Jaina System of Education

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

Page 55

LECTURE V
THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN-ECCLESIASTICAL
The object of the present lecture is to offer to the audience an idea of education imparted to women as a pieparation for ecclesiastical activities in Jaina India as far as it may be gathered from the available literature on the subject It is clear that there were two distinct types of female education (1) The first type of education was imparted by nuns to prospective nuns in nunneries and to female lay votaries (2) The second type of education was imparted in palace schools by lay teachers at any rate under the control of lay teachers with the secular object of training the students in the various duties of life relating to the family, the State and the rest
Before we begin our theme proper, it may not be amiss to add a few words as to the social position and dignity of women in ancient India during the Hindu, the Buddhist and the Jaina periods It is venly a fact that the woman in ancient India was not a mere drudge or a slave The truth is the reverse The popular supposition is sadly erroneous here Even Manu while upholding the doctrine of her inferiority was for maintaining her dignity "In childhood a female must be subject to her father, in youth to her husband, when her lord is dead to her sons, a woman must never be independent " What is really astonishing is that this same authority recommended the appointment of females in the service of the State-a fact which will be clear from the following quotation "For women employed in the royal service and for menial servants, let hum fix a daily maintenance, in proportion to their position and to their work "2 The climax is reached in the following extracts where we get an idea not only of the dignity but also of the apotheosis of women "Women must be honoured and adorned by their fathers, brothers, husbands and brothers-inlaw who desire (their own) welfare "3 and we quote again "Where
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1 Manu u by G Buhler, p 195, verse 2 Ibid, p 236, veise 125 3. Ibid, p 85, veise 56.
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