प्राचीन भारत में शिक्षा (डॉ. ए.एस. अल्तेकर - गुरुकुल एवं बौद्ध विहार शिक्षण इतिहास)

96 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch. mosque, a temple or a Dharmashālā that had not a school attached to it, to which the youths flocked chiefly for religious education. There were few wealthy men who did not entertain a Maulavi, a Pandit or a Guru to teach their sons, and along with them, the sons of their friends and dependents. There were hundreds of religious men who gratuitously taught their coreligionists, and sometimes all comers, for the sake of God. There was not a single villager who did not take pride in devoting a portion of his produce to a respected teacher." For obvious reasons the reverence for education in other parts of India in the ancient period could not have been less sincere and deep than it was in the Punjab at the advent of the British rule. Government’s Contribution, Direct Form : Let us now see how the governments used to help the cause of education in ancient India. Governments usually reflect the views of society and cannot much lag behind it in helping the causes cherished by it. This happened in ancient India also. There is no Smṛiti which does not recognise patronage of education as one of the most important duties of kings ;¹ and as a general rule, rulers in ancient times used to vie with one another in dis- charging it. This they did both directly and indirectly. Sometimes they used to found or endow colleges, as was, for instance, done by the Guptas at Nālandā. On auspi- cious occasions like coronation they used to invite learned 1 See Manu, VII, 82 ; Yāj. I, 130 ; Sukra, I, 369 ; Arathasāstra, II, 1 and 20. Bhishma pointedly draws the attention of Dharma to this duty ; see Mbh. XIII, chaps. 59 and 60. Though extending patronage, kings were not to assume a patroni- sing attitude to learned men. King Raghu treats Kautsa very courteously ; Dushyanta leaves behind his army when approaching the hermitage of Kaṇva.