Columbia University Contributions to Philosophy and Psychology Volume 7 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1899 Excerpt: ...schools were Hindus, largely of the Brahman caste. Advanced 1 the advanced schools, however, the language Schools, employed was the Arabic, and the students were, to a man, Musalmans. In these schools there were complete courses in rhetoric, logic, law, ritual and theology. Euclid and Ptolemy's Astronomy were familiar in translations, and other branches of Natural Philosophy were followed. Indeed, Arabic learning was not unknown in Europe. Although the advanced schools, few in number, attained to such heights in scholastic acquirement, and although the Musalman power was dominant in India during so many centuries, the Islamic faith was so foreign to the country, and so iconoclastic in its relations and contact with other religions of the Hindus, that Muhammadanism never became a force in the social or educational life of the people. It never was more than an external influence, although its following constitutes one-fifth of the population of India. CHAPTER II INDIGENOUS EDUCATION Wh1le the preponderating influence of religious ideals upon the development of education in India is a fact, as already recognized and emphasized, there is no country where the love of learning had an earlier origin, or exercised Learning in a more lasting or powerful influence, than in InEariiest Times. dia. From the poets of the Vedic age to the Bengali philosopher of the present day, there has been an uninterrupted succession of teachers and scholars. The immense literature which this long period has produced is penetrated with the scholastic spirit. The ancient Hindu theory of education is contained, as already pointed out, in the comprehensive volume, the Institutes of Manu. vicUiitudes. During the fifteen centuries ending with the tenth of our era, learning, no doubt, experi...