Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c6.s2.75

c6.s2.75

Next to Takkasilā, Benares was the most important as a centre of learning. It was however largely the creation of the ex-students of Takkasilā who set up as teachers at Benares, presumably at other places as well,³ and carried thither the culture of that cosmopolitan educational centre which was moulding the intellectual life of the whole of India. In course of time Benares also produced its own alumni as educationists—teachers of world-wide fame with the usual number of 500 pupils to teach.⁴ It is also probable that Benares had, like Takkasilā, specialized in the teaching of certain subjects, specially music,⁵ as it has till the present day. With all this, however, Benares was still a growing university in those days, and did not attain much celebrity which it afterwards did since the decline of Takkasilā. The movement of students towards Benares is, in the *Jātakas*, very slow and scarce in comparison with the other city. Even the students of Benares had to seek resort in Takkasilā.