INTRODUCTION
•Indigenous education was imparted at home, in temples, pathshalas, and gurukuls.
•Teaching was largely oral and students remembered and meditated upon what was taught in the class.
•Sages and scholars imparted education orally. Palm leaves and barks of trees were used for writing.
•Students went to universities for higher knowledge.
ANCIENT INDIAN EDUCATION
•The idea of education focused on the temporary nature of life and the world, the concept of ultimate death and the futility of mundane pleasures.
•Thus, the ancient Indian educational system was developed in terms of the needs of the individual and that of society.
VEDAS
•The Upanishads, the Smritis and the Puranas, all acknowledge the superiority of Vedas.
•The Vedas occupy a very important place in Indian education which are four in number Rigveda, Samaveda, Yajurveda, and Atharvaveda.
EDUCATION IN VEDIC ERA
•Two methods of teaching were being practiced during the Vedic period.
•The first method was Oral and the second was based on Chintan i.e. thinking.
•The admission was made by the formal ceremony Upanayana or initiation by which the pupil left the home of his natural parents
•The discipline of brahmacharya or celibacy was compulsory.
•Broadly there existed three types of institutions namely Gurukulas, Parishads(Academies) and Sammelans (Conferences) in that age.
•Besides these regular schools of instructions, there were special institutions for the promotion of advance study and research. These are called in the Rig Veda as Brahmana- Sangha.
•These Academies were the main forums where students belonging to higher order of learning gathered knowledge through discussions.
•During the Vedic period one could choose a particular profession as he liked and accordingly his Varna was determined.
•But during the later Vedic period Varna came to be determined by birth. Consequently the whole society was divided into four Varna.
EDUCATION IN POST VEDIC ERA
•In this age, the rules and regulations of education were manifested mainly in the form of Dharma-Sutras.
•These Dharma- Sutras embodied the principles of social conduct and a code of duties for the teachers and students.
•The entire Sutra literature consists of mainly six divisions known as Vedangas.
•One special feature of education of this period is specialization of students in different branches of learning.
•The educational system during the Sutra period was identical with that of Upanishad period.
•All the current unwritten regulations, social and religious traditions and long standing conventions, had been compiled in the sutras in a well-arranged and systematic order. This newly created literature became the proper course of study for the students.
•The period of the Sutras witnessed the consummation of its progress. In this period, the current of philosophical thought flowed out chiefly in six different channels.
•In this way developed six systems of philosophy, viz,
1.The Samkha of Kapila
2.The Yoga of Patanjali
3.The Nyaya of Gautama
4.The 20 Vaisheshikas of Kanada
5.Karma or Purva-mimansa of Jaimini
6.Uttara Mimamsa or Vedanta of Badarayana
•The Ramayana and the Mahabharata are the main Epics of ancient India.
•The main institutions such as Taxila, Ujjain, Nalanda, Benares, Ballavi, Ajanta, Madura and Vikramsila were very famous.
•Taxila was famous for medicine and Ujjain for Astronomy.
•Universities in Ancient India
1.Taxila
2.Nalanda
3.Valabhi
4.Vikramshila
5.Mithila
6.Odantapuri
7.Somapura
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