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

250 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch. not exploit their position for promoting any selfish ends of their own, but they had the natural limitations of their class. When the even balance that was for a long time successfully held in Hindu society between the claims of religious and secular life (Dharma-Moksha versus Artha-Kāma) was disturbed, religious and semi- religious studies got undue predominance in the educational system. Secular sciences like history, economics, politics, mathematics and astronomy did not receive as much attention as theology, philosophy, ritualism and sacred law. Commerce and industry and fine and useful arts made no appreciable progress during the last 1500 years or so, because those in charge of education showed no keen interest in them. It may however be pointed out that down to the 18th century, educationalists in Europe also regarded religious studies as the most important constituents of the educa- tional course ; many of them like Franke and Comenius held that all children should be instructed above all things in the vital knowledge of God and Christ.¹ Reason not held at a Discount in early Times :— A greater defect produced by the hold of religion over the Hindu mind was the tendency to hold reason at a discount, which became prominent a few centuries after the Christian era. Such was not the case in earlier times, when society used to value intellectual freedom highly. Upanishadic thinkers have, for example, advocated bold and original theories of philosophy without showing any anxiety whatever to prove that their views were in consonance with those of the Vedic sages. In the days of the Buddha there were as many as sixty three systems of philosophy, very few of which cared to rely on Vedic authority for their premises or conclusions. Systems of philosophy like 1 Greaves, Educators, pp 72—3,