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

V] EDUCATIONAL CENTRES AND INSTITUTIONS 139.
AGRAHĀRA VILLAGES AS CENTRES OF
LEARNING.
What is an Agrahara Village? : On auspicious
occasions, kings used to invite learned Brahmanas,
settle them in villages and assign their revenues to
them for their maintenance. Such villages were called
Agrahāra villages, and they naturally became centres
of learning where higher education was imparted free
in different branches of Sanskrit studies. We shall give
here information about two such Agrahāra villages,
which were typical of their class.
Kadiyur Agrahara : The village of Kādiyur, modern
Kalas, in Dharwar district in Karnatak, was made an
Agrahāra village in the 10th century by the Rāshtrakūṭa
administration, and assigned to 200 Brahmanas, who
were well versed in Vedas, grammar, Purāṇas, logic
works on polity, the science of literary composition
and the art of writing commentaries.¹ The village
was famous as an efficient centre of education and
its Brahmana residents naturally were proud of its
reputation. It may be pointed out that the
educational activity of this Brahmana centre was not
confined to the Vedic studies only; poetics, grammar,
logic, Purāṇas and the political science were included
in the curriculum. An endowment had been also
received for the salaries of some teachers. A free
feeding house was maintained in the village; it was
most probably intended for the poor students studying
in the local institution.
Sarvajnapura Agrahara : Sarvajñapura (modern
Arsikere in Hassan District, Mysore) was another
Agrahāra village, which, as its name would indicate,

1. E. I., XIII. p. 317.