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

262 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch. were introduced very reluctantly only by the middle of the last century.¹ An unfair Comparison : Some of the defects noted above like the neglect of the education of women and the masses crept into the Hindu Educational System only in later times; others like the non-existence of a broad-based secondary course and the neglect of the vernaculars were common to all the contemporary systems. The twentieth century critic often forgets that the West has gone on progressing rapidly during the last 300 years owing to the impetus it has received from the Renaissance, the Reformation and the Scientific Movement, while India has gone on deteriorating ever since 1000 A.D. owing to the almost continuous foreign rule and its natural consequences. The Muslim conquerors no doubt became domiciled in India, but they were on the whole unable to appreciate and encourage Hindu culture and education to any appreciable extent. The effects of the Muslim rule on the learning and scholarship of the Hindus can be described in the words of a Muslim himself. While describing the state of Hindu learning after the invasions of Mahmud of Ghazni, Alberuni observes, ‘The present times are not of this kind ; they are the very opposite, (because there is no royal support or encouragement to learning), and therefore it is quite impossible that a new science or any new kind of research should arise in our days. What we have of sciences is but the scanty remains of byegone better times'² Bernier, while describing the state of Hindu education in Benares

1. In Germany, science was introduced in secondary education in 1816 A.D. When the Royal Commission on Education apologeti- cally pleaded for the inclusion of science in the secondary courses in 1856, 10 or 12 lectures began to be given annually in some of the Public Schools in England. The Faculty of Science was established in the London University only in 1860.
2. Sachau, I, p. 252.