Ancient Indian Education: An Inquiry into its Origin, Development, and Ideals c7.22

c7.22

While the paramount sovereigns at Delhi were thus developing education amongst their Muhammadan subjects, many of the monarchs of the lesser Muhammadan states, which had become independent of Delhi during the period of disorder which had followed the death of Fīrūz Shah, were also showing great activity in this direction. In the Bahmanī kingdom of the Deccan there is the record of the founding of several colleges and schools.¹ The college which Mahmūd Gāwān, minister of Muhammad Shāh (1463-1482), built at Bidar, is said to have possessed a library of three thousand volumes. Some of the Bahmanī sovereigns made provision for the education of orphans, appointing funds for their support, and for the learned men engaged to teach them. It has been said that this kingdom possessed a high standard of education according to the current Muhammadan ideas, and that there were many village schools. Education was also encouraged and colleges built in the states of Bījāpur, Golkonda, Mālwā, Khāndesh, Jaunpur, Mūltān, and Bengal.² The Chahār Minār, which still exists in Haidarābād (Golkonda), once contained a college. In the state of Jaunpur, the capital city of the same name was one of the most famous seats of Muhammadan learning in India in the Middle Ages. It came into prominence during the reign of Ibrāhīm Sharki (1402-1440), and although Sikandar Lodī destroyed its colleges when he conquered Jaunpur, it regained its position as an educational centre. Scholars from far and near came to study here, and amongst the students was one at least, Sher Shāh,³ who afterwards became the paramount Muhammadan sovereign of India. Having quarrelled with his father, who was ruling in Bengal, he went to Jaunpur, and when his father wrote demanding his return, he replied that Jaunpur was a better place of education than Sasarām. The subjects which he studied were history, poetry, and philosophy, and he learnt by heart the Persian poems of Sa'dī. He also learnt Arabic. In the time of Ibrāhīm Sharki it is said that Jaunpur contained hundreds of colleges and mosques, and up to the time of the Emperor Shāh Jahān (1627-1658) it was still in a flourishing condition. Afterwards it declined in influence, though it still continued as a place of learning well into the eighteenth century.