Beginning from this issue we will present less known and enlightening nuggets of information about our ancient culture as revealed in our temples, images, symbols, and inscriptions.
The author is a historian focussing on temple architecture, iconography and epigraphy. She is a recipient of two post-doctoral fellowships, and author of nine books and several research papers. She lives in Chennai. drchithra@gmail.com
Education was given great importance in ancient and medieval India. Many centres of learning functioned in the premises of temples or close to these shrines. One such important educational institution of the ancient Tamil country was called the ghatika.
These ghatikas functioned during the reign of the Pallava kings and even later. Though there were many ghatikas across the far-flung Pallava kingdom, the best-known was in the hoary city of Kanchipuram, the capital of the Pallavas. Kanchipuram (75 km from Chennai) is even today one of the most sacred and historical places in India.
Various explanations have been given for the Samskrit word ‘ghatika’. According to Dr. C. Minakshi, a great scholar of Pallava history, the word originates from the root `ghat’ which in Sanskrit means `to strive after’, and ghatika was an institution where students stove after higher knowledge.
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