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

112 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch. Benares as a Centre of Hindu Learning : We do not possess much detailed information about Benares as a centre of Hindu learning during the first millennium of the Christian era. Only one Purāṇa casually observes that Benares will be a famons centre of scholarship;¹ the rest are content merely with describing its sanctity as a holy place. Nor have we so far found any inscriptions recording grants given to any educational institute at Benares. In spite of the example of neighbouring Nālandā, Hindu Benares does not seem to have organised any public educational institution. Its learned Brahmanas continued to promote individually the cause of educa- tion in the traditional manner. Their fame, however, was gradually reaching all the corners of India. Scholars and philosophers like Śaṅkarāchārya found it necessary to repair to the city to get their new theories recognised and published. In the 11th century A.D. Benares and Kashmir were the most famous centres of learning in India.² We may well presume that most of the learned donees of the Gahadwal grants were conducting efficient Sanskrit schools and colleges in the 12th century A.D. Benares Under Muslim Rule : When Benares passed under the Muslim rule in c. 1200 A. D., hundreds of its temples were razed to the ground by Kutb-ud-din Aibak. The iconoclastic and prosely- ting zeal of the new rulers drove away a number of learned Brāhmaṇa families to south India. We hear very little of any literary or educational activity of Benares during the period 1200 to 1500 A. D.

1. Bhavishya Pu., Brahmakhaṇḍa, Chap. 51. 2-3.
2. The exodus of learned families from the Punjab was responsible for an increase in the scholarly population of both Kashmir and Kāśī towards the beginning of the 11th century.