Ancient Indian Education: An Inquiry into its Origin, Development, and Ideals c8.56

c8.56

The effect of the Muhammadan domination upon these Hindu vernacular schools must have been considerable. The growth of a large Muhammadan population, who resorted to the Muhammadan maktabs for obtaining an elementary education, must have lessened their numbers, and the use of Persian as the official language by the Muhammadan rulers made even Hindus resort to Muhammadan teachers in order to obtain a knowledge of this language, and with it the possibility of obtaining Government employment. These Persian elementary schools must then have become numerous during the Muhammadan period, and the reference in the Āīn-i-Akbarī quoted above¹ shows that they were widespread at the time of Akbar. This extract does not refer to Hindu vernacular schools, although it mentions the Hindu Sanskrit education. But such schools, no doubt, continued, and would be used by the Hindu trading and agricultural classes. The school which Pietra della Valle saw² in South India in 1623, being held in a temple porch, was evidently a Hindu vernacular school. Adam in his report mentions³ that one of the textbooks used in the Hindu vernacular schools was Subhankar’s rhyming arithmetic rules, which he says was evidently composed during the existence of the Muhammadan power, as it was full of Persian terms and reference to Muhammadan usages. This shows how even the Hindu vernacular schools had to accommodate themselves to some extent to the altered circumstances which were brought about by the Muhammadan rule.