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

X] PERIOD-WISE SURVEY 239
foreigners (Mlechchhas), but nevertheless their achieve-
ments in the realm of sculpture, coinage and astronomy
were carefully studied and assimilated, which led to
considerable progress in all these sciences.
The Condition of Education : There was however
a distinctive setback to the cause of education as a
whole during this period. Child marriages became
the order of the day towards the end of the period,
and so female education suffered very considerably.
Only daughters of high class families used to receive
education during this period. The lowering of the
marriageable age of girls naturally involved the
corresponding lowering of the marriageable age of
boys. Brahmacharya discipline consequently became
slack and nominal and towards the end of this period ;
the educational system could produce only a limited
number of young men possessing a developed person-
ality, characterised by self-confidence and self
reliance. During this period Upanayana of Kshatriyas
and Vaishyas first became a mere formality. This
development gave a severe blow to the general and
cultural education of the warrior and the farmer, the
trader and the artisan, and this reduced their general
efficiency. Their education gradually began to become
too much specialised and narrow. The same defect
arose in the course of time in liberal education also.
There was too much of specialisation in logic and
philosophy, astronomy and mathematics ; there was
no broad-based secondary course of education. The
educational system was still able to promote social
efficiency and happiness and secure the preservation
and spread of national culture ; it enabled society to
absorb and assimilate a number of foreign tribes whom
it could not drive out by military force. Towards