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

III] THE TEACHER AND THE STUDENT 57 Income of the Teacher in Later Period: We how- ever get more definite data about the teacher's income from the time educational institutions were evolved. Teachers at Buddhist Universities of Nălandā and Vikramaśīlā were monks and so required no salaries; the administra- tion had to spend for each monk-teacher just the amount necessary for the maintenance of only four students.¹ In south Indian colleges the annual salary of teachers varied according to their qualifications and subjects from 160 to 200 maunds of rice.² This income was about two and half times the income of the village accountant or the carpenter, and was equal to about four times the amount necessary for meeting the normal food expenses of a family of five persons. We would not be wrong in supposing that as a general rule in ancient India the Sanskrit teacher imparting higher education received a similar income. He was thus neither suffering from abject poverty nor rolling in superfluous wealth. Society enabled him to lead a life of moderate comforts accord- ing to the ideal of plain living and high thinking. We can now understand why learned teachers were exempted from taxation. The income of the primary teacher was naturally less than that of the Sanskrit teacher. In Bengal at the advent of the British rule, the income of the primary teacher was just equal to that of the 1 Bose, Indian Teachers of Buddhist Universities, p. 35. 2 S. I. E. R., 1917, No. 333. The total cost of one good meal for one year was about 8 maunds of rice. The salaries above men- tioned were given in the college at Ennayiram; in other insti- tutions they were sometimes different. Sometimes inscriptions disclose that the Veda teachers used to get only 30 maunds of rice per annum; in such cases they were probably part-time teachers and were expected to supplement their income from the proceeds of the priestly profession.