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

XI] ACHIEVEMENTS AND FAILURES 259
it is doubtful whether any progress was made in the
technique or processes of manufacture during the last
one thousand years.
Education of Masses neglected in later Times: At
the time when India was making rapid strides in the
different domains of knowledge, her education was
broad-based. In ancient Athens one in ten and in
ancient Sparta one in twenty five received education,¹
and women's education was altogether neglected. The
case was much different in India down to the com-
mencement of the Christian era. Literacy among the
Aryans was probably as high as 60 per cent in the days
of Aśoka. Anxious thought and care were also bestowed
on female education. Things, however, gradually
changed for the worse in the first millennium of the
Christian era. The education of women began to be
neglected. Kshatriyas and Vaishyas began to become
progressively illiterate. It is true that in Europe also
the masses were little more than barbarous and took
more naturally to warfare than to schooling down to
the end of the Middle Ages.² We can, however, hardly
derive any consolation from this comparison, for the
prevalent illiteracy in India was due to degeneration
from a more creditable condition, obtaining in earlier
centuries.
The neglect of Vernaculars : Hindu educational
system was unable to promote the education of the masses,
probably because of its concentration on Sanskrit and
the neglect of the vernaculars. The revival of Sanskrit
that took place early in the first millennium was un-
doubtedly productive of much good; it immensely
enriched the different branches of Sanskrit literature
which began to reflect the ideals and ideas of the
individual and the race. But owing to the deep fascina-
1 Monroe, A Text Book, pp. 26, 29.
2 Ibid, p. 261.