INDIGENOUS EDUCATION IN NINETEENTH CENTURY NORTH INDIA

At the dawn of the colonial era, India had a widespread culture of learning comprising both elementary institutions called pathshalas, and higher learning centres called tols (Sanskrit) and madrasas (Arabic). This paper aims to give a brief account of indigenous schools that flourished in India during the nineteenth century, with a specific focus on Bihar. In doing so, information pertaining to Sanskrit astronomy education is highlighted on the basis on the extensive surveys carried out by British administrators in North India. In the same context, the evolution of colonial educational policy and the corresponding decline of indigenous educational institutions in the course of the nineteenth century are studied.