Education Before 2007 BS (1950 AD)

Nepal is a country of many languages, many cultures, many ethnic groups and many religions, and its land changes greatly from one region to another. Through all this variety, Nepal has been seen as a holy land since ancient times. Many sages lived here, meditated, searched for knowledge and taught it to others. For that reason Nepal is also remembered as a land of knowledge.

Formal education, the kind with schools, fixed classes, examinations and certificates, came to Nepal quite late. Long before it arrived, people were already learning through a traditional system built on Sanskrit learning and on Buddhism. For a very long time, teaching and study were carried out in Sanskrit and in Pali, the language of early Buddhist writings. Learners even travelled to Nepal from India and Tibet to receive this Sanskrit and Buddhist education.

This old way of learning changed slowly until it became the formal, modern education we know today. Because the change did not happen all at once, the history of education in Nepal is understood by dividing it into stages. The first stage is education before 2007 BS. Nepal's own calendar, Bikram Sambat (BS), runs about 57 years ahead of the Western calendar, so 2007 BS falls in 1950 AD.

In ancient Nepal there was no formal place set aside for teaching, and no body or office to organise and manage it. Learning went on all the same. People used whatever sources and means were available, and out of these a working system of education grew. That system was shaped around the particular goals people saw in human life.

Teaching was carried out through several kinds of institution. The oldest and best known were the gurukul and the gumba. After them, education took a different shape in each ruling period: Lichchhavi, Malla, Shah and Rana.

In the Vedic period, the age of the Vedas, there were four kinds of place where a young person could gain knowledge: the gurukul, the rishikul, the devkul and the pitrikul. The names mean the household of a teacher, of a sage, of the gods and of one's forefathers. Of the four, the gurukul was by far the most widely used.

A young student went to the gurukul after the upanayan, the sacred thread ceremony that marked the start of study. Such a student was called a batuk. The batuk lived in the guru's ashram and practised brahmacharya. Violence, lying and anger had to be given up. The student lived a pure and contented life and studied tapasya (self-discipline through hardship) and yajna (the sacred fire ritual). Every day, after bathing and finishing the daily religious duties, the student sat near the guru to learn.

What a student learned in the gurukul depended on their varna, the social group a person was born into. Each learner studied the subjects linked to the work that group was expected to do in society:

Buddhist education in a gumba is built on the Buddha's teachings and on Buddhist philosophy. Its most important feature is that nobody is treated differently because of caste or gender. Once a person has broken away from family ties and become a monk or a nun, a woman is just as eligible to study as a man. Study in viharas (Buddhist monasteries), bahals (courtyard monasteries), maths (religious houses) and the sangha, the community of monks and nuns, is also counted as gumba education.

Teaching in a gumba was done by two kinds of teacher:

The gumba's management gave the monks and nuns who lived there their food and a place to stay. Students sat under the discipline of the teacher's class and learned Buddhist philosophy. For as long as they studied in the gumba, they had to stay unmarried. Once the course was complete, two paths were open to them:

• Marry and return to life as a householder.
• Become a full monk or nun and continue on that path.

Each person was free to choose whichever path seemed right to them.

In the Lichchhavi period the influence of the old gurukul and gumba education was still strong. Sanskrit was the royal language, the language of the state, but in everyday speech people used their local languages. Centres of learning were run with help from generous donors in society who valued learning.

Lichchhavi education was not limited to Sanskrit texts, literature and Buddhist philosophy. It also gave real weight to arts and crafts. Great scholars from Tibet and India visited Nepal, and so Nepal's learning became famous in neighbouring countries too. Princess Bhrikuti of Nepal and the artist Araniko carried Nepali art and civilisation to foreign lands.

The Malla period kept the kind of education seen in ancient and Lichchhavi times. What mattered was who could reach it. The chance to study belonged only to the ruling class, the pandits (learned scholars) and the noble families. For ordinary people, getting an education was not easy.

