Ancient Indian Education: An Inquiry into its Origin, Development, and Ideals c4.168

c4.168

These *parishads* were in some respects like judicial assemblies, and in others like ecclesiastical synods, but as those who composed them were most of them also teachers, they correspond to a certain extent to the associations of teachers in the Middle Ages of Europe which developed into universities. Thus not only were different faculties represented, but even a student was a member of the *parishad*. The settlement of Brāhmans proficient in different branches of the ancient learning in various centres must have meant the gathering together also of a number of students who were receiving instruction from them, and thus these *parishads* would form the nucleus of something corresponding to a university.