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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 April 2010
Socrates famously compares himself to a midwife in Plato's Theaetetus. Much less well known is the developed metaphor of pregnancy at the centre of the initiation ritual that begins Brahmanical education. In this ritual, called Upanayana, the teacher is presented as becoming pregnant with the student. The Arthavaveda states:
The teacher leads the student towards himself, makes him an embryo within; he bears him in his belly three nights.
1 For the purposes of this chapter we will define Brahmanical education as purely concerning the memorisation of the sacred inherited verses – the Vedas – that were recited during the śrauta ritual. The term ‘Brahmanical’ refers to the experts (brahmins) who wrote the Brāhmaṇas and formalised and expanded the śrauta ritual. The definition of Brahmanical culture used here is not purely historical, but represents an over-arching cultural paradigm that extends from the composition of the Brāhmaṇas in 800–600 bce to the era of the Dharmaśāstras 100 bce–200 ce. We use the term ‘Brahmanical ritual’ rather than ‘Vedic ritual’ to draw a distinction between the early/middle Vedic culture and the late Vedic (Brahmanical) era. In the early/middle Vedic period the sacred hymns of the Vedas were composed by a large population of antagonistic tribes, and the sacrificial rite was a festal gathering not yet formalised, however, in the late Vedic (or Brahmanical) era, when the Brāhmaṇas were composed, the rite became a highly elaborate and controlled event. It is this later more developed ritual culture that is of interest to us here. This chapter does not intend to provide a historical outline of the full variety of educational methods in ancient India but to illustrate one predominant strand that can be seen as core to the educational system. For a more detailed discussion of the historical context of the strand that this chapter isolates refer to the introduction and first chapter of my thesis, Philosophy as a Practice of Freedom in Ancient India and Ancient Greece (SOAS, University of London, 2008).
2 Arthavaveda (Śaunaka Recension) 11.5.3, Kajihara, Meiko, The Brahmacārin in the Veda: The Evolution of the ‘Vedic Student’ and the Dynamics of Texts, Ritual and Society in Ancient India (Harvard University Thesis, 2002), p. 136Google Scholar.
3 Theaetetus 150e. Cooper, John, Plato: Complete Works (Indianapolis/Cambridge: Hackett, 1997), p. 167Google Scholar.
4 Manu Smṛti 2.170; trans. Olivelle, Patrick, Laws of Manu (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004)Google Scholar.
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6 Patton, Laurie, ed., Jewels of Authority: Women and Text in the Hindu Tradition (New York: Oxford University Press 2002), p. 59Google Scholar.
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8 The Gopatha Brāhmaṇa states that the period of study for memorising one such Veda is twelve years (GB 2.5, CU 6.1.2.) Kane mentions various alternatives to this time found in the Law books, ranging from 3 to 18 years for each Veda, but twelve years seems to be the average. Kane, P.V., History of Dharmaśāstra, (Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 1975), pp. 348, 352Google Scholar.
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11 Lubin, Consecration and Ascetical Regimen, p. 136.
12 Lubin, Consecration and Ascetical Regimen, p. 136.
13 Kajihara, The Brahmacārin in the Veda, p. 21.
14 Lubin, Consecration and Ascetical Regimen, p. 183.
15 Lubin, Consecration and Ascetical Regimen, p. 189.
16 Lubin, Consecration and Ascetical Regimen, p. 189.
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21 www.vedchant.com presents recordings and accounts of a variety of mnemonic practice chants.
22 Falk, Harry, ‘The Galits in the Ṛg Veda Padapāṭha: On the Origins of the Samhitapāṭha and the Padapāṭha,’ in Micheals, Axel, ed., The Pandit (Delhi: Manohar, 2001), p. 181Google Scholar.
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29 Apte, V., A Practical Sanskrit Dictionary (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1959)Google Scholar. Hara, M. defines it as a ‘permanent dormant or innate instinct’ in ‘Note on Two Sanskrit Religious Terms: bhakti and śraddhā,’ Indo-Iranian Journal, 7 (1964), pp. 124–145CrossRefGoogle Scholar; p. 143.
30 Hara, ‘Note on Two Sanskrit Terms: bhakti and śraddhā’, p. 143.
31 Coward, Harold, Mantra (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2004), p. 14Google Scholar.
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33 Scharfe, Education in Ancient India, p. 238.
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35 Theaetetus 157d. Cooper, Plato, p. 175.
36 Hegel, G. W., Lectures on the History of Philosophy (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995)Google Scholar, Section 1.393.
37 Republic 520a. Cooper, Plato, p. 1137.
38 Theaetetus 150c-d. Cooper, Plato, p. 167.
39 Apology 20e. Cooper, Plato, p. 21.
40 Kofman, Sarah, ‘Beyond Aporia,’ in Benjamin, Andrew, ed., Post-Structuralist Classics (New York: Routledge, 1988), p. 7Google Scholar.
41 Nussbaum, Martha, The Therapy of Desire (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994), p. 14Google Scholar.
42 See also Logi Gunnarsson, this volume, on the idea of ‘philosophical maladies.’
43 Matthew 5:48.
