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

138 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch.
in different temple colleges in Tamil country. The
last of these records is an interesting one, for it records
a donation for a Sarasvatī-bhavana or library of a temple
college in Tinevelli district. These instances of temple
authorities organising Sanskrit schools and colleges are
typical of the age. Many more must have existed,
whose memory has not been handed down to the present
times. For, down to the 18th century almost every
religious centre in south India used to maintain a
Sanskrit school or college. The whole country was
in fact studded with them¹.
Temple colleges in northern India : Instances of
temple colleges given above all hail from South India.
It is not however correct to suppose that no such
institutions existed in north India, because they are
not referred to in any north Indian inscriptions. A
very large number of north Indian temples have been
destroyed, along with their documents of antiquity,
during the Muslim invasions and rule. If all the
documents conveying extensive properties to most of
the rich temples in north India are recovered, it would
be almost certainly found that a considerable portion
of the temple property was originally intended for
educational purposes. Temple authorities used to
discharge their duty to impart education ; one of
the reasons that impelled Aurangzeb to destroy Hindu
temples was the report that Brahmanas of Sindh,
Multan and Benares were using their temples as
schools. It is thus clear that in North India also,
the important temples were centres of education
throughout the middle ages.

1. Report of the Madras Committee, Education Commission, 1882
   p. 1, foot-note.