Swami Vivekananda's Education Life

The topic of our this article is Swami Vivekananda's education life.

❶ In this first section of this article we'll discuss the schools and colleges Narendranath Datta (pre-monastic name of Swami Vivekananda) attended.
❷ In the second section, you'll find Narendranath's examination marksheets.
❸ And in the third and the last section we'll discuss on Swamiji's examination results.

Swami Vivekananda's school and college

Calcutta Chapter 1871—1877

Swami Vivekananda was born Narendranath Datta on 12 January 1863. In 1871, when he was eight years old, he was enrolled at Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar's Metropolitan Institution. He continued his schooling at Metropolitan Institution till 1877, when his family moved to Raipur, Madhya Pradesh.

Raipur Chapter 1877—1879

In Raipur the Datta family stayed from 1877 to 1879. Most probably Narendranath did not attend any school at Raipur. Rajagopal Chattopadhyaya wrote in his book Swami Vivekananda in India: A Corrective Biography—

There was no school in a remote place like Raipur. So he spent time with his father. It was not only academic. They used to talk and argue a lot during their one-and-half year's stay. Some educated and learned people used to visit their home. Among them Mahendranath remembered Roy Bahadur Bhutnath De, father of future linguist Harinath De, who lived in the same building with them. . .

Calcutta Chapter 1879 High School Graduation

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

In 1879, the Datta family moved back to Calcutta. Again, we'll follow Rajagopal Chattopadhyaya's Corrective Biography (most of the biographies have unclear infromation, for example, Swami Nikhilananda wrote in his Swami Vivekananda – A Biography—

In 1879 the family returned to Calcutta, and Narendra within a short time graduated from high school in the first division. In the meantime he had read a great many standard books of English and Bengali literature.

It is not clear which school he joined after returning to Calcutta. Anyway, Rajagopal Chattopadhyaya has given us details. He wrote, after returning to Calcutta at 1879, Narendranath applied for readmission at his old school Metropolitan Institution. The school authority was initially reluctant, but later accepted him. Narendranath passed school leaving examination in the First Division from Metropolitan Institution in 1879.
We find support for this information in William Radice's book Swami Vivekananda and the Modernisation of Hinduism too.

1879 Presidency College

In 1879, after passing school examination, Narendranath entered the Presidency College, Calcutta. Again Nikhilananda's information is unclear here. He wrote—

. . . in 1879 Narendranath entered the Presidency College of Calcutta for higher studies. After a year he joined the General Assembly's Institution, founded by the Scottish General Missionary Board and later known as the Scottish Church College.

There is not much information why Narendranath left Presidency College. We get some information in Life And Philosophy Of Swami Vivekananda, written by Gopal Shrinivas Banhatti. Banhatti wrote—

. . . Presidency College, Calcutta, which Vivekananda attended so irregularly that he was not sent for the B.A. degree though he had passed the examination

1880—1884 Scottish Church College

Very soon, Narendranath left Presidency College and joined General Assembly's Institution (now known as Scottish Church College) and studied Philosophy. In 1881, he passed F. A. examinations.^[1] In 1885, he earned his B. A. degree^[2] from the same college.

Swami Vivekananda's examination results/marksheet

Now, we'll start our second section — Swami Vivekananda's examination results/marksheet. The immediate source of these information is Manishankar Mukhopadhyay's The Monk as Man: The Unknown Life of Swami Vivekananda.

⓵

Entrance Examination 1879

Subject	Full Marks	Marks obtained
English	100	47
Sanskrit	100	76
History	100	45
Mathematics	100	38
Total	400	206

⓶

Fine Arts Examination 1881

Subject	Full Marks	Marks obtained
English	100	46
Sanskrit	100	36
History	100	56
Mathematics	100	40
Logic	50	17
Psychology	50	34
Total	500	229

⓷

Bachelor of Arts Examination 1884

Subject	Full Marks	Marks obtained
English	100	56
Sanskrit	100	43
History	100	56
Mathematics	100	61
Psychology	100	45
Total	500	261

Please DO NOT judge Swamiji's examination marks following the present education system

This is the last section of this article. In many internet forums, discussions I have seen people commenting like—

• "Oh, Swamiji obtained only 56 out of 100 in his F.A. and B. A. examinations."
• "45% in psychology — very poor marks".

Manishankar Mukhopadhyay, in his book, tried to encourage the students who are disappointed with their grades that Swamji too had low grades.

Now please note,
You read above that Swamiji obtained 206 out of 400 in the Entrance examination, that is slightly more than 50%.

But did you know that. . .
He was the only student of his school that year to obtain first division marks? Source: Gopal Shrinivas Banhatti's Life And Philosophy Of Swami Vivekananda. Banhatti wrote—

Naren passed the Entrance Examination in the first division, being the only student of his school to be so distinguished.

Portal:Education

Someone obtained slightly more than 50% marks, and became "the only student of his school to be so distinguished". Is not it surprising?

Education system has changed, evaluation procedure has changed, I feel, we should not judge Swamiji's examination marks following our current education system.

But, of course, there will be some writers, who'll start Swamiji's Reassessment, and will try defaming Swamiji saying he received only 50% in the Entrance examination, without being aware that that was the best marks in his school that year.

See also

You may read this article too—
Swami Vivekananda on "Karmanyevadhikaraste Ma Phaleshu Kadachana"

Footnotes

1. F. A. means Fine Arts. It is similar to current Higher Secondary or 10+2 examination.
2. B. A. means Bachelor of Arts. It is similar to current graduation or 10+2+3 examination.

References

We have studied the following books to collect information for this article—

• Banhatti, Gopal Shrinivas (1 January 1995). Life And Philosophy Of Swami Vivekananda. Atlantic Publishers & Dist. pp. 192–. ISBN 978-81-7156-291-6.
• Chattopadhyaya, Rajagopal (1 January 1999). Swami Vivekananda in India: A Corrective Biography. Motilal Banarsidass Publ. pp. 23–. ISBN 978-81-208-1586-5
• Nikhilananda, Swami (1953). Vivekânanda: A Biography. Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center. ISBN 978-0-911206-25-8
• Radice, William (1999). Swami Vivekananda and the Modernisation of Hinduism. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-565093-8
• Samkara (1 January 2011). The Monk as Man: The Unknown Life of Swami Vivekananda. Penguin Books India. ISBN 978-0-14-310119-2. 

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