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

180 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch.
cultural tradition and who had discontinued Upanayana
at this time, were literate. Literacy among the males
of the three higher castes must have been hardly more
than about 40 percent towards the end of the 8th century
A. D. The Shudras, who formed the bulk of the
labouring classes, and the untouchables were all
illiterate. As a class, women also had ceased to be
literate towards the end of the 8th century, as has been
shown already.
PRIMARY EDUCATION DURING
C. 800-1200 A. D.
Vernaculars and Primary Education :—Verna-
culars began to develop during this period and ordinary
men ceased to understand Sanskrit. This must have
produced a great change in the curriculum of primary
education also. Those who intended to specialise in
Sanskrit must have continued to spend a part of their
time in early childhood in memorising dictionaries
(Koshas) and verbal conjugations and nominal declen-
sions. Those however who had no such ambition
must have concentrated on the study of vernaculars
in the primary stage. Some inscriptions of this period
refer to the arrangements made for the teaching of
vernaculars in the schools and colleges. A school at
Talgund in Mysore state had made provision for the
teaching of Canarese in the 12th century A.D.;¹ a
college at Narsipur in the same state was providing for
the teaching of the vernaculars,—Canarese, Telugu and
Marathi,—in 1290 A. D.² If higher colleges were
making provision for the teaching of the vernaculars
of other provinces also, we can well conclude that
1 E. C., VII, Shikarpur, No. 185.
2 Ibid, Vol. III, Narsipur, No. 27.