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

220 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [CH. employ special teachers for their girls. Ordinary families, however, were not so well situated, and it is therefore doubtful whether the average woman was receiving any education after about the 6th or the 7th century A. D. Asahāya, a commentator on the Nārada-smṛiti, ' who flourished in the 8th century A. D., justifies the theory of the dependence of women on the ground that their intelligence is not developed like that of men on account of the absence of proper education.¹ It is hazardous to make any statement about the percentage of literate women in society at the end of the 12th century A. D., but it could not have been higher than 5 percent. Literacy among men at this time was probably about 30 percent as has been shown in Chapter, VIII. Buddhism and Female Education in later Times :— We saw how in the earlier period the Buddhist movement gave an indirect impetus to female education and produced a number of nun-poetesses. During this period however we do not come across any nun scholars at all. Nunneries had gone out of vogue by the 4th century A. D. ; Chinese pilgrims of the 5th and 7th century A. D. do not refer to them at all. It is interesting to note that in modern Ceylon and Burma also nunneries do not impart instructions to girls as monasteries do to boys. We have there- fore to conclude that female education, which was languishing during this period, could not get any impetus from Buddhism also. Education of Princesses and Girls in Aristocratic **Families :—**Ancient Indian history knows of several

1. शास्त्रोध्ययनानधिकारित्वात् शास्त्रमात्रोपजीविधर्माधर्मज्ञानाभावात अस्वातंत्र्यम् । On xiii, 86.