Studies in the Bhagavati Sutra

Author(s): J C Sikdar
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur

Page 358

Sec. 17
STUDIES IN THE BHAGAWATI SÜTRA
333
But a definite account about this matter is not found in this canonical work whether the girls also were sent to the Kalācārya like the boys for education.
However, it is evidently clear that all the religious insti. tutions of that period, particularly the Nirgrantha Order made special arrangements for the nuns to teach the prescribed religious texts to them in a systematic manner so tbat they could advance towards the attainment of spiritual realization with their acquired knowledge of the Law. This fact shows that the women were also admitted to the Vedic and Bramaņic studies.
There was no caste bar nor sex-bar on the way of an individual male or female member of the society to get education, such a narrow outlook did not exist in the matter of learning. On the other hand, education iinparted by the religious intitutions was open to all whoever desired to study, learn and acquire knowledge.
Teacher:
Teacher is the fountain-head of knowledge, the flow of which irrigates the barren land of mind of the young students and transforms it into a shining field endowed with the richness of the products of education, learning and culture.
The text reveals that a great importance was laid on the noble position of the teacher to whose care the child was entrusted by his parents for his education. The reference to this fact clearly suggests a closer relationship between them. As a result of this direct contact the teacher could illuminate and transform the life of his student by teaching the prescribed subjects of learning to him, removing the darkness of his ignorance, opening the vision of knowledge about the worldly affairs, and holding the lofty ideals of human life before him.
Classes of Teachers
It has already been mentioned in connection with the topic 'Other occupations' in the second section of the fifth
1 Bhs, 11, 11, 429. See comm.