The history of education in India started a long time ago. In the Indian subcontinent, this history originated with the elements which were traditional in nature like logic, mathematics, astrology, astronomy, religions etc. At first Hindu and Buddhist education centres like Nalanda, Taxila were present.
After the establishment of the Islamic empires at the middle age, Islamic education also joined the history of education. After this, western education came into the picture because of the invasion of Europeans and colonial rule. In the half of the early 20th century, many foundations were created to take care of the education in India.
Early history of education:
Earlier in India, teaching in every subject was given by some specific guru. Initially, education was a way to achieve Moksha or enlightenment. During that time, education was open to everyone and it was not gender biased. As the time goes by, the education became biased on the basis of the caste and other factors. The teaching was based on the type of duties that any person has to follow according to their caste.
The society was divided into following caste and their teaching also got divided in accordance with the caste:
· Brahmans: used to learn about religions and scripture
· Kshatriya: used to learn about warfare
· Vaishya: used to learn about vocational courses
· Shudras: denied to get educated
Accommodation of the students:
Well during ancient times before the invasion of another culture, the students used to cut off every relation with the outer world. The venues of education have been usually at a separated part of the city. These venues used to be in the outskirt of the cities away from the main population and the students used to stay at the ashram. In these ashrams, the students used to follow strict routines given by their guru. But after the Gupta Empire, Islamic empire, Europeans and colonial rule, the education pattern changed. Various education centres became visible in the urban cities.
Different styles of education:
India saw many different kinds of education style. The set of subjects used to differ in every era and empires. Every type of empire has its own set of educators and their own style of teaching. These various empires from various places made the scope of education vaster. Nowadays also we are studying many old art forms and subjects like Sanskrit, astrology, mathematics and philosophy etc.
Below there is a list of subjects which were popular in that particular era:
1. Early era: warfare, religious studies, vocational training, yoga etc.
2. Middle era: Sanskrit, Islam, grammar, law, mathematics, astrology etc.
3. Last era: foreign languages, logic, modern art forms, astronomy science, engineering etc.
Difference between modern and ancient education:
Modern culture has a new style of education. Nowadays education system is different than ancient education. We have various tools to study nowadays. We have an audio video system to study and we also have schools and universities for teaching the youth. In ancient system, much lower castes were isolated from studies but now education is compulsory for every gender and caste. Also as days are passing the number of schools is increasing and various universities teach various subjects. The set of subjects has changed and the subjects are vast. Engineering, medical studies and other similar courses are quite famous nowadays. At least we can conclude that education has always been a big part of Indian culture.
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Indian History Of Indian Methords Of Ancient Education
