ABSTRACT
For over two thousand years, India’s traditions have been transmitted from one generation to the next by means of a very formal institution, the guru-śiṣya paramparā ‘master-disciple succession’. In Vedic times (c. 1500–500 b.c.), the guru was conceived of essentially as a spiritual teacher whose role was to guide his students toward an understanding of the true nature of existence by imparting to them the knowledge of the Vedic tradition. Students lived with the guru in the institution of the gurukul ‘household of the guru’, complete with attached living spaces for his students. This became so common a practice that even in the West notions of the guru-śiṣya relationship are embedded in the everyday vocabulary of the English language, based on the ancient conception of what a guru was. The layperson understands guru as a spiritual guide, a religious mystic, and regards his devoted followers more as disciples than as students. Gurus who fit the ancient description of the concept continue to thrive in Hindu society, but the meaning of guru has been generalized. In India today, a guru is a special kind of teacher, but is not necessarily a religious teacher. Traditions of literature, painting, music, dance, medicine, astronomy, astrology, philosophy, and more have all been codified into bodies of knowledge that get passed on by gurus to their students.
