List of Illustrations

View by: Order of Appearance | Alphabetical Order

  1. A cell and a bunk in a Buddhist cave.
  2. A three-storied Buddhist school in Ellora. It included an assembly hall and prayer rooms. It is believed that the assembly was held around a statue of Buddha. Inside the building, stone desks and benches can be found, which confirm that it was an educational institution.
  3. A Buddhist students on  way to fetch water
  4. Writing styles -- today calligraphy is still taught on a slate, which is an inch wide and an arm long. The pen is made with bamboo and black ink is used.
  5. Student and teacher- a teacher corrects the handwriting and calligraphic style of a student in a Buddhist school
  6. Engrossed in study
  7. Jaina teacher and disciples-- Jaina students devotedly listen to an ascetic teacher under the shade of a tree
  8. A student-ascetic
  9. A preacher and his tools: a Jaina teacher with his textbook, and a kamandalu
  10. "Education is a tool to mokshā" - A Jaina preacher explains the doctrine to lay people
  11. Education of women
  12. A guru and his female students
  13. A decorated steel pen (kanta):this was used to write on palm leaves
  14. Usage of the kanta - the palm-leaf pen
  15. Reading of palm-leaf scriptures
  16. Cover page of a palm-leaf text
  17. Cover pages of palm-leaf texts were decorated
  18. A gamboling deer
  19. A horse rider in a hurry
  20. Geometric designs on a palm-leaf
  21. Designing with circles
  22. Complex circular designs
  23. A depiction of Lord Ganesh on a palm-leaf
  24. An artistically rendered hamsa
  25. A box for storing scriptures
  26. A decorated box for preserving of palm-leaf books
  27. A warning against destroying legislation!
  28. An ink-stamp
  29. Cover page of a paper book. Paper arrived in India around the 13th century, but the art and science of palm-leaf texts has continued till today
  30. Engraving on the cover of a palm-leaf book - medieval palm-leaf books were nicely bound, with elaborately decorated cover pages. The title was written in big letters so that readers could locate them easily.
  31. Decorated chapter separator of an ancient text - this Jaina text has designs made just with lines and small curves.
  32. An educator
  33. A time-keeping volunteer at the ghatikā
  34. A ball game
  35. A prince who stooped to play a game of marbles!
  36. The medieval version of a yo-yo
  37. A wooden horse
  38. The education of the future king
  39. Granthapathana - the reciting of scriptures was a required skill among the learned classes in medeival India.
  40. A Muslim prince at study
  41. A dagger encounter
  42. Using gadā or mace
  43. Training in fighting with two swords
  44. Horse Mounted Javelin Thrower
  45. Taking aim
  46. An expert in archery
  47. A flag-post on a palm-leaf
  48. Details on a pillar inscription
  49. Art education
  50. Color composition
  51. The lamination of books
  52. A student's scrapbook
  53. Animal drawings on medieval books
  54. More animals: obviously by students of an art school
  55. Heavenly girls
  56. Musical training
  57. Veena training for the princess
  58. The cloth merchant
  59. A grocer
  60. A scholar's wife -- a woman helping her scholar husband with texts. It is uncommon to find illustrations of women engaged in higher study in ancient India.
  61. An uninterested wife reads books with husband! -the illustration depicts a woman having a difficult time in understanding a book. Her husband may have coerced her into taking up this study.
  62. Savinirmadi of Kolar: an accomplished woman scholar. This astonishing sculpture depicts a tenth century woman scholar from Karnataka.
  63. Romance with the teacher: The king wanted his daughter Champavati to be educated by scholar Bilhana, but thought it was not appropriate to leave the two youngsters be alone. The princess was told to keep her eyes closed, lest she should contact a horrible disease from the teacher. The teacher was then told that his student was blind! The painting illustrates Champavati opening her eyes out of curiosity and instantly falling in love with the teacher.
  64. Love is blind!
  65. Instrumental music
  66. Dance lessons
  67. The raising of the princess - a princess submits homework and the teacher critically examines it.
  68. A girl engaged in self-study: self-study was given great importance in ancient Indian education. However, great accomplishments through self-study are rare to find, possibly due to the importance of the student-teacher relationship in Indian culture
  69. Veena practice
  70. A shilābālikā engaged in writing
  71. A boy practices writing
  72. A woman scribe from the Hoysala period
  73. File indexing
  74. The education of women
  75. Puzzled Wrestlers
  76. Wrestling Training
  77. A Wrestling Contest
  78. Stick Aerobics (kolāta )
  79. Girls engaged in stick aerobics
  80. Ladies stick aerobics
  81. A Brahmin recites from a text
  82. An arguing Brahmin
  83. Adult education
  84. Guru Dakshinā
  85. An elder recites from the scriptures
  86. Listening to the words of wisdom
  87. A Sanskrit scholar
  88. An elder engaged in study
  89. A musician reciter
  90. Woman reading palm-leaf text
  91. Taking the son to a makthāb (school)
  92. Maulvi, the scholar of Koran
  93. When the Maulvi accepts a student
  94. Group study
  95. A student holding a book
  96. When the Maulvi is out!
  97. Punishment of a Pupil
  98. Mohammed Gawan's madrassā
  99. Asri Mahal library after Aurangjeb conquered Bijapur. Asri Mahal hitherto served as a great archive of Arabian and Persian literature, and was looted/destroyed. It is hard to describe the impact this library-destruction had on Indian history