Ancient Indian Education: An Inquiry into its Origin, Development, and Ideals c8.24

c8.24

This widespread vernacular elementary education existed side by side with the Sanskrit schools, and there was no mutual dependence or connection between them. The former existed for the trading and commercial classes, and the latter for the religious and the learned. In the case of Muhammadan education, however, we find that there was a close connection between the Arabic schools of higher learning, or *madrasahs*, and the Persian schools or *maktabs*. The latter corresponded to the Hindu vernacular schools. Urdu was the current language amongst the Muhammadans, but this vernacular was not used as the medium of instruction. Urdu is written with Persian characters, and contains a large number of Persian words, but was considered as a patois unfit to be used as a language in the schools. Its place was taken by Persian, which had been made the court language by the Muhammadan Emperors, and continued to be used as such till 1835. A knowledge of Persian was therefore necessary to obtain an appointment in the Government service, and the Persian schools were attended by Hindus as well as Muhammadans, especially by Hindus of the Brāhman and Kayasth castes. Most of the teachers were Muhammadans, and Adam considered that as a class they were superior to the Bengali and Hindi teachers.¹ They were, however, more dependent for their support on single families or individual patrons. A few of them were also Arabic teachers, and possessed high qualifications. Their emoluments, as a rule, amounted to Rs.5 to Rs.7 a month. The subjects studied included elementary grammatical works and forms of correspondence, and popular poems and tales were read. Occasionally a work on rhetoric or a treatise on medicine or theology was studied. The *Gulistān* of Sa’dī was a very favourite textbook. Sections of the Korān were learned by heart, and the schools had a more religious connection than the Hindu vernacular schools, but Adam did not consider them morally superior to the Hindu schools.¹ The Hindu schools were vernacular and commercial; but the Muhammadan schools were also to some extent literary and philological, and employed a learned language. Printed works were not used, but manuscripts were in constant use. In contra-distinction to the Hindu vernacular schools, reading was taught before writing. Elegant penmanship was much cultivated. Adam also found some schools in which elementary Arabic was taught, but these existed merely to give the boys that knowledge of certain portions of the Korān which is necessary for Muhammadans. They taught mere names and forms and sounds, and it was considered sufficient for the boys to be able to repeat the required portions without understanding them.² Some of the teachers did not pretend to be able even to sign their names. There were also a few schools in which both Persian and Bengali were taught.