Preethi Sekhar

The Gurukula System was an important concept associated with pursuit of studies in ancient India. A gurukula was a place where a teacher or a guru lived with his family and establishment and trained the students in various subjects. The gurukulas usually existed in forests.

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.

Lower caste people were not permitted to study any subject outside their occupation. In the early Rigvedic period, some gurus were broadminded enough to admit some low caste children as their students, as is evident from the story of Satyakama Jabala who was born to a free woman and Yajnavalkya who came from a very humble background. But the trend changed completely during the later Vedic period, so much so that even the mere act of hearing the Vedic hymns by low caste men was declared a sacrilege and great crime.

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 emergence of Buddhism and the migration of gurus to towns and cities contributed to this new movement.

Hinduism emphasizes the importance of verification of truth through personal experience. It regards the external world as a great illusion, but does not discourage those who want to study it in order to realize the nature of external reality. In ancient India 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.

Hinduism recognizes the importance of knowledge in the spiritual progress of man, but at the same time it is wary of the fact that you cannot teach everything to every one. Knowledge should be imparted only to those who are interested, who are mentally disposed, who are qualified by virtue of their evolution or current knowledge and who knows the the true value of knowledge.