The Education System of the Mahábhárata Age

In the Vaedika age there was no educational system in particular.

Generally, students would go to the guru’s house at the age of 5 and complete their studies at 24 and return home.

The incomplete establishment of even monarchism at that time led to no solid educational system in the Vaedika age.

The gurus would maintain their catuspathiis by begging from the public. The students were in turn maintained by the catuspathiis.

As the first phase of learning, one should be taught grammar.

But in the Vaedika age there was no grammar of the Vaedika language.

The Vaedika language was a spoken language.

In addition to this, there was no script. People did not know how to write.

Therefore the students would memorize the things uttered by the gurus.

This is why a solid system could not be evolved.

Since the students were listening to their gurus and remembering the things spoken, the Veda was named “Shruti.”

“Shruti” means “ear” as well as “to listen”.

The people in the Vaedika age did not even realize well the value of education, a must for sharpening the intellect.

If you go through the Veda you will come across 1,001 grammatical mistakes, i.e. no grammar had been made.

A strong Saḿskrta grammar was made by Panini.

Panini, a great scholar and the first grammarian of Saḿskrta, was a Pakhtoon of the Peshawar area.

During the Mahábhárata period, there was an educational system to some extent.

In the catuspathiis also there was some financial solidarity, as the kings as well as the people helped financially.

The Vaedika language had died in the Mahábhárata age.

The language of the people was Prákrta.

There was no solid written grammar. But there was some kind of a grammatical structure.

Everybody would go to the guru’s house to study, there were some day-students too.

Students from far-off places would live in the guru’s house.

In the first phase they would learn grammar, then general knowledge of different subjects.

After this, they would learn the art of operating various weapons, according to their abilities.

Those who were interested in learning the shastras were taught them.

In the Vaedika era there was division by caste, but there was no casteism at all.

But during the Mahábhárata period, there was both caste division and some sense of caste, or casteism.

Still, intercaste marriages were customary, and in one family someone might be a vipra, someone a shúdra, someone a vaeshya.

Casteism had not yet entered in.

Those who had ability for the use of weapons would study martial arts more than the scriptures.

Even a person born in a vipra family could study the use of weapon more than the scriptures if he was interested.

For example, there was Drona, who though born in a vipra family, was an expert in operating weapons, since he was interested in them.

But persons born in vipra families lost respect if they became very skilled in the use of weapons.

There was also a close link between the educational system and the social system.

The society wanted persons coming from kśatriya families to be expert in military skills, as it was the duty of the kśatriyas to defend the country.

The social system was that only the kśatriyas were to defend the country, if invaded.

This resulted in a great weakness of the society, leading to the defeat of India when invaded by outside forces 2,000 years after the Mahábhárata, wherein the majority of the kśatriyas had been killed, causing a great reduction in their numbers.