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

XI] ACHIEVEMENTS AND FAILURES 263 towards the middle of the 17th century, observes,¹ "Students stay for ten or twelve years during which the work of instruction proceeds but slowly. Feeling no spirit of emulation and entertaining no hope that honour or emoluments may be the reward of extraordinary attainments as with us, the scholars pursue the studies slowly, without much to distract their attention." The Report of the Bengal Provincial Committee, Education Commission, 1882, observes, 'The Mahomaden conquest proved disastrous to all indigenous educational institu- tions. The proprietary rights in land changed hands. The language of the court was changed. Indigenous learning lost most of its support ; and after the classes had settled down, the well-to-do classes of the Hindus took gradually to the cultivation of foreign language, literature and manners. The tols were more and more deserted and left to those only, who wanted to learn the Hindu rituals. In course of time the Musalman teachers and schools drew off the largest portion of the upper and the middle classes of the community and the tols and the pathaśālās either died or barely managed to survive.'² A general Estimate : It is therefore hardly fair to compare 'the scanty remains of bye-gone better times' with the tremenodus advance the West has made during the last century and half under very favourable circumstances³. The impartial historian will have to note that in the heyday of her glorv. education in India was broad-based, women and a large section of the masses being admitted to its privileges and

1. Bernier, Travels in Moghul Empire, p. 334.
2. P. 2.
3. The historically correct procedure would be to compare Hindu Sanskrit learning at the advent of the British rule with the scholarship of the Christian monks who kept the lamp of learning burning during the Dark Ages. If such a comparison is instituted, India will have nothing to be afraid of.