Ancient Indian Education: An Inquiry into its Origin, Development, and Ideals c7.26

c7.26

Besides the efforts of ruling sovereigns there is evidence that the patronage and encouragement of learning, and the foundation of colleges and schools, were also undertaken by many of the nobility and gentry. By the time, then, that the Mughal emperors began to reign in India there must have already existed a great many Muhammadan colleges and schools in various parts of India. We cannot, of course, always rely on the statements of the historians, many of whom were court favourites, and anxious to show in the best light the activities of their patrons. It seems that colleges which were called into being by royal patrons, and existed by the subsidies they allowed, easily came to nought if patronage was not continued by their successors, or in times of distress, like Taimūr’s invasion. And a college does not necessarily mean a large institution. It may mean no more than a class attached to a mosque with a single teacher in charge. Moreover, it was chiefly in the capitals and other important centres that monarchs are said to have established colleges. But, even making all allowance for exaggeration, it seems quite evident that Muhammadan higher education, before the invasion of Bābar, must have been established in many important centres, and probably a large number of mosques had attached to them a *maktab*, in which pupils learnt some passages of the Korān by heart, and sometimes also the three R’s. Many learned men also taught pupils in their own houses. It is all the more surprising, therefore, that the Emperor Bābar, in his interesting memoirs, says that Hindustān had no colleges. He writes ¹: ‘The people of Hindustān have no good horses, no good flesh, no grapes or musk-melons, no good fruits, no ice or cold water, no good food or bread in their bazars, no baths or colleges, no candles, no torches, not a candlestick.’ It has, indeed, been pointed out that he was speaking of Upper India,² the only part known to him at the time, and, of course, of Muhammadan colleges, and that thus limited his statement is probably correct; but it seems evident that the fame of colleges in India could not have spread beyond its borders, and it may be, therefore, that they were not so numerous nor so flourishing as the court historians would lead us to suppose.