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

74 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch
or provincial jealousies did not influence the election in
any way. The abbot-principal used to be assisted by
two councils, one academic and the other administrative.
The academic council used to regulate admissions, deter-
mine courses and assign work to different teachers. In
later times when the granting of diplomas was introduced
at Vikramaśīlā, it must have arranged for the holding of
examinations as well. It was also in charge of the
liabrary and its duties in this connection were onerous.
In the pre-press days, libraries were not only store
houses of books but also their publishers. They had to
take steps to renew their own worn out manuscripts and
to meet the constant demand of the outside public for
copies of books in their possession. . The copying work
was to some extent done by the monk teachers and pupils,
but clerks also had to be engaged to cope with it. The
administrative council was in charge of the general
administration and finance. Construction and repairs of
buildings, distribution of food, clothes and medicine,
allotment of rooms in hostels, and assignment of monas-
tic work fell within its purview. Above all, it was in
charge of finances and used to take steps to realise the
revenues of the estates given as endowments to the
Institution. This work must have been fairly exacting
and complicated in a big University like Nālandā, posses-
sing a hundred or two hundred villages. Steps had to
be taken to lease out the fields, to collect the corn due and
to store and distribute it properly at the right time. Large
staff must have been employed for the work.
Organisation of Temple Colleges: South Indian
nscriptions give us à vivid picture about the functioning
of the temple colleges flourishing there, but throw very
ittle light on their internal organisation. It would appear
hat they were probably administered by the temple sub-