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Altekar (1898-1960) was professor of ancient Indian history at BHU.
His books include
  * History of the Village Communities in Western India (1927)
  * The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation (1938/56)
  * Benares, Past and Present (1937/1943)
  *State and government in Ancient India (1949)
as well as other texts on  western kingdoms such as the RashtrakuTas and the
Silaharas, and several works on Gupta coinage.

Education in ancient India: limited to upper castes

The opening chapter outlines the evolution of caste restrictions in
education.  He notes how various authors of the sacred texts were composed by
other castes - e.g. the third book of the Rg Veda is the composition from
members of Vishwamitra's kshatriya family.

	There are several cases of Brahmanas approaching renowned Kshatriya
	teachers like Asyapati, Janaka_and Pravahana Jaivali as humble
	students of philosophy and religion. We should therefore note that
	the caste system succeeded in making Vedic and religious education a
	monopoly for the Brahmanas only at about 300 B. C. [Altekar p.41]

similarly, brahmins had been involved in the martial arts (e.g. droNAchArya),
but from about 500AD this was abandoned owing to the growing rigour of the
caste system.  altekar laments this change, which also led to the decay of
empiricism; but at one point in this discussion, Altekar refers to brahmins
as "being as a rule more intelligent than members of other castes"

	Dhanurveda lays down that Brahmanas are as eligible to be the
	teachers of the military science as Kshatriyas (1.4). Being as a rule
	more intelligent than members of other castes, they must have shone
	in these lines also, as for instance was the case with
	Dronacharya. It was only in later times, from c.500 A.D. onwards,
	that Brahmanas ceased to be teachers of useful arts and professions
	owing to the growing rigour in the caste system.  This was rather
	unfortunate, for it prevented the utilisation of the intellect of one
	of the most intelligent classes in society for expanding the
	boundaries of knowledge in the domain of practical sciences. p.42

The theory of three debts (r^Na trayam)

advocated since the  vedic age:

The moment an individual is born in this world he incurs three debts, which
he can discharge only by performing certain duties.

1. debt to the gods, can be liquidated only by learning and performing proper
   sacrifices regularly.

2. debt to the rishis or savants of the bygone ages - can discharge it only
   by studying their works and continuing their literary and professional
   traditions.

3. debt to the ancestors, which can be repaid only by raising progeny and
   by imparting proper education to [them].  18-19

Taittiriya Samhita says "...when born is born involved in three debts, namely,
he owes brahmacarya to sages, sacrifices to gods and progeny to pitṛs"
[Taittiriya Samhita VI. 3. 10. 5].

---

If the rAhu-ketu theory of eclipses has continued to retain its hold over the popular Hindu mind for the last 1500 years and more, in spite of the discovery of the true cause of eclipses, the reason is that Hindu scholarship of later times was too much [in the hands] religion to carry on active propaganda against its hypothses. Similarly astronomers continued to subscribe to the view that the constellation of the Great Bear moves from one lunar mansion to another in a hundred years, even when they had discovered that such was not the case. Scharfe, p.253

[rAhu ketu : concepts used in astrology, but indian astronomers were very clear about the reasons for the eclipses. rAhu and ketu are the two nodes at which the moon's orbit crosses the earth's equator. eclipses don't occur at every full moon because the moon's orbit is at 5 degrees to the ecliptic; when it's at this node, the sun, moon and earth can be co-linear.

in AryabhATiyA we have a shloka which says "the shadow of the earth falling on the moon causes lunar eclipse, and the moon coming between earth and the sun causes solar eclipse.

varAhamihira, one of india's most adept astrologers, also ridicules the rahu-ketu notion. ]

review: V. Raghavan

from http://www.yabaluri.org/TRIVENI/CDWEB/Reviews_nov33.htm

Altekar, Head of the Department of Ancient Indian History and Culture, Benares Hindu University, surveys Education in Ancient India up to about 1200 A.D. (though it often briefly brings up its survey to the time of the advent of the British also). Dr. Altekar has examined every possible source, Sanskrit and Brahminic literature, Pali and Buddhistic literature, inscriptions and accounts by foreign travelers and chroniclers.

Every department of education in Ancient India is described with citation of evidences – religious, literary, cultural education, useful vocational education, primary, secondary and higher education, education of women, of the masses and of each caste in particular. The historical and educational significance of such ancient Indian educational rituals as Upanayana and Upakarma has been elucidated, and the good points in the ancient ideals and methods of education as compared with those in our present age are pointed out by the author. Defects there must have been and Dr. Altekar notices them in the last chapter, after which he concludes that, if a proper comparison is instituted with conditions obtaining in other countries in the corresponding ages, ‘India will have nothing to be afraid of’ (P. 357).

The causes which led to the fall in the percentage of literacy in India in course of time, the neglect of the education of women and the masses and connected problems are also discussed by the author. The work teems with information which will interest very much the lay student of Indian history and culture as well as the thinker interested in present-day educational problems. State and public help to ancient Indian educational institutions, the various kinds of such institutions and a brief account of the more important of them,–city-centres, monasteries, colleges in temples, or Agrahara settlements, like Takshasila, Benares, Nalanda, Valabhi, Vikramasila, Saltogi, Ennayiram, Tirumukudal, Tiruvottiyur, Malkapuram are some of the other primary subjects dealt with in the work.

Dr. Altekar's work is not merely a contribution of a substantial nature by a
research professor to a department of ancient Indian history. Its value at
this juncture of events in our country cannot be overstated. Modern Indian
thinkers of differing schools of thought are all agreed upon the point that
our present educational system is bad. Lopsided intellects and mechanised
lives in the place of whole-men; lack of individual attention of the teacher
to each student due mainly to overcrowding at a few city-centres; crude,
improper and overdone examination tests, the students forgetting every thing
in their after-life;–these were not found in the ancient system. Even at such
great centres as Nalanda and Ennayiram where ten to twenty subjects were
taught and 300 to 5000 students studied, the system was such that each
teacher had under his care at the most only twenty students.

Dr. Altekar expatiates upon Brahmacharya, the character, habits and
necessary virtues of the students’ life in ancient India which can be
compared with the extravagant and foppish habits of students of both the
sexes in our modern colleges. The country is awake now to the need of a new
kind of education and its birth is already seen in the rise of Ashramas,
Kalasalas, Vidyapithas and National Colleges of a new kind in various parts
of the land. To all those interested in the future of India, of which the
basis is a sound education, Dr. Altekar and his reviewer would suggest a
study of the ancient Indian educational system, ‘the general principles
(underlying which) . . . . are inherently sound and capable of yielding
excellent results even in modern times, if applied with due regard to
changed circumstances.’ (P. 358).

The book is neatly got-up, but printing mistakes are not few. Transliterated
spelling and diacritical marks are used haphazardly.

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