________________
60
Vaishali Institute Research Bulletin No. 6
intellectual and spiritual progress. Apart from the teaching work of the novices, many people living close to the monastery used to come there to hear discourses from the monks. The Buddhist monasteries became thus the centres of learning and were organised on the ideal of a residential University. The members of the monastery were residential students while those coming from outside were taught in the day time. Thus the monastery appeared as the day school for them. Monks who were highly educated and experienced were selected as the teachers. In other words, well-known and distinguished monks were selected for the teaching work. The system of education in the olden days were different from that we have in the modern time. Education was then carried on orally and handed down from the teacher to the taught. The Pali Vinayapitaka records that the same was the condition in the Buddhist age too.
"The monasteries indeed created the spiritual and cultural atmosphere and produced ideal monks and nuns. It was through them only Buddhism was propagated in India and abroad. In fact, the life of Buddhism depended on the existence of monasteries. Buddhism lasted so long the monasteries maintained their ideals.
The study of Dhamma (Doctrine) and Vinaya (monastic rules) were much emphasised upon in the monasteries. Apart from it there were other subjects which were taught there in. The Dighanikāya! and the Mahāvaggao record that the tiracchānakathā (worldly talk) which comprises various branches of knowledge concerning worldly matters was one of them. The Milindapañha enumerates nineteen branches of learning in ancient India. They were :-the revealed tradition, secular lore, the Sānkhya yoga, Nyāya and Vaiseşik system, accountancy, music, medicine, the four Vedas, the Purānas, the oral traditions; astronomy, conjuring, logic, spells, fighting, poetry and reckoning on the figures. Elsewhere in the same text the navakamına (knowledge of making repairs or in building) was also one of the subjects taught in the monastery. The Cullavagga records that experienced and competent monks used to prescribe the course of studies for the learners. It further gives us the names of subjects that were taught in a monastery. The Ariguttaranikāya further provides us with a list of monks and nuns who occupied the topmost places in certain subjects.
1. 2.
Vol. I, pp. 7, 66, 178; III. 54. Vinayapitaka, Vol. I, pp. 188–189,
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
