Education in Ancient India c11.s2.32

c11.s2.32

Female Education in ordinary Families :— Achievements of lady scholars in cultured families were thus fairly high. Cultured families are, however, relatively few in society. They could afford to employ special teachers for their girls. Ordinary families, however, were not so well situated, and it is therefore doubtful whether the average woman was receiving any education after about the 6th or the 7th century A. D. Asahāya, a commentator on the *Nārada-smṛiti*, who flourished in the 8th century A. D., justifies the theory of the dependence of women on the ground that their intelligence is not developed like that of men on account of the absence of proper education.¹ It is hazardous to make any statement about the percentage of literate women in society at the end of the 12th century A. D., but it could not have been higher than 5 percent. Literacy among men at this time was probably about 30 percent as has been shown in Chapter, VIII.