Education in Medieval India
- Institutions that provided school education were known as ‘makhtabs,’ while those of higher learning were called ‘madrasas. Learned men from Arabia, Persia and Central Asia were invited to teach in these madrasas.
- ‘Makhtabs’ were run by public donations. ‘Madrasas’ were maintained by rulers and nobles.
- Famous ‘madrasas’ were Muizzi, Nasiri and Firuzi madrasas in Delhi, Mohammed Gawan’s madrasa in Bidar and Abul Fazl’s madrasa in Fatehpur Sikri.
- There was no provision for women’s education. Royal & rich women got educated at home.
Scientific Development in Medieval India
- Maktabs and madrasas came into existence that followed a set curricular. These institutions used to receive royal patronage.
- The two brothers, Sheikh Abdullah and Sheikh Azzizullah, specialists in Rational Sciences (Magulat), headed the madrasas at Sambhal and Agra.
- Akbar ordered the introduction of mathematics as a subject of study, among others in the educational system.
- Many karkhanas (workshops) were maintained by the kings and the nobles to supply provisions, stores and equipment to royal household and government departments.
- The karkhanas not only worked as manufacturing agencies but also served as centres for technical and vocational training to young men.
- Tobacco, chillies, potato, guava, custard apple, cashew and pineapple were the important new plants which made India their home in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
- The systematic mango grafting was introduced by the Jesuits of Goa in the middle of the sixteenth century.
- In the field of irrigation, wells, tanks, canals, rahats, charas (bucket made of leather) and dhenkli, were used to lift water with the help of yoked oxen, which continued to be the means of irrigation.
Related Literature
- Hamsadeva compiled Mrga-pasi-sastra in the thirteenth century which gives a general, though not always scientific account of some of the beasts and birds of hunting.
- In the early medieval period, the two-outstanding works in mathematics were Ganitasara by Sridhara and Lilavati by Bhaskara.
- Use of paper began during the Medieval period. Kashmir, Sialkot, Zafarabad, Patna, Murshidabad, Ahmedabad, Aurangabad, Mysore were well-known centres of paper production.
- Mughals knew the technique of production of gunpowder and its use in guns.
- Indian craftsmen learnt the technique and evolved suitable explosive compositions. They were aware of the method of preparation of gunpowder using saltpeter, sulphur and charcoal in different ratios for use in diverse types of guns.
- Tuzuk-i--Baburi gives an account of casting of cannons.
- Tuhfat-ul-Muminin was a Persian treatise written by Muhammad Munin in seventeenth century which discusses the opinions of physicians.
- Unani Tibb is an important system of medicine which flourished in India in the medieval period.
- Ali-bin-Rabban summarized the entire system of Greek medicine as well as the Indian medical knowledge in the book Firdausu-Hikmat.