Jaina System of Education

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

Page 32

16
JAINA SYSTEM OF EDUCATION
of poor families were taught and fed gratis in exchange of manual work while Manu prescribed to the king the duty of honouring and supporting a learned Brahının A Ksatriya must have in his mind the patronage of learning and nothing more
The life in Vedic and Art schools was decent happy and vigo rous The students were looked on as children by the teachers Residence in a teachers house was enjoined upon all scholars in the above two institutions of learning We learn from the Buddhist source that even male students resided in the house of lady teachers We quote below to support our claim Then a young fellow a resident pupil of the brahmin lady of the Verahaccani clan came to visit the venerable Udayın and on coming to him greeted him courteously and after the exchange of greetings and compliments sat down at one siden
It is not clear from the evidences at our disposal whether female students in Jaina India used to live in the house of their teachers during the period of their education but it is clear that they did receiv education of a thoroughly effective type We have even from the scanty materials within our reach a distinctly vivid idea of the vigorous scienti fically perfect and systematic education that was within the reach of all citizens irrespective of caste creed and sex. There were no frontiers of knowledge Sacred and secular learning flourished side by side The Brahmanic scheme of education supplemented instead of supplanting the Jaina scheme In a word in ancient India under the fostering care of the Jaina educationists a very useful and practical method of education anticipating some of the essential features of the educational innovations of modern tunc existed and existed in a vigo rous healthy and marvelously fresh condition
The Book of the Kindred Sayings (Sanyutta Nikaya) part IV tr by F L. Woodward M.A. p 77
28