The nucleus of the Brahamanic order in the ancient times was the guru’s ashram or the Gurukul — and surprisingly the system survived, though in its vestigial form, till post Independence days in the persona of the poor village priest — and his rigid, immutable ethos.
The Gurukul
The Gurukul, the ancient Indian schooling system, was an essential pillar of the Brahmanic order. It was here that the steel frame of Brahmanic order was induced amongst the coming generation — Brahamins, Kshtriayas and Vaishyas alike.
The Sanskrit word Gurukul, in simple terms, means the teacher’s house. Guru is the teacher and kul means the family. But here kul carries wider connotation. It depicts the entire paternal lineage of the Guru handed down for generations. In fact kul can be summed up to mean a tradition, a school of though and a way of life practiced in that particular Guru’s school.
The teaching was done in Ashrams located away from human habitation, in the jungles. The education was by direct teacher-taught interface and the teacher-taught ratio seldom crossed 1:20.
Maharshi Sandipani Ashram, where Krishna, a Yadav and Sudama, a poor Brahmin studied together is located near Ujjain.
Muni Bharadwaj had his Ashram/Gurukul in Prayag, Allahabad.
Vashishtha is believed to have lived on the banks of the Ganga in modern-day Uttarakhand.
Similarly Agastya, Atri, Bhardwaja, Gautam, Jamadagni, Vashistha and Vishvamitra each had their own ashrams where boys, eight years and above, mostly of kuleen (cultured, well-bred) parents were admitted for lessons after a thorough screening and the Guru’s word was final. This selection process laid the foundation of Brahmanic Gurukul esotericism, the salient features of which are still prevalent in the elitist Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), the National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and some ace private educational institutes like Birla Institute of Technology (BIT) Pilani and business schools like Narsee Monjee, Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi and some others.
There was no Affirmative Action or OBC/SC reservation in the Gurukul days. Merit, lineage and ancestry — and maybe to some extent a compassionate consideration for the poor — made the Guru choose his pupil or shishya.
Today, the ace higher education institutions named above, essentially have the same salient features that the Gurukul had in the ancient times:
- Gurukuls used to be a home away from home, and so are the IITs.
- Both, in Gurukuls and the IITs/IIMs boarding and lodging is close to the academic area.
- Community living, where all students are deemed equal, inculcates lifelong brotherhood and bonding.
- Unlike home where your mom does all the chores for you, on-campus life inculcates self-help. You have to fend for yourself.
- Close and continuous teacher-taught interface.
- Teacher-taught ratio between 1:15 or 1:20.
- Residential campus, away from the hustle and bustle of the city.
- Easy access to teachers at any reasonable time.
- Final selection for admission done by teachers.
- Campus administration done by a teacher.
- Curriculum, Assessment and Examination done by campus teachers.
- Valedictory and degree awarding by a teacher.
The important difference lies in funding. The IITs, IIMs and the NITs are funded by the Central government while private institutions depend upon students’ fee. In Gurukul, the money came in cash or kind through Guru dakshina and stray donations from kings and the moneyed.
Nevertheless, the resultant of both the systems, the Gurukul and the present day IITs/IIMs is same: excellence that shows in the mettle of the pass-outs who are invariably placed in all top-notch positions in India and abroad.
The reason for the successful performance of the IITs and the IIMs today, and of the Gurukuls in the ancient times was/is the simple saying of the digital world: garbage in, garbage out. They abbreviate it as GIGO in computer science.
What you sow is what you reap! A good seed gives a good plant and the bad seeds never grow. The selection process was the key to success, as it is in the IITs and IIMs today.