EDUCATION SYSTEM IN MUSLIM INDIA (1206-1707 A.D.)

Abstract

This research provides an in depth analysis of the course and changes through which Muslim India’s educational system passed through from 1206 A.D. to 1707 A.D. It gives a detailed account of how the curriculum, patronage from Rulers, methods of teaching and learning institutes of five centuries together formed a system of education. Four institutes are identified as the prime centres that played a pivotal role in dispensing knowledge and creating an environment of learning: the madrassas, mosques, khanqahs and private homes of scholars. Their complementary roles are discussed and appreciated. This study also highlights the excellent dynamics between the Rulers, students and teachers that led to the development of a remarkable teacherstudent-ruling elite triad that gradually flourished to become the key element of this system. Finally the attention paid to female education and the provisions made to Hindus in this period are also addressed in detail. This research argues that the system of education was an adequate mix of transmitted and rational sciences. Even without examinations, its ijazah system successfully produced learned students. The system proved at par to prepare its students to seek higher studies abroad. Education, far from being ignored by the Rulers of this period, received their constant attention and support in the form of endowments. Though this system had an air of stagnancy and lacked practical subjects, it was successful in the general education of Indians, in the honest bond that existed between pupil and master, in the numerous literary works produced in this period and in producing encyclopaedic intellectuals whose literary standards equaled those of the Safavids or Ottomans of the same period.