Education in Ancient India c7.s1.23

c7.s1.23

Later History and Destruction : We know very little about the educational activities of Taxila subsequent to the beginning of the Christian era. But it is very probable that it continued to flourish down to the end of the Kushāṇa rule (*c.* 250 A. D.) The Little Yueh-chis, who succeeded the Kushāṇas in the government of Taxila, were barbarous chiefs, as their coins indicate, and the cause of education must have suffered under their unenlightened administration. At the beginning of the 5th century A. D. when Fa Hsien visited the place, there was nothing there of any educational importance.¹ Worse days, however, were in store for this Queen of Learning. The Hūṇa avalanche came at the middle of the 5th century A. D. and ruined whatever was left after the Little Yueh-chi depradations. At the time when Yuan Chwang visited the city in the 7th century A. D., it had lost all its glory and importance. The famous monastery of Kumāralabdha, where that celebrated Sautrāntika scholar had composed his expository works, was in ruins and the condition of the vast majority of the remaining Buddhist establishments was no better.¹ When it is remembered that the inhabitants of Taxila at this time were plucky and devoted adherents of Buddhism, the sad plight of their monasteries will at once convince us that the city was completely wrecked by the Hūṇa invasions. Gone were the days of its former educational glory, never to return.