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

XI] ACHIEVEMENTS AND FAILURES 263
towards the middle of the 17th century, observes,¹
"Students stay for ten or twelve years during which the
work of instruction proceeds but slowly. Feeling no
spirit of emulation and entertaining no hope that honour
or emoluments may be the reward of extraordinary
attainments as with us, the scholars pursue the studies
slowly, without much to distract their attention." The
Report of the Bengal Provincial Committee, Education
Commission, 1882, observes, 'The Mahomaden conquest
proved disastrous to all indigenous educational institu-
tions. The proprietary rights in land changed hands.
The language of the court was changed. Indigenous
learning lost most of its support ; and after the classes
had settled down, the well-to-do classes of the Hindus
took gradually to the cultivation of foreign language,
literature and manners. The tols were more and more
deserted and left to those only, who wanted to learn
the Hindu rituals. In course of time the Musalman
teachers and schools drew off the largest portion of the
upper and the middle classes of the community and
the tols and the pathaśālās either died or barely managed
to survive.'²
A general Estimate : It is therefore hardly fair
to compare 'the scanty remains of bye-gone better
times' with the tremenodus advance the West has
made during the last century and half under very
favourable circumstances³. The impartial historian
will have to note that in the heyday of her glorv.
education in India was broad-based, women and a large
section of the masses being admitted to its privileges and

1. Bernier, Travels in Moghul Empire, p. 334.
2. P. 2.
3. The historically correct procedure would be to compare
   Hindu Sanskrit learning at the advent of the British rule with the
   scholarship of the Christian monks who kept the lamp of learning
   burning during the Dark Ages. If such a comparison is instituted,
   India will have nothing to be afraid of.