Two kinds of education were given in the Malla period:

For Brahmins who carried out rituals and priestly duties, and for the Buddhist teachers (Bauddhacharyas) of the viharas, education was compulsory, because their work was reading sacred texts and leading ceremonies. Several groups who served at the palace, the Daivagya (court astrologers), Dhaubhaju, Gubhaju Pradhan, Maske and Bhandari, could read and write. Scholars chosen from among them were appointed to teach the princes and princesses at the royal palace.

Subjects in the Malla period included the fourteen branches of learning, study of the Vedas, astrology, mathematics, yoga, political science and music. Lessons were given in Sanskrit, Newari and Nepali. The method was memorisation: students repeated a lesson again and again until they knew it by heart.

The teacher was deeply respected and was looked upon almost as a god. Punishment given by a good teacher was accepted and was described as being like nectar, something sweet and good for the student. But if a bad teacher punished a student out of spite, that was itself an offence, and the state had a rule to punish such a teacher.

The Shah kings improved on the Malla system of education and also started military education. This period is sometimes called a period of neglect for education, yet traditional learning was run in an organised way.

During the reign of King Prithvi Narayan Shah, Sanskrit was used in the royal court, while dealings with neighbouring states were carried out in Nepali. Prithvi Narayan Shah brought Nepali into use as the language of the state and of the nation.

Most pandits of the Shah period had studied and taught in Mathura, Kashi and Prayag, famous centres of learning in India, before coming home. If a pandit's house was too small, he taught his students in a grove or on the bank of a holy river. Lessons were held on the veranda of a house, in open halls, on roadside rest platforms, in gardens, in the shade of trees and even in cowsheds. This teaching was free of charge.

Any student who came to learn was taught without a fee, but learned pandits did not go from house to house to teach. So wealthy parents arranged private teachers to teach their children to read and write. In places with a large population, Sanskrit pathshalas (Sanskrit schools) were opened. Arts and crafts were given priority in this period, and so were subjects useful to society: astrology, Tantra texts, the Puranas and Ayurveda. The Shah kings showed honour to scholars.

Jang Bahadur Rana became Prime Minister in 1903 BS. To build closer ties with the British, he set out on a visit to Britain on 1 Magh 1906 BS with a party of 61 people. After he came back, on 27 Asoj 1910 BS, he opened a school in the Dakhchok courtyard of his own palace at Thapathali. This school was called Durbar School.

In Jang Bahadur's time another important school, Narayanhiti Pathshala, was opened in 1927 BS. After that, the major achievements of the Rana period include:

• Sanskrit pathshalas (Sanskrit schools), set up in 1942 BS
• Bhasa pathshalas (language schools), set up in 1957 BS
• Adhar pathshalas (basic schools), set up in 2004 BS

Schools opened in many parts of the country, but only after getting the government's permission. In 1948 BS Durbar School was set up at the site where it stands today, to the west of Ranipokhari. Bir Library and a theatre were also founded during Rana rule.

Sanskrit pathshalas were opened under Prime Minister Ranoddip Shamsher, and Bhasa pathshalas under Dev Shamsher. In Chandra Shamsher's time, Tri-Chandra College was founded in 1975 BS and the SLC (School Leaving Certificate) board in 1990 BS. Other important work of the same period was:

• publishing the newspaper Gorkhapatra
• founding a technical school
• founding primary schools
• founding a military school

Padma Shamsher, a Rana Prime Minister, was influenced by the Gandhian education he saw in India. Following that idea, he opened Adhar (basic) pathshalas in 2003 BS. An Adhar teacher training centre was also set up at that time to train teachers. Two further steps were taken in his time:

• The Department of Education was established.
• Local people were given permission to run pathshalas, so schools could be managed by the community.

Looked at as a whole, education before 2007 BS began in the gurukul and the gumba, rooted in religion and tradition. Over time it added arts, crafts and military training, and finally Western-style schools and a college.