பெருமாயச்செய்கை(மகேந்திரசாலம்);அழற்கட்டு(அக்கினித்தம்பனம்); நீர்க்கட்டு(சலத்தம்பனம்); வளிக்கட்டு(வாயுத்தம்பனம்);கண்கட்டு(திருட்டித்தம்பனம்); நாவுக்கட்டு(வாக்குத்தம்பனம்);விந்துக்கட்டு(சுக்கிலத்தம்பனம்); புதையற்கட்டு(கனனத்தம்பனம்); வாட்கட்டு(கட்கத்தம்பனம்);சூனியம்(அவத்தைப்பிரயோகம்) In the novel UDAYAR the author mentions about a number of accountants, who maintained the records of the departments related to the activities of the society and army. who taught them accountancy ?
what was the education system of ancient india, who were the teachers and professorsof that time?
do theeducation system consisted only the vedic and religious matters?
This article also mentions about the sculptors, as they were not well knowledged to write tamil.
to become a sculptor,was there acondition that , no need forany basic qualification? were they allbuilt the BIG TEMPLE by their experience with out any calculation ?
Not only the cholas, most of the kings took care for the Brahmanas.. even he was a budhdhist or Jain... why?
the legends must deal with this education system of ancient india... this may give enough ideas about the Kings time...
I expect the clarification ofour legends, to understand the ancient education system....
sculptor is different from a scribe. a royal scribe is different from a normal scribe. am not going to go into the aspect of caste and education for now - however, you must like to see things in perspective. sanskrit was very much needed if you have to move our of the confines of tamil country - its like having to know either english or hindi if you go out of tamil nadu now. The fact that most important grants esp copper plate grants were bilingual goes to celebrate the far sighted approach of the system. for all the tamil patrons, the question that should be asked is - to see how and why the basic scrpt underwent such a large change in almost every 100 years? for ease - compare a roman coin of the early 1st or 2nd C CE - the script is almost todays alphabet?
the explanation of the mistakes in the inscriptions - is to account for sheer volume ( take the case of y2k bug for eg - suddenly anyone who could even remotely open a computer with a screw driver got work - am saying this in jest) Its quite normal that such a big spurt, there was a dearth of quality engravers/scribes. With temples coming up in every village and conversion of brick to stone temples - instead of appreciating the intent and ability of the chola clan to say that education was flawed is a half baked approach. why then would the walls of such temples be covered with inscriptions if none could read it?
anyone who has studied the corpus of bakti literature - the thevaram hymns must know the advanced nature of the tamil language - to be able to compose such soul stirring verses - by common men mind you - for all these jokers out there who are hoping to rake in cheap publicity by talking ill of the cholas - why dont they study the nayanmars and see what castes they belong to ? and which clan brought them to the limelight and inside the temples?
can you please stop addressing the group as legends etc. we are all fans of ps
1. The writer says that the references have come even in Tholkappiyum and the society was much different before that. Unless i read the texts before sangam and tholkappiyum which the author seems to have read, i can't comment on that.
Request that author to share those second and first sangam books, which he seems to have read.
2. Election in Chola period:
Please note that the system existed even before the Parantaga period and Parantaga inscribed them in stone . There are simillar Pandya records where simillar system existed. Looks there are references even in Sangam it seems. Some one was quoting but i forgot that verse.
The said epigraphs pertains to a Chathurvedi Mangalam where the town belonged to a particular community. That epigraph survived and that dosenot mean that the other settlements did not have any such system. In fact the Kattur Valisvarar temple had a long epigraph about the sabha of trading community.
There is a debate on whether the qualification mentioned in the epigraphs erferes to knowing the actual veda or its meaning. Even if you take that it is exclusive for one community , then what about the exclusions mentioned like Forgery, cheats, Panchamapavis, corrupt etc mentioned in the same epigraphs. That shows that the society acknowledged such persons of the community and debarred /punished them severely.
The first thing about vedic chanting is that it was more of a duty with life time dedication rather than a privilage. Tholkappiyum refers like " aruvagaippatta parppanap pakkam" etc and in that vedic learning was given as a duty for the majority of communities. I have already gave ref of how a tamil king was referred as one who knew vedas well and educated brahmins on that being mentioned in sangam.
Who ever were excluded were infact considered that as a freedom rather than a exclusion.
In fact there are references of brahmins who left vedas and took up music as profession and the newly wed kovalan and kannagi were advised not to go through that street.
It is unfair to tell either Brahmins had full control over education or they did not encourage Tamil. There are so much references on equality in bhakthi literature.
Dont want to write much on this but please go through the sangam and silapadigaram fully once along with thevara divyapprabandam.