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

72 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch. school. How private teachers organised and imparted education and how they were supported has already been described in Chap. III. It may be observed in passing that in ancient Athens also education was for a long time imparted by private teachers and not in public institutions. The first real founder of public schools in Europe is believed to be Charlmaigne the Great (800 A. D.); his death however completely frustrated his schemes.¹ Rise of Organised Institutions : Corporate edu- cational institutions were first evolved in ancient India in connection with Buddhist monasteries. The Buddha had emphasised the vital importance of imparting systematic instructions to novices, who were required to be educated for ten years, not only in spiritual practices, but also in the study of the sacred literature, which required a good grounding in Pali and Sanskrit, logic and metaphysics. When Buddhist monasteries developed into big establish- ments from the time of Aśoka onwards, they naturally developed into centres of education. They were the counter parts of Hindu Gurukulas, where the Guru was the head, not of a family but of a monastery. At first they were intended for monks and nuns only, but later on for the lay population as well; for it was soon discovered that the best way of getting a good supply of novices of the right type and of propagating the religion among the masses was to mould the pliant minds of the young generation by taking up its education. Hindu educational institutions, so far known, are all later than the time of the Nālandā University (c. 400 A.D.). It is probable that the starting of organised public institutions for education may have been suggested to Hindus by the

¹ Staunton: The Great Schools of England, p. xv.