The education system in India and the
world today is deteriorating day by day . With the cover of technology all the schools sell
education for a high price . Education today in the school or college system is
a race for ranks . The teachers and the environment in the system today just
focus on the student’s performance in exams rather than on working on their
overall development to face the world of tomorrow . As they are so not concern
about student’s life except for their marks and publicity of their brand name !
But this was not the case with ancient education system where there were no exams
but the student was great at the subject , no fee yet teachers always wanted
their students to make a mark.
In ancient India ,learning deep about their religion also played a
major role in the education system. A number of subjects other than religion
were taught to students as a part of their occupational study or even general
study. These included subjects such as mathematics, medicine, metallurgy,
magic, music, art of warfare, sculpting, temple building, commerce, pottery,
weaving and so on. Since the occupations were based upon castes, children were
initiated into the secrets of their traditional vocations from a very early
age.
Admission into the gurukula was not an easy process. A student had to convince
his guru that he had the desire, the determination and the required
intelligence to pursue the studies and had to serve him for years before he was
admitted into the school and initiated into the subjects. Students in the
gurukulas were subjected to rigorous discipline. They had to live in a very
austere environment and practice yoga and meditation under the supervision of
the master and also perform many menial jobs for the master's household. On
specific occasions they had to undergo fasting as a necessary means of
purification and mastery of the body and mind.
Sometimes if the Guru traveled to other places, the students accompanied him.
Girls were not admitted to the Gurukulas. They were not even allowed to study
like the boys. Ancient India had some educated women, like Maitreyi, wife of
Yajnavalkya, who were generally related to some seers and sages or wives of
some great kings. But it is doubtful if ordinary women in ancient India had any
role other than performing household duties and procreation . This was one of
the greatest disadvantages of this system.
Ancient India had a number of universities and centers of education,
where not one guru but several lived together and taught to groups of students
different subjects.
The knowledge in these orders was often
related to the tasks a section of the society had to perform . The priest
class, the Brahmins, were imparted knowledge of religion, philosophy, and other ancillary
branches while the warrior class , the Kshatriya, were trained in the various aspects of warfare. The business class ,
the Vaishya , were taught their trade and the
working class of the Shudras was
generally deprived of educational advantages. The book of laws, the Manusmriti , and the treatise on statecraft
the Arthashastra were among the influential works of the ancient Indian system
which reflect the outlook and understanding of the world at the time.
After imparting such knowledge the individuals attained the
capacity to overcome different situations of life . Hence the ancient education
system always played a key role in the over all development of a student.
Let us see a story of the long-gone era as an example. Nearly
five thousand years back, lived a boy named Eklavya, the son of a tribal
chief in the forests of the kingdom- Hastinapura. Eklavya was a brave, handsome
boy. He was loved by all. But he was not happy.
His father saw that something troubled Eklavya.
More than once he found his son lost deep in thought when other boys enjoyed
the pleasures of hunting and playing. One day the father asked his son, “Why
are you so unhappy, Eklavya? Why don’t you join your friends? Why are you not
interested in hunting?”.
“Father, I want to be an archer” replied Eklavya,
“I want to become a disciple of the great Dronacharya, the great tutor of
Archery in Hastinapura. His Gurukul is a magical place where ordinary boys are
turned into mighty warriors.”
Eklavya saw his father was silent. He continued,
“ Father, I know that we belong to the hunting tribe, but I want to be a
warrior, father, not a mere hunter. So please allow me to leave home and become
the disciple of Dronacharya.”
Eklavya's father was troubled, for he knew that
his son’s ambition was not an easy one. But the chief was a loving father and
he did not want to refuse his only son’s wish. So the kind man gave his
blessings and sent his son on his way to Drona’s Gurukul.
Eklavya set on his way. Soon he reached the part
of the forest where Drona taught the princes of Hastinapur.
A Gurukul (Guru refers to "teacher" or
"master"; Kul refers to his domain, from the Sanskrit word kula,
meaning extended family.) is a type of ancient Hindu school in India that is
residential in nature with the shishyas or students and the guru or teacher
living in proximity, many a time within the same house. The Gurukul is the
place where the students resided together as equals, irrespective of their
social standing. The students learned from the guru and also helped the guru in
his day-to-day life, including the carrying out of mundane chores such as
washing clothes, cooking, etc. The education imparted thus, was a wholesome
one.
