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

138 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch. in different temple colleges in Tamil country. The last of these records is an interesting one, for it records a donation for a Sarasvatī-bhavana or library of a temple college in Tinevelli district. These instances of temple authorities organising Sanskrit schools and colleges are typical of the age. Many more must have existed, whose memory has not been handed down to the present times. For, down to the 18th century almost every religious centre in south India used to maintain a Sanskrit school or college. The whole country was in fact studded with them¹. Temple colleges in northern India : Instances of temple colleges given above all hail from South India. It is not however correct to suppose that no such institutions existed in north India, because they are not referred to in any north Indian inscriptions. A very large number of north Indian temples have been destroyed, along with their documents of antiquity, during the Muslim invasions and rule. If all the documents conveying extensive properties to most of the rich temples in north India are recovered, it would be almost certainly found that a considerable portion of the temple property was originally intended for educational purposes. Temple authorities used to discharge their duty to impart education ; one of the reasons that impelled Aurangzeb to destroy Hindu temples was the report that Brahmanas of Sindh, Multan and Benares were using their temples as schools. It is thus clear that in North India also, the important temples were centres of education throughout the middle ages.

1. Report of the Madras Committee, Education Commission, 1882 p. 1, foot-note.