Ancient Indian Education: An Inquiry into its Origin, Development, and Ideals c7.76

c7.76

With regard to the education of women⁴ it was just as much restricted amongst Muhammadans as amongst Hindus. The pardah system, which shut up all Muhammadan women, except young girls, in seclusion, made their education a matter of great difficulty even where it may have been desired, which does not seem to have been often the case. We have evidence¹ that sometimes young girls were taught in schools as well as boys, but their leaving school at a very early age must have prevented their education being carried very far. It seems that sometimes in the harem of kings or nobles some attempt was made to give education to the ladies who lived within, and some of them attained to great distinction. Ghiyās-ud-dīn, who was ruler of Mālwā from 1469-1500, is said² to have appointed school-mistresses for the ladies of his harem, and Akbar also made a similar arrangement for his household, and certain rooms were set apart at Fathpur Sīkrī for this purpose. Razīya, who sat on the throne of Delhi after her father Altamsh, was an educated princess and patronized men of learning. The daughter of Bābar, Gul-Badan Begam, wrote the *Humāyūn Nāmah*, or memoirs of her brother Humāyūn. It is said also that she had her own library and used to collect books. The niece of Humāyūn, who became one of Akbar's wives, wrote poems in Persian. The nurse of Akbar, Māham Anaga, mentioned above,³ was an educated lady. Nūr Jahān, the wife of Jahāngīr, who helped her husband to rule his empire, and her niece Mumtāz Mahal, who was the favourite wife of Shāh Jahān, and in memory of whom he erected the Tāj Mahal at Agra, were both educated. So also was Jahānārā Begam, the eldest daughter of Shāh Jahān, and she had been instructed by a learned lady named Satiunnisā. The eldest daughter of Aurangzīb, Zībunnisā Begam, was acquainted with both Persian and Arabic. It is probable that many other royal and noble ladies, whose names have not been recorded, also received some education behind the pardah, but even so they were few compared with the great mass of Muhammadan women who received no education at all, except a domestic training in the performance of the duties of the household.