Ancient Indian Education: Brahmanical and Buddhist

The book opens with a prologue explaining its historical background, educational theory, and overall plan. Part I, Brahmanical Education, traces education from Vedic concepts and the formation of the Vedas through later Vedic institutions, Sūtra literature, Pāṇinian scholarship, Kauṭilya’s Arthaśāstra, philosophical disciplines, the epics, vocational education, and representative centres of learning. Part II, Buddhist Education, begins with the relationship between Buddhist and earlier Brahmanical traditions, then examines the Vinaya-based monastic system, ordination, discipline, residence, instruction, women’s education, lay learning, medicine, and educational evidence from the Milindapañha and Jātakas. Subsequent chapters use the accounts of Faxian, Xuanzang, and Yijing to reconstruct Buddhist education in the fifth and seventh centuries, before concluding with a study of major universities and the international transmission of Indian learning.