Jaina System of Education

Author(s): Debendra Chandra Das Gupta
Publisher: Bharti Mahavidyalaya

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LECTURE I
INTRODUCTORY
It is exceedingly to be regretted that so little justice has been done to the Jaina contribution to mass education in India It is historically certain that their contribution was as great, significant, and virtually important as that of the Buddhists The purpose of these Lectuers is to offer an account of the Jaina system of education in India, based on the necessarily meagre materials available Our task may, be best achieved by studying the problem of education in connection with its five important agents, viz the Family, the Church, the School, the State and the Industry, all of which have remarkably contributed to the spread of education in all its aspects
The Family - The family is the nucleus which is ultimately developed into the State through intermediate stages of tribes, the guilds and the castes The process of transition is the same all over the world, and the ancient India is not exception to the rule Here too the family, with its purifying, ennobling, and solidifying influences lead to the development of Indian nation and Indian culture The family, during the Vedic period, when the caste system was in the making, and during the post-Vedic period when the caste system was fully made, served as an important agency of education It developed a healthy sense of discipline, an ideal attitude of devotion, a peculiar feeling of reverence for the teachers, the father being invariably the teacher during this primitive phase of civilization
Jainism, which like Buddhısın, is not a surd, but an integral part of the encyclopædic system of culture, known as Hinduism accepted the institution of family as an indispensable agent of education and life We have ample references in the Jaina literatures giving us an idea of the educational activities of the family We are told how a Brahmin educated at home his sons born of wives belonging to different castes "Then he had successively four wives, belonging to four castes Now the son of the Kşatriya wife was Vikramāditya, but + x