Educational practices in urban spaces of Ancient India

Abstract

The urbanization of Ancient India dates back to the middle of the first millennium BCE. In the early days, urban culture was influenced by unorthodox religious movements from the East of India, and by social practices adopted from western Hellenistic states. Urban culture contributed to the genesis and spread of scripts and literacy in India. It was in urban spaces and at royal courts that Sanskrit evolved from the oral language of Brahmanic ritualism to the written language of the cosmopolis, the language of literature and philosophy. By the beginning of CE, urban spaces in India became the place of modernization of Brahmanism. Arts and theoretical disciplines blossomed in towns and at royal courts. Urban educational practices were focused on practical disciplines and on skills connected with aesthetic pleasure. The basis of education was reading and writing. Urban culture in the 1st millennium CE was multireligious. Buddhist universities at the monasteries were leading educational centers supported by kings, including the non-Buddhist ones. Buddhist philosophy was taught there along with traditional Brahmanic and lay disciplines (grammar, normative poetics, etc.). Therefore, the urban space in ancient India was the place of mutual interaction between Brahmanical, Buddhist, and secular scholarship as well as educational traditions. It was in towns, at Buddhist monasteries and royal courts that written culture and the corresponding educational practices were established.