Ancient Indian Education: Brahmanical and Buddhist

Ancient Indian Education: Brahmanical and Buddhist

This work is intended to fill up a gap in the literature on the history of Education, which has not taken adequate account of the unique contributions made by Hindu thought to both educational theory and practice.

The work is divided into Two Parts. Part I (Chs. 1-12) deals with the concepts and practices of Brahmanical Education on the authority of Veda, Astadhyayi, Arthasastra of Kautilya, Sutra literature, and Epics. It discusses the problems of Legal, Industrial, and Vocational Education as well as the typical educational institutions and centres. Part I (Chs. 13-24) deals with Buddhist Education and discusses among other topics the Background, System, Discipline, and Centres of Instruction as well as the accounts of education derived from the Jatakas, Milinda Panha as also those rendered by Fa-Hien, Hiuen Tsang, I-tsing and others. With 26 illustrations.

About the Author : 

Dr. Radha Kumud Mookerji, M.A., Ph. D., D. Litt, F.A.S.B., started life as a Professor of History in the Bengal National College under the Principalship of the late Sri Aurobindo. Subsequently, he joined Mysore University where he was a Professor of History from 1917 to 1921. Thereafter, he became a Professor and Head of the Department of History at Lucknow University and remained there for an unbroken period of twenty-five years. Afterwards, he continued to be an Emeritus Professor of History at the same University where his friends had endowed a Lectureship in his name.

On the political side, he served as a Member of the Bengal Legislative Council for six years (1937-43) as Leader of the Opposition (Congress) and had been a Member of the Floud Commission for a year and a half in 1939-40. In 1946-47, he was appointed a Member of the Indian delegation to the F.A.O. Preparatory Commission at Washington. He was nominated by India's President as a Member of the Council of States in 1952 and decorated by him with the award of Padma-Bhushana in 1956. He is the author of about 15 books on different aspects of ancient India.