Having said this much, let us now return to
Eklavya. When the boy reached Dronacharya’s Gurukul, he saw that it consisted
of a group of huts, surrounded by trees and an archery yard. The disciples were
practicing to shoot arrows with their bows and arrows in the yard. It was an
engaging sight. But Eklavya’s eyes searched Drona. Where was he? Will he be
able to see the man? Without Drona, all his purpose of coming here would be
meaningless. But all his worries soon subsided. He didn’t have to wait for
long. There was the man standing near a tree busy instructing a boy, who was
none else than the third Pandava prince Arjuna, as Eklavya came to know later.
Though Eklavya had never seen Drona before, he put his guess at work. He went
near Drona and bowed.
The sage was surprised to see a strange boy
addressing him. “Who are you?” he asked.
"Dronacharya, I am Eklavya, son of the
Tribal Chief in the western part of the forests of Hastinapura." Eklavya
replied. "Please accept me as your disciple and teach me the wonderful art
of Archery."
Drona sighed. "Eklavya..." said
he,"... if you are a tribal hunter, you must be a Shudra, the lowest
social community according to the Vedic Caste System. I am a Brahmin, the
highest caste in the kingdom. I cannot teach a Shudra boy."
"And he's also a Royal teacher,"
interrupted Prince Arjuna. "Our Guru has been appointed by the King to
train us, the princes and the highborn. How dare you come inside the Gurukul
and seek him? Leave! NOW!" he spat out, looking enraged that Eklavya had
disturbed his practice.
Eklavya was stunned at Arjuna's behaviour. He
himself was the son of the chief of his clan, but he never insulted anyone
below him in such a way. He looked at Drona for some kind of support, but the
sage remained silent. The message was loud and clear. Dronacharya also wanted
him to leave. He refused to teach him.
The innocent tribal boy was deeply hurt by
Drona's refusal to teach him. "It's not fair!" he thought miserably.
"God has given knowledge to all, but man alone differentiates his
kind."
He left the place with a broken heart and a
bitter taste in his mouth. But it could not shatter his ambition to learn
Archery. He was still as determined to learn Archery.
"I may be a Shudra but does it make any
difference?" thought he. " I am as strong and zealous as Drona's
princes and disciples. If I practice the art everyday, I can surely become an
archer."
Eklavya reached his own forests and took some mud
from a nearby river. He made a statue of Dronacharya and selected a secluded
clearing in the forests to place it. Eklavya did this because he faithfully
believed that if he practiced before his Guru, he would become an able archer.
Thus, though his Guru shunned him, he still held him in high esteem and thought
of him as his Guru.
Day after day, he took his bow and arrow,
worshipped the statue of Drona and started practice. In time faith, courage and
perseverance transformed Eklavya the mere tribal hunter into Eklavya the
extraordinary archer. Eklavya became an archer of exceptional prowess, superior
even to Drona's best pupil, Arjuna.
One day while Eklavya is practicing, he hears a
dog barking. At first the boy ignored the dog, but continuous disturbance in
his practice angered him. He stopped his practice and went towards the place
where the dog was barking. Before the dog could shut up or get out of the way,
Eklavya fired seven arrows in rapid succession to fill the dog's mouth without
injuring it. As a result it roamed the forests with its mouth opened.
But Eklavya was not alone in his practice. He was
unaware of the fact that just some distance away, the Pandava princes were also
present in that area of the forest. As fate would have it, that day, they had
come with their teacher, Drona, who was instructing them about some finer
points of archery by making them learn in the real-life condition of the
open jungle.
As they were busy practicing, they suddenly
chanced upon the "stuffed" dog, and wonder who could have pulled off
such a feat of archery. Drona was amazed too." Such an excellent aim can
only come from a mighty archer." he exclaimed. He told the Pandavas that
if somebody was such a good archer then he surely needed to be met. The
practice was stopped and together they began searching the forest for the one
behind such amazing feat. They found a dark-skinned man dressed all in black,
his body besmeared with filth and his hair in matted locks. It was Eklavya.
Dronacharya went up to him.
