Education in Ancient India c7.s8.6

c7.s8.6

Numerous centres of Higher Education: The above two Agrahāra villages were but typical of their class. As a rule in every Agrahāra village free instructions were given in different branches of Sanskrit learning by the Brahmana donees in return for the provision made for their livelihood by the state or sociey.² Sometimes non-Agrahāra villages also, like Bāhur, 15 miles south of Pondichery, were important centres of higher education receiving grants of the revenues of several villages because they were famous centres of well-known scholars, hailing from all parts of the country.³ Agrahāra villages and endowed temples and monasteries were fairly numerous in ancient India; there used to be at least two or three of them in an area equal to the modern district. We may therefore well conclude that centres for higher education were more numerous in medieval times (c. 600-1300 A. D.) than they are today in modern India.