| Monks are further
commissioned to translate. Sanskrit texts to Assamese, and compose original works
either in Sanskrit or Assamese. It is a customary practice with the monks to copy
and illustrate manuscript, and to compile Carit-puthis,
biographies of Vaishnava saints and leaders of Satras to illustrate Vaishnavite
ideal of individual life. Occasionally, discussions
and debates are held in the Satras to which religious
leaders and scholars from other places are invited. These meetings provide
opportunities to the monks for solving many of their difficult problems arising out
of the texts, they have been studying. As Sir Richard Livingstone remarks, there is much
to be said for these methods of debate and discussion in the old system of
education. In discussion a man finds out what he does not know, what he has over
looked, where he is mistaken, and not less important-what he does really know and
believe, where he is right; the soft strata of mere opinion is washed away by the
steady spray of argument, and the hard rock remains. |
