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

262 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch.
were introduced very reluctantly only by the middle of
the last century.¹
An unfair Comparison : Some of the defects
noted above like the neglect of the education of
women and the masses crept into the Hindu
Educational System only in later times; others like
the non-existence of a broad-based secondary course
and the neglect of the vernaculars were common to all
the contemporary systems. The twentieth century
critic often forgets that the West has gone on
progressing rapidly during the last 300 years owing to
the impetus it has received from the Renaissance, the
Reformation and the Scientific Movement, while India
has gone on deteriorating ever since 1000 A.D. owing
to the almost continuous foreign rule and its natural
consequences. The Muslim conquerors no doubt became
domiciled in India, but they were on the whole unable
to appreciate and encourage Hindu culture and
education to any appreciable extent. The effects of the
Muslim rule on the learning and scholarship of the
Hindus can be described in the words of a Muslim
himself. While describing the state of Hindu learning
after the invasions of Mahmud of Ghazni, Alberuni
observes, ‘The present times are not of this kind ; they
are the very opposite, (because there is no royal support
or encouragement to learning), and therefore it is quite
impossible that a new science or any new kind of research
should arise in our days. What we have of sciences is but
the scanty remains of byegone better times'² Bernier, while
describing the state of Hindu education in Benares

1. In Germany, science was introduced in secondary education
   in 1816 A.D. When the Royal Commission on Education apologeti-
   cally pleaded for the inclusion of science in the secondary courses in
   1856, 10 or 12 lectures began to be given annually in some of the
   Public Schools in England. The Faculty of Science was established
   in the London University only in 1860.
2. Sachau, I, p. 252.