What Teachers were Like in Ancient India
Let’s just take a moment to recall our good old school and college days! Do we still vividly remember those few nice people moving around the classroom, writing words or drawing diagrams with chalk on the blackboard, explaining the complexities of Grammar or Math, always instructing what to do, and scolding or sometimes punishing for doing something wrong? Of course we do. In fact, we never forget the time we spent with them. They are like an inseparable part of our childhood and teenage memories. Next to our parents, perhaps none has such a profound influence on our lives as our teachers. Neither building nor equipment has such influence on us as our cultured and competent teachers have.
Teachers in ancient India played a very crucial role in shaping students’ lives, far more crucial than they do in modern times. It was the function of the teacher to lead the student from the darkness of ignorance to the light of knowledge.
अज्ञान तिमिरान्धस्य ज्ञानाञ्जन शलाकया ।
चक्षुरुन्मीलितं येन तस्मै श्री गुरवे नमः ।।
Salutations to that respected Guru by whom the eyes of
one blinded by the darkness of ignorance are opened
with a stick that applies the ointment of knowledge.
The teacher in ancient times was revered even more than parents — we owe our physical birth to the parents, and our intellectual regeneration to the teacher. Since the Vedic age the teacher has been all along designated as the spiritual and intellectual father of the student. Without his help and guidance, no education was possible. He was in fact indispensable. This is graphically illustrated by the story of Ekalavya, who when refused admission to the school by Drona, prepared an image of the teacher under whom he longed to learn, and successfully finished his studies in archery, under the inspiration that he received from the inanimate representation of his animate preceptor. Buddhists and Jains also attached equally great importance to the teacher.
The great importance attached to the teacher in ancient India is not difficult to understand. Since the earliest times the Vedic learning is being transmitted orally in India from one generation to another. This continued even when the art of writing came into general vogue. Great importance was attached to the proper accent and pronunciation in the Vedic recitation, and these could be properly learnt only from the lips of a well-qualified teacher. The continuous transmission of the store of the Vedic knowledge, which society regarded as priceless, was possible only through the instrumentality of the teacher. With the rise of the mystical systems of philosophy in the age of the Upanishada, the reverence for the Guru became still more intensified.
In the pre-historic period, the family was the only educational agency. As education began to become more and more complex and exacting, the specialist came into the field in the form of the private teacher. Organized educational institutions, like Nalanda University, came into existence in ancient India rather late in the history. Education was for a long time imparted by private teachers on their own responsibility. Each learned teacher was thus an educational institution by himself. Celebrated teachers like Valmlki, Kanva, Sandipani, etc. had made arrangements in their Ashrama to teach hundreds of students.
The Gurukula system, which necessitated the stay of the student away from his home at the house of a teacher, was one of the most important features of ancient Indian education. Smriti recommends that the student should begin to live under the supervision of his teacher after his Upanayana. Ancient literature contains several stories like that of Krishna showing that students were being actually sent to reside with their preceptors. Contact with a teacher of noble character would naturally produce great effect on the mind of the scholar during the pliable period of age.
The importance which in modern times is attached to the institution or the Alma Mater was in ancient days attached to the teacher in India. The relations between the teacher and the student were therefore direct and not through any institution. The student usually went to such a teacher who attracted his attention by his reputation for character and scholarship; the teacher selected such students who appeared to him sincere, zealous and well-behaved. The student usually lived either under the roof of the teacher or under his direct supervision. The teacher not only did not demand any fee but also helped the poor students in getting food or clothing. He even nursed him if he was ill. The student naturally lived as a member of the household of the teacher and helped him in doing the household work if necessary. Under such circumstances in ancient times, the relations between the teacher and the student were very cordial and intimate.
Mr. Shubhra Atreya
Content Writer
IT Department, SVSU
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