Ancient Indian Education: An Inquiry into its Origin, Development, and Ideals c7.5

c7.5

Mahmūd’s successors were unable to hold what their father had won, and a new power arose at Ghor, west of Ghaznī, which overthrew the Ghaznawids. It was Muhammad Ghorī (1174-1206) who really laid the foundations of the Muhammadan domination of India. In 1192 he established his power at Delhi. Muhammad Ghorī is reported to have destroyed some temples at Ajmere, and to have built in their places mosques and colleges.¹ He had a great fancy for adopting some of his promising young slaves and giving them a good education. This education combined training in the work of governing with literary instruction. Amongst the slaves whom he thus educated was Kutb-ud-dīn, who succeeded his master in 1210 at Delhi, and was the first of what is called the Slave Dynasty. Kutb-ud-dīn was a man of literary tastes, and although, like many other Muhammadan rulers, he destroyed Hindu temples, he built many mosques which were centres not only of religious worship but also of education. An officer of his, named Bakhtiyār, destroyed at Vikramaśilā in Bihār a Buddhist monastic institution which was a place of learning, but he also is said to have been an establisher of mosques and colleges.² There is mention³ of a *madrasah*, or college, built by Altamsh (1210-1236), the successor of Kutb-ud-dīn; and his daughter Razīya, who ruled after her father's death, was a woman of some education, and was a patron of learning. A college existed at Delhi during her reign.¹ Nasīr-ud-dīn (1246-1266) and Balban (1266-1287) both encouraged learning.² The former is said to have been a student, and in Balban's reign many literary societies are said to have flourished at Delhi under the patronage of his son, Prince Muhammad.³ There is mention of a college at Jalandhar in the reign of Nasīr-ud-dīn. Balban's successor was a profligate youth who gave no encouragement to men of letters.