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116 : Scientific Contents in Prākrta Canons
Comparative Evaluation of Worldly Learnings
The description given above regarding the different faculties and subjects of learning in general and for woman suggests that there were twelve faculties under which 139 to 191 subjects were taught during the period under consideration as shown in Table 10. This may be quite comparable to the listings of the university of Cincinnati, Ohio, U. S. A. ( one of the most developed countries of the world ) where 150 subjects are mentioned under 11 faculties. However, the varieties and names of the subjects must vary as has been shown even in early days. Many subjects have lost importance, gone out of date and many new ones have been added. The contental status of many practical subjects has also been raised enormously. It is now attempted that there should be threading between the ancients and modern status of learning so as to measure the growth of knowledge fronts.
Table 10 suggests that the learning in canonical age had two important faculties - those of prognostics and supernatural or surprising arts which involve about 20 % of the total subjects. These two faculties are not found in the educational system of the current age. It is also clear that men had to learn many more of such subjects per chance for impression. Though traditionalists have still sufficient faith in them, however, most of them elude scientific verification.
Table 10 has quite a number of points to indicate the difference between learnings of men and women. The women studied some scriptures but no Vedas as they are not mentioned in their list. However, they had to study many more language arts in comparison to many aboriginal languages. They had to learn very small number of science subjects but a large number of Home Science subjects alongwith agriculture and technical arts. In contrast, men had to be proficient in various Military science subjects. It is surprising that though men and women learnt chess, dice plays and gambling, but hunting, water sports and physical exercises are mentioned
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