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.
