प्राचीन भारत में शिक्षा (डॉ. ए.एस. अल्तेकर - गुरुकुल एवं बौद्ध विहार शिक्षण इतिहास)

106 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch.
Among the 'sippas' taught at Taxila may have
been included a training in Greek processes of coinage
and sculpture. There was as yet no prejudice
against foreign culture. It is quite possible that Greek
dramas may have been performed in the courts of
some of the numerous Greek princes and princelings.
Some Indians also may have read and appreciated
Sophocles and Eurepedes. The working knowlege of
Greek language may have been possessed by several
classes of society, as it was the language of the
conqueror.1 Greek orientation in Taxila studies could
not however have been considerable. Indo-Greek rulers
themselves were cut off from their mother country, and
many of the conquerors soon succumbed to the culture
and religion of the conquered. It is, however, a
great pity that the historian of ancient Indian
education should still be unable to supply authentic
information about the precise extent of Greek influence
on the system of education at Taxila.
No organised Institutions:—It may be observed
at the outset that Taxila did not possess any college
or university in the modern sense of the term. It was
simply a centre of education. It had many famous
teachers to whom hundreds of students flocked for
higher education from all parts of northern India.
But these teachers were not members of any insti-

1. From the romantic history of Apollonius of Tyana by
   Philostratus we learn that in the 1st century A.D. Indians and
   Greeks at Taxila knew each other's philosophy and that the villagers
   around the Gandhāra capital could understand and speak Greek.
   There may be some exaggeration in this picture, but recent excavations
   at Taxila have confirmed some of the topographical details given by
   Philostratus (Guide to Taxila by Sir John Marshal, pp. 15 & 97).
   We may, therefore, conclude that his information about Indians'
   acquaintance with Greek language and literature may be at least
   partly true. Greek studies, therefore, must have figured in Taxila
   curriculum during the Greek rule.