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

XI] ACHIEVEMENTS AND FAILURES 261 special permission of the Provincial.¹ India however could have been much in advance of the world ideas in this matter if the impetus that was given to the cultiva- tion of vernaculars by the two gifted Seers, Mahāvīra and the Buddha, had not died down owing to the revival of Sanskrit. Depth at the cost of Breadth : Hindu education was thorough, but it was not sufficiently broad. Each branch was thinking of its own problems. Education- alists do not seem to have bestowed much thought on the relative utility of the study of the different branches like grammar, literature, logic, philosophy, mathematics and fine arts for the development of the intellect, the mind and the imagination. Specialisation was started too early. A broad-based secondary course embracing a study of grammar, literature, mathematics, astronomy and history did not exist.² Subjects of æsthetic value like music and painting did not form part of the general course, as they did in ancient Greece. An undue emphasis was laid on grammar, literature and logic at the cost of history, mathematics and astronomy. Here again the impartial historian has to point out that this defect of the Hindu educational system was not peculiar to India, but was to be seen all over the civilised world. In Europe all the energies of teachers and students were concentrated on grammar, rhetoric and dialectics down to the 13th century ; only that much knowledge of arithmetic was given which was necessary to calculate Church festivals. Geography was ignored altogether till an incentive to its study was given by the discoveries of Columbus and Vasco de Gama. Natural sciences 1 Quick : The Essays, p. 81. 2. Many sided interests were not created probably because it was difficult to maintain them in after life in an age when cheap books were unknown. Crowded curriculum also has its own evils as . the Matriculation student knows to his cost.