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Eternal India
encyclopedia
EDUCATION
In South India, there were Buddhist centres of learning at Kan-
chipuram (Tamil Nadu) and Nagarjunakonda (Andhra Pradesh)
and Jain centres at Tirupparutta Kunram (near Kanchipuram) and
Pataliputra (South-East Arcot). Later Brahmanical and
Virashaiva
maths
became centres of learning during the Pallava and Chola
periods. Tiruvorriyur in Tamil Nadu, an important centre of
Shaivism, became a centre of higher learning.
The special features of these famous centres were : 1) Payment
of fees, for example, the entire fees of 1000 pieces of money was
to be paid in advance at Taxila 2) Democratic pattern of institu-
tional administration 3) Gradation of staff (like the modern lectur-
ers and professors) 4) Diverse courses from philosophy to politics
and commerce 5) Tutorial system 6) Evaluation system 7) Large
numbers of students and teachers (at one time, Nalanda is reported
to have had more than 8000 students and 1500 teachers.)
During the Buddhist period women's education was not en-
couraged. Buddha himself reluctantly allowed selected women to
become nuns who received education. But nuns were kept segre-
gated from monks (
bhikshus
) and they could teach only girls in
nunneries. Hence we get no names of outstanding women schol-
ars.
The Brahmanical revival in the early middle ages dealt a
severe blow to Buddhist educational institutions like Nalanda and
Taxila. But in the wake of the coming of the Arabs and the Turks
and the establishment of the
madrasa
the Brahmanical institutions
failed to give a positive thrust to the indigenous education pattern.
Scholars retreated into shells where they struggled to keep up the
purity of ancient lore. Old religious texts, literature and language
became the focus of study in the
pathshala,
along with discourses
on ancient philosophy, astronomy and mathematics. A prominent
centre of higher education in medieval times was Banaras where
Vedanta, Sanskrit literature and grammar were taught as well as
philosophy, medicine, astronomy and geography. Other centres
were Mithila in north Bihar and Nadia in Bengal.
With the establishment of Muslim rule in the north, the
madrasas
emerged as the centre of higher learning. The first
madrasas
were established by Muhammad Ghori. The later sul-
tans established several
madrasas
and during the reign of Muham-
med bin Tughlaq there were nearly one thousand
madrasas
in
Delhi alone. Regional
madrasas
were established in the Deccan in
Gulbarga, Bidar, Bijapur, Ahmednagar and Golconda as these
cities became regional political centres. The Mughal rulers showed
a greater interest in higher education. Akbar's reign (1556-1605)
marks a new epoch in the
madrasa
system of education. Akbar
wanted to promote the education of Hindus and Muslims alike.
They were encouraged to study in the same
madrasas.
He also
introduced changes in the modes of study and in the curriculum.
During the first two centuries of Muslim rule the
madrasa
syl-
labus was theology-oriented. In the 15th century during the reign
of the Lodhis when the Hindus, together with the Muslims were
officially encouraged to be trained therein, there was a change of
emphasis in the syllabus. In the early 16th century the
madrasa
syllabus
comprised
grammar,
literature,
logic,
jurisprudence,
commentaries on the Quran and mysticism. Akbar tried to dilute
the theology content of the syllabus. History, civics and politics,
ethics, accounts and arithmetic, logic, philosophy, geometry, as-
tronomy, medicine and physiognomy were added. The medium of
instruction in the
madrasas
was Persian. Persian courses were
popular with both the Hindu and Muslim middle classes as it pro-
vided them a passport to government jobs. Most of the texts
prescribed for higher studies were in Arabic.
A major achievement of medieval intellectuals and scholars
was their success in creating an atmosphere in which people learnt
to live together despite occasional disharmony and conflicts. There
was a positive interaction between the Hindu Bhakti movement
and the Islamic sufi movement, between ancient Indian temple
architecture and the Islamic architecture between the native craft
work skills of India and the intricate craft work of Muslims from
the west. There began a kind of co-existence, if not a synthesis, in
which mutual respect and goodwill thrived in the midst of occa-
sional conflicts between the ruling Muslims and the native reli-
gious scholars. More importantly, the development of trade guilds
and art centres of excellence, unmatched even today is the high-
light of the contribution of Muslim rule in India.
When the East India Company acquired territories in India,
they left the Indian system of education undisturbed and respected
the endowments made by the Indian rulers. Warren Hastings en-
couraged the revival of Indian learning and established the Calcutta
Madrasa
in 1781. Sir William Jones, who arrived in Calcutta in
1784, was a pioneer of Asian studies, an Orientalist, who favoured
education through Persian and Sanskrit. He founded the Asiatic
Society of Bengal in Calcutta. William Jones praised Persian and
eloquently stated the cultural and practical reasons why English-
men should master it: "The Persian language is rich, melodious and
elegant; it has been spoken for many ages by the greatest princes
in the politest courts of Asia and a number of admirable works have
been written in it by historians, philosophers and poets, who found
it capable of expressing with equal advantages the most beautiful
and elevated sentiments." He also praised Sanskrit for its "won-
derful structure, more perfect than the Greek, more copious than
the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either."
William Jones became well versed in Sanskrit and threw fresh
light on the antiquity of the Indian zodiac, the lunar year of the
Hindus, the Hindu chronology etc. He prepared a catalogue of
Indian plants with their names both in Sanskrit and Linnaean
generic nomenclature. He died at the early age of 48 in 1794.
During his short stay of 10 years in India he built the Asiatic
Society into a prestigious institution.
In 1791 Jonathan Duncan, the. Resident at Benaras, opened the
Hindu College with the object of educating the Hindus in their own
language by prescribing courses in theology, medicine, music, me-
chanics, arts, grammar, mathematics, history, philosophy, law and
literature.
In 1792-93 when the House of Commons debated the renewal
of the Charter of the East India Company, Wilberforce advocated
the sending of schoolmasters and missionaries to India. This was
opposed and it was maintained that the Hindus had "as good a
system of faith and morals as most people." It was pointed out that
it would be inadvisable to give them any kind of learning other than
what they possessed.
After a few years, Charles Grant, one of the Directors of the
East India Company, submitted a memorandum in which he
lamented the low moral condition of the people of India. He asked
the Company to improve their condition by imparting to them a
knowledge of the English language which was to serve "as a key
which will open to them a world of new ideas."