bramhin kept education restricted to them and deprived Shudras to learn. Barbaric destruction of libraries and manuscripts by muslim invasion. Finally, british replaced entire system with English curriculum.
The book is replete with location of ancient universities throughout India and many splendid images. This book ends with a way forward to begin with reform. This book should be must read for policy makers and must be part of syllabus.
Author presents glorious history of ancient Bharatvarsha's art, architecture, medicine, intellectual debate, science, yoga so on and so forth. Whatever dimension human can think, this land contributed immensely and reached pinnacle of intellectualism. This is based on travelogue of Chinese scholar Xuanzang, Yijing, Fa-Hien, Alberuni, Garcia D’Orta (portugese) etc. It can be said from their account entire education of middle-east, Greece and Europe was built from India's manuscripts.
This book shatters the myth that Bramhin kept education restricted to them and deprived Shudras to learn. Barbaric destruction of libraries and manuscripts by muslim invasion. Finally, british replaced entire system with English curriculum.
The book is replete with location of ancient universities throughout India and many splendid images. This book ends with a way forward to begin with reform. This book should be must read for policy makers and must be part of syllabus.
November 9, 2021
Fascinating and enlightening read. I am amazed at the kind of dispassionate factual presentation writer make of our Educational heritage merrily brushed under the Macaulay carpet by the Left Distorians!
December 11, 2021
Wonderful book. All the self-loathing and lack of confidence brought on by post-Independence education, that insisted we were losers and all good things came to us from the invaders, is put to rest in this book. I wish this were required reading for university and college students. The author writes in an easily understandable style which is a plus. I recommend reading the print version and not the ebook version.
January 10, 2022
The author, Sahana Singh, has built on her first book "The Educational Heritage Of India" and added more research-based details in her latest book "Revisiting The Educational Heritage Of India". She traces the education system of Bharatvarsha, since, its initial recorded history. The great learning centers, the pedagogy, the curriculum. The changes wrought upon the system and the teacher-disciple complex with the changing realities of the society. She gives you a mesmerizing visual of the wonderful institutes, universities, libraries which made Bharat as the preferred destination for students to visit from across geographies to gain learning under the benevolence of revered teachers, study the scriptures and take back translated works back to their countries.
The author gives rich account of some of the greatest scholars that the country has produced over the centuries, their works and their profound contribution to mankind whose hallmark can still be felt though hardly ever acknowledged. She emphasizes as how one of the most important export of the country was knowledge through foreign students, our sages and scholars travelling to other countries and setting up teaching centers in far off lands, the scriptures the travelers used to take with them and translated in their languages. The examples and anecdotes shared gives a clear picture of Bharat's place on the world map wrt education and the rich heritage we had.
And then the author takes us through the periods of blood-shed, the invasion by the barbarians and how the once educational nerve-center of the world was reduced to ashes; and even after 75 years of independence we as a nation hardly know about our heritage and gobble up the distorted history propounded by people in power.
The author has given references from centuries as chronicled by the historians, travelers, chroniclers, and other important works which makes one wonder when are we going to break our colonial shackels and embrace our legacy.
The author gives rich account of some of the greatest scholars that the country has produced over the centuries, their works and their profound contribution to mankind whose hallmark can still be felt though hardly ever acknowledged. She emphasizes as how one of the most important export of the country was knowledge through foreign students, our sages and scholars travelling to other countries and setting up teaching centers in far off lands, the scriptures the travelers used to take with them and translated in their languages. The examples and anecdotes shared gives a clear picture of Bharat's place on the world map wrt education and the rich heritage we had.
And then the author takes us through the periods of blood-shed, the invasion by the barbarians and how the once educational nerve-center of the world was reduced to ashes; and even after 75 years of independence we as a nation hardly know about our heritage and gobble up the distorted history propounded by people in power.
The author has given references from centuries as chronicled by the historians, travelers, chroniclers, and other important works which makes one wonder when are we going to break our colonial shackels and embrace our legacy.
December 11, 2021
4.5/5 stars. A worthy and much needed followup to the original book. If I were to gift the original book to a child, this would make a good gift for their parent. The author's talk on Sangam Talks Youtube channel is also worth a listen to those on the fence about reading another book on the same topic as the previous one.
September 16, 2024
Revisiting The Educational Heritage of India is a briefer version of author’s earlier work.
“The Educational heritage of Ancient India: How an Ecosystem of learning was laid to waste”.
Firstly anyone trying to write about our past heritage it should be obligatory to use the name “ Bharata/Bharat”. Decolonization starts with simple things this.
“When swords quenched their thirst and famine ravaged the lands, Indians still held on to their truth that there was nothing more purifying than knowledge” this was true until the whites came and took over the educational institutions and started embedding their cultist ideas into our deep rooted Dharmic system.
Don’t know about other countries but by default Bharata is a civilization that is eternal no need to term it ancient from time to time.
Coming to this book
A profound work by Author Sahana Singh.
One has to read this book from the start to understand the educational system that existed prior to Macaulay virus came into existence.
This is a gold mine in an ocean of nectar called Bharathiya Ithihasa.
Lots of references and facts have been mentioned here makes it more interesting and you will be wanting to read more about.
Author has tried her best to clear all our misconceptions about the past.
Current generation gives examples of western leftist run universities for example but doesn’t know there existed vast universities that provided vast resources for learning right from Ayurveda to Art, entertainment and many other spheres.
Even with all the misfortunes our nation had a chance to overcome the colonial era cultural bankruptcy post 1947. Unfortunately for Hindus sepoys who took over were more whitest than their masters weren’t.
A very important and I recommend everyone to read this.
“The Educational heritage of Ancient India: How an Ecosystem of learning was laid to waste”.
Firstly anyone trying to write about our past heritage it should be obligatory to use the name “ Bharata/Bharat”. Decolonization starts with simple things this.
“When swords quenched their thirst and famine ravaged the lands, Indians still held on to their truth that there was nothing more purifying than knowledge” this was true until the whites came and took over the educational institutions and started embedding their cultist ideas into our deep rooted Dharmic system.
Don’t know about other countries but by default Bharata is a civilization that is eternal no need to term it ancient from time to time.
Coming to this book
A profound work by Author Sahana Singh.
One has to read this book from the start to understand the educational system that existed prior to Macaulay virus came into existence.
This is a gold mine in an ocean of nectar called Bharathiya Ithihasa.
Lots of references and facts have been mentioned here makes it more interesting and you will be wanting to read more about.
Author has tried her best to clear all our misconceptions about the past.
Current generation gives examples of western leftist run universities for example but doesn’t know there existed vast universities that provided vast resources for learning right from Ayurveda to Art, entertainment and many other spheres.
Even with all the misfortunes our nation had a chance to overcome the colonial era cultural bankruptcy post 1947. Unfortunately for Hindus sepoys who took over were more whitest than their masters weren’t.
A very important and I recommend everyone to read this.
August 30, 2022
Author had gone through lot of books in order to write this book. Covers wide range of period, various aspects of education in Bharata, How education in Bharat degraded and inspires to change Bharat's current education system to be in line pre-Islamic invasion ear.
April 4, 2022
A scholarly and much needed deep dive to follow-up on the author's prior work on the same topic.
September 10, 2022
Relooking at how education used to be in India and how it can be in future https://www.anuradhagoyal.com/revisit...
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews