Like I said earlier, we need to digress a little bit and take a look at how our education system and thought process evolved... that is mainly because I think.. unlike in the case of Health & Welfare, the reasons for low literacy levels is not just in the implementation and proper execution of policies,
plans and thoughts. One of the major reason for such low literacy levels and poor education quality is historical. Since, our goal is to understand
the problem. Let's take a look at our educational system since the beginning of education itself.
When humans started settling down after the adoption of agriculture.. the knowledge they possessed was passed from one generation to the other either orally or hands-on.. People along the Tigris & Euphrates in the Fertile crescent region first did this and it moved on to the other civilizations along the Nile, Yangtze and Indus (Indus Valley or Sarasvati Sindhu Civilization - SSC). As people got more & more sophisticated passing on the knowledge through other means also became important several inventions were made to pass on the knowledge or to just keep records... like the writing on the walls in Egypt, Sumeria, Turkey and using writings on small rocks for diplomatic missions (between Egyptians and Hittites). Other way of passing the knowledge (without any intention) was by creating huge structures that stood for several 1000s of years. Egyptians were really good at this with their pyramids and later on with their temples. Until Ashoka put up Sanchi, Bamiyan etc... not many rulers did this in India.
In Ancient world, religion was education and education was religion because religion was more a way of life and a social necessity than a spiritual need. Religion used to decide what to eat, how to eat, how to live, what is right, what is wrong, division of labor, distribution of wealth etc...
Education in the form of religion became a very important tool for all the early societies.... It became so important that almost all civilization & Empires with a notable exception of India used it even for their defense... Egyptians, Sumerians, Persians, Greeks (Athenians), Romans, Byzantines, Turks, Arabs... all used their excellent education system (during their hey days) to attract the students from all over the world... seats were reserved or preferential treatment was given to royal families and ruling class of other empires. The idea is.... " You won't declare war on a country were your sons are getting educated". it was also suggested that they can use the royal students as hostages in case of war. Also an important fall out of this was, once they became rulers in their own countries, they will try to adapt and appreciate the culture in which they were educated. Other aspect of this was the improvement of trade between these countries... now that the masters appreciate the products... they start importing and people will follow...
You can see this when the British educated their Colonial subjects (I'll come to this later) and also even today how Ivy League universities in America give preference to ruling class of other countries (now you know how Rahul Gandhi got into Harvard :-)
Coming back to India, Indian society started as "Sanatana Dharma" which I think was the most highly evolved contemporary religion.
Around 2500BC Vedas were composed..... Panini composed the Sanskrit grammar (Asthadyayi) around 8th century BC.
making it the oldest known language with a highly sophisticated grammar..... Boudhayana, Author of "Sulabha Sutram" discovered the theorem of Pythagoras (as we know it today) some two thousand years before Pythagoras. His work was known in Egypt... as early as 2500 BC. He is the first known of the world's mathematicians. Sulabha Sutram is a part of "Yajur Vedam". However, so deeply philosophical was the nature of ancient Indians that much more is known about the philosophies than about the philosophers.
According to Dr.S.Radhakrishnan, Indian thought may be said to have had four major periods of development up to the time of its serious decline in 1700 A.D.
1. The Vedic Period
2. The Epic Period
3. The Sutra Period and
4. The Scholastic Period
1. During the Vedic period the existing knowledge was composed as four Vedas (Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda and Atharva Veda) and later (much later - almost 1000 years later) the Vedas were written down. So, education during this time meant learning Vedas. Each of these Vedas has four parts known as Samhitas, Brahmanas, Aranyakas and Upanishads. you have to remember that it took about 2000 years (2500BC to 600 BC) to compose all the Vedas as we know them today.
The Social structure and code during this time was that human life has four goals (Purusharthas) Dharma (righteousness - right conduct), Artha (Wealth - Material gain), Kama (Worldly pleasures - love), Moksha (Salvation - Mukti) and four stages of life Brahmacharya (Student), Grihastha (Householder), Vanaprastha (Forest Dweller), Sanyasa (wandering ascetic). The division of labor was done along the lines of four castes Brahmin, Ksatriya, Vaisya, Sudra
The four Vedas: 1) Rig Veda - Veda of Hymns - consists of the hymns to gods 2) Yajur Veda - Veda of rites - This Veda is based on rig Veda and is very descriptive of the rituals, it even explains the mathematics of how to make an altar. 3) Sama Veda - Veda of Music - The Classical Indian music originated from this Veda. to some extent much of this Veda is a repetition of rig Veda sung in a melodious format. 4) Atharvana Veda - Veda of the sage Atharvana - supposedly composed much later, this Veda is said to have marked the beginning of Indian medicine. Most of the present day superstitions such as exorcism, spells etc.. owe their presence to this Veda.
Each of these Vedas contain four sections.
a. Samhitas (Mantras) - are poems and songs praising the gods, progressing from polytheism (several gods.. Indra, Varuna...) in early Vedas through
monotheism (There is only one god) to monism (All came from one which cannot be defined)
b. Brahmanas - provide the ritual to be observed by the householder. When the householder reaches old age he resorts to forests and needs to replace these
c. Aranyakas - Provide the rituals for transition in old age. They provide the rituals for living in forest and encourage meditation
d. Upanishads - provide the meditation of philosophers. Upanishads provide a stronger tendency of spiritual monism and suggest intuition rather than reason is true guide to ultimate truth.There are about 108 upanishads revealing the ultimate spiritual truths and various suggestions of ways to realize them. The Syllable "OM" and its mystic revelations are dealt with, in "Dhyanabindu Upanishad".
The prayer :
Asatoma Sadgamaya, Tamasoma Jyotirgamaya, Mrityorma Amritangamaya, Om Shanti, Om Shanti, Om Shantihi.
(Translation : Lead me from Unreal to real, Lead me from Darkness to light, Lead me from death to immortality, Peace, Peace, Peace) is from Brihad-Aranyaka Upanishad.
According to Taittirya upanishad, matter (The world) is made of five elements, Panch Bhootas or Pancha Tattwas, which originated from one another. Ether (Akasha) is born out of atman, Air (Vayu) is born out of ether, Fire (Agni) out of air, Water (Jala) out of fire and Earth (Prithvi) out of water.
The main focus of education during this period is the search of ultimate truth. The literature (Education) during Vedic Period is referred to as "Sruti - That which is heard"
2. During the epic period (500BC to 200AD) the knowledge of the day was indirectly presented through the medium of nonsystematic and non technical literature such as the great epics Ramayana and Mahabharata. The other significance of this period is the rise and early development of Buddhism, Jainism, Saivism & Vaisnavism. All these systems developed side by side for centuries... This period was considered most active in terms of new thoughts and interpretations in India and this period also saw the growth of different philosophies in the world - Greece, China, Persia...
Many of the dharmasastras were compiled during this period. Mahabharata according to the epic itself, was originally composed with 8800 verses, but by the time it was written down it had 100,000 verses.
This period saw the elaboration and various interpretations of the orthodox social code i.e The four aims of life (Purusharthas), the four stages of life and the four castes. This period also saw the beginnings of orthodox schools of thought in India along with the unorthodox systems such as that of Carvaka.
During this time the corruption of Indian thought also happened. If nothing else, the necessity of other religions or ways of life to break away from the Sanatana Dharma happened because of this corruption of thought. Well, history has taught us now that a new religion is born out of an existing religion every time there is a turmoil in the existing one... Christianity from Judaism, Islam from Christianity... are just a few glaring examples. during this time India also saw the first invasion from Foreigners (Alexander). Not only new religions came out Hinduism during this period, new theories and schools of thoughts emerged with in sanatana dharma during this period that question the very basis of the social code and structure. Carvaka's Nastika school of thought and his principles on materialism are a good example of this. unfortunately none of his actual works exit. we know about him and his philosophy through other texts including Bhagavad-Gita and buddhist literature.
Bhagavad gita ranks as one of the most authoritative texts in Indian philosophical literature after vedas and upanishads. Dr.Radha Krishnan writes, Gita derives its main inspiration from upanishads. According to Bhagavad Gita there are four ways (Yogas) of libearation of the self and the union with god. 1) Jnana Yoga - Way of knowledge, 2) Bhakti Yoga -Way of devotion, 3) Karma Yoga - Way of action, 4) Raja Yoga - Way based on practice of pranayama and thought control. The different ways (Yogas) are complementary and merge into each other.
During the Epic period many of the Dharmasastras were compiled. Dharmasastras expound the conduct of life in the society, describing the social organization and the ethical and religious functions & obligations of the people. Manu smriti, Artha sastra, Niti sastra etc.. belong to this period. According to some theories Manu smriti was not written down until 400AD. Almost 3-4 centuries later.
The Literature (Education) during Epic Period is referred to as Smriti - That which is remembered.
3. The Sutra Period (200AD to 800AD) : This period saw the systematic description and elaboration of the various existing schools of thought. The doctrines of each of the earlier systems were presented in orderly, systematic and logically developed sets of aphorisms. These were extremely brief, some times enigmatic, statements which, according to some interpretations, are merely reminders to recall the details of the philosophical systems to which they belonged.
The Sutras themselves contain not only the positive developments of the systems but also keen and comprehensive arguments against opposing systems. Dr.Radhakrishnan says In sutras we have self-conscious thought and reflection and no longer merely constructive imagination and spontaneous insights. We also have to remember that Sanathana Dharma (by now it was called Hinduism - by the Persians) was going through a revolt from the highly logical Buddhist and Jain philosophies.
According to Dr.Radhakrishnan, "This created a need for laying the foundations deeper which produced the great springtide of philosophic spirit in India. The conservative schools were compelled to codify their views and set forth logical defenses of them. The philosophical views of the pre-systematic period (pre-sutra period) set forth some general reflection regarding the nature of the universe as a whole. Critics forced their opponents to employ natural methods relevant to life and experience, and not some super natural revelation, in the defense of their speculative schemes..... the force of thought from life and experience as we have it in the upanishads, or the epic greatness of soul which sees and chants the God-Vision as in the Bhagavad-Gita give place to more strict philosophizing... the spirit of the times required that every system of thought based on reason should be recognized as a darsana."......
So, we have six systems of "Jnana Yoga" (Darsanas)
1. Kapila's Samkhya - This system recognizes no personal god and sees the universe with the forces of purusha(Spirit) and prakriti (matter)
2. Gautama's Nyaya - This system is concerned with the logical analysis of the world and its atheistic nature.
3. Kanada's Vaisesika - This is considered the atomic school of hinduism. It says the universe is made of nine elements, Earth, Water, Air,
Fire, Soul, Mind, Ether, Time, Space.
4. Patanjali's Yoga - Is a methodical effort to attain perfection, through the control of the different elements of human nature, physical & psychical.
5. Jamini's Mimamsa (Purva Mimamsa) - This system is about avoidance of rebirth (based on vedas) and is an investigation of dharma (duty)
6. Badarayana's Uttara Mimamsa or Vedanta (End of Vedas) - This system deals with the religious and philosophical speculation of the upanishads.
They are all based on vedas. The Schools of thought which admit the validity of vedas were called astikas and those that don't were called Nastikas...
Carvaka's was only known Nastika school of thought.
We'll talk about the other Yogas moving on to the scholastic period and the Later education system to the present day education in India.... next...
-keshav
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