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

210 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch.
near relations should teach girl students, they are
probably referring to a state of affairs current by
about the beginning of the Christian era; for there
is evidence to show that such was not the case in
the earlier period. When a large number of women
were receiving higher education and were making
their own contributions to the march of knowledge,
it is but natural to suppose that some of them must
have followed the profession of teaching. And the
presence of the terms Upādhyāyā and Upādhyāyānī in
Sanskrit language supports this conjecture. The
latter of these words is a courtesy title given to the
wife of a teacher, who may or may not be educated.
The former, however, denotes a lady, who was herself
a teacher. That a special term should have been
coined to denote lady teachers in order to distinguish
them from wives of teachers would show that their
number in society could not have been small. We
must note in this connection that there was no Purdah
custom in Hindu society down to the 12th century, and
so there was no difficulty for women in taking to the
teaching profession. Lady teachers may probably
have confined themselves to the teaching of girl
students, though some may have taught boys also.
Pāṇini refers to boarding houses for lady-students,
chhātrīśālās², and these probably were under the
superintendence of Upādhyāyās or lady teachers, who
had made teaching their profession. Unfortunately
we have no clear and sufficient evidence about the
activities of lady teachers and the management of
girls' boardings.
1 उपेत्याधीयते अस्याः सा उपाध्याया । Patañjali on III. 322.
2 छात्र्यादयः शालायाम् । VI. 2. 86.