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

III] THE TEACHER AND THE STUDENT 57
Income of the Teacher in Later Period: We how-
ever get more definite data about the teacher's income from
the time educational institutions were evolved. Teachers
at Buddhist Universities of Nălandā and Vikramaśīlā
were monks and so required no salaries; the administra-
tion had to spend for each monk-teacher just the amount
necessary for the maintenance of only four students.¹
In south Indian colleges the annual salary of teachers
varied according to their qualifications and subjects from
160 to 200 maunds of rice.² This income was about
two and half times the income of the village accountant
or the carpenter, and was equal to about four times the
amount necessary for meeting the normal food expenses
of a family of five persons. We would not be wrong
in supposing that as a general rule in ancient India the
Sanskrit teacher imparting higher education received a
similar income. He was thus neither suffering from
abject poverty nor rolling in superfluous wealth. Society
enabled him to lead a life of moderate comforts accord-
ing to the ideal of plain living and high thinking. We
can now understand why learned teachers were exempted
from taxation. The income of the primary teacher
was naturally less than that of the Sanskrit teacher. In
Bengal at the advent of the British rule, the income
of the primary teacher was just equal to that of the
1 Bose, Indian Teachers of Buddhist Universities, p. 35.
2 S. I. E. R., 1917, No. 333. The total cost of one good meal for
one year was about 8 maunds of rice. The salaries above men-
tioned were given in the college at Ennayiram; in other insti-
tutions they were sometimes different. Sometimes inscriptions
disclose that the Veda teachers used to get only 30 maunds of
rice per annum; in such cases they were probably part-time
teachers and were expected to supplement their income from the
proceeds of the priestly profession.