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

210 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch. near relations should teach girl students, they are probably referring to a state of affairs current by about the beginning of the Christian era; for there is evidence to show that such was not the case in the earlier period. When a large number of women were receiving higher education and were making their own contributions to the march of knowledge, it is but natural to suppose that some of them must have followed the profession of teaching. And the presence of the terms Upādhyāyā and Upādhyāyānī in Sanskrit language supports this conjecture. The latter of these words is a courtesy title given to the wife of a teacher, who may or may not be educated. The former, however, denotes a lady, who was herself a teacher. That a special term should have been coined to denote lady teachers in order to distinguish them from wives of teachers would show that their number in society could not have been small. We must note in this connection that there was no Purdah custom in Hindu society down to the 12th century, and so there was no difficulty for women in taking to the teaching profession. Lady teachers may probably have confined themselves to the teaching of girl students, though some may have taught boys also. Pāṇini refers to boarding houses for lady-students, chhātrīśālās², and these probably were under the superintendence of Upādhyāyās or lady teachers, who had made teaching their profession. Unfortunately we have no clear and sufficient evidence about the activities of lady teachers and the management of girls' boardings. 1 उपेत्याधीयते अस्याः सा उपाध्याया । Patañjali on III. 322. 2 छात्र्यादयः शालायाम् । VI. 2. 86.