"Your aim is truly remarkable!" Drona
praised Eklavya, and asked "From whom did you learn Archery?"
Eklavya was thrilled to hear Drona's praises. How
surprised he will be if he told Drona that he, in fact was his Guru!
"From you my Master. You are my Guru,"
Eklavya replied humbly.
"Your Guru? How can I be your Guru? I have
never seen you before!" Drona exclaimed in surprise. But all of a sudden
he remembered something. He remembered about an eager boy who had visited his
Gurukul several months ago. " Now I remember," said he. "Are you
not the same hunter boy whom I refused admission in my Gurukul some months
back?"
"Yes, Dronacharya", replied the boy.
"After I left your Gurukul, I came home and made a statue like you and
worshipped it every day. I practiced before your image. You refused to teach
me, but your statue did not. Thanks to it, I have become a good archer."
Hearing this, Arjuna became angry. "But you
promised me that you'd make me the best archer in the world!" he accused
Drona. "Now how can that be? Now a common hunter has become better than
me!"
The other princes remembered their master
frequently praising Arjuna that he had immense talent and will be the greatest
archer in the kingdom. They waited with bated breath. What will their teacher
do now?
Unable to answer Arjuna's question, Drona
remained silent. The sage too was upset that his promise to Prince Arjuna was
not going to be fulfilled. He was also angry with Eklavya for disobeying him.
So the sage planned to punish Eklavya.
"Where is your guru dakhsina? You have to give
me a gift for your training," the sage demanded. He had finally found a
way to make Eklavya suffer for his disobedience.
Eklavya was overjoyed. A guru dakshina was the
voluntary fee or gift offered by a disciple to his guru at the end of his
training. The guru-shishya parampara, i.e. the teacher-student tradition, was a
hallowed tradition in Hinduism. At the end of a shishya's study, the guru asks
for a "guru dakshina," since a guru does not take fees. A guru
dakshina is the final offering from a student to the guru before leaving the
ashram. The teacher may ask for something or nothing at all.
"Dronacharya, I'll be the happiest person on
earth to serve you. Ask me anything and I will offer it to you as my guru
dhakshina "he said.
"I might ask something you don't like to
give me. What if you refuse the dhakshina I want?" Drona asked cunningly.
Eklavya was shocked. It was considered a grave
insult and a great sin if a guru's dakshina was refused. "No! How can I,
teacher? I am not that ungrateful. I'll never refuse anything you ask,
Dronacharya," promised the unsuspecting boy.
Drona did not wait anymore. "Eklavya, I seek
to have your right-hand thumb as my guru dhakshina" he declared.
Silence befell on everyone. Everyone was shocked,
even Arjuna. He looked at his teacher in horror and disbelief. How could their
teacher make such a cruel demand? That too, from a mere boy?
For a moment Eklavya stood silent. Without his
thumb he could never shoot arrows again. But the teacher must be satisfied.
"Ok Gurudev, as you wish." said he. Then, without the slightest
hesitation, Eklavya drew out his knife and cut his thumb!
The princes gasped at Eklavya's act of bravery.
But the tribal boy betrayed no signs of pain, and held out his severed thumb to
Dronacharya.
"Here is my guru dakshina, Drona",
Ekalavya said. "I am happy that you have made me your disciple, even if
I'm a mere Shudra hunter."
The sage was humbled. He blessed the young archer
for his courage. "Eklavya, even with out your thumb, you'll be known as a
great archer. I bless you that you will be remembered forever for your loyalty
to your guru," Drona declared and left the forests. He was moved and
grieved at his own action. But he was content that his promise to Arjuna was
not broken. The Gods blessed Eklavya from above.
But despite his handicap, Eklavya continued to
practice archery. How could he do so? When one is dedicated, one can make even
mountains bow. With practice, Eklavya could shoot arrows with his index and
middle finger and he became a greater archer than he was ever before. His
renown spread far and wide. When Drona came to know this, he blessed the boy
silently and begged for divine forgiveness.
And true to Drona's blessing, Eklavya is still
praised as the most loyal and brave student in the epic of Mahabharatha.
So from this we can realise that if students put in sincere
efforts to achieve something , there is nothing which can stop !!
Come along then.” said
Jonathan. “Climb with me away from the ground, and we’ll begin.”
