Indic Education in Pre-Colonial India

Abstract

School education in pre-colonial India was universal and inclusive. Children of every caste and class, at an average age of 5 years, attended schools. The elementary school teaching consisted of three universal subjects: akshara (script) gyan, bhasha (language) gyan and arithmetic. The fourth subject varied from regions to regions: it was moral–civic education to skill education. The education was in the mother tongue. The higher education was in medium of Sanskrit. After the arrival of Muslim rulers, Persian became the alternative language of instruction, and there was a change in the course curriculum. The Muslim students were compulsorily taught the Quran, and the medium of instruction was Persian. Students interested in higher academics and research had wide number of subjects to study—grammar, philosophy, medicine and others. These students were called Brahmins, and based on their professional skills, they were designated as acharyas, upadhyaya, mukhopadhyay and so forth. The technical skills and the knowledge required constant upgradation as India was the hub of the pre-colonial economy, the ‘land of desire’. This knowledge and skill had also made her the ‘land of wisdom’. That’s how Hegel used to address about India in his class rooms in 1820s in Germany.