Question

Education was an important concern of mughal rulers

Answer 1

With the coming of the Mughals educational and cultural activities received great fillip. Babur, the first Mughal ruler, was a man of literary taste and possessed perfect knowledge of Persian, Arabic and Turkish. His memoirs, is a work of great literary importance.

He had great love for education and got a number of schools and colleges repaired. He also set up a number of new educational institutions. Despite his great love for education, Babar could not accomplish much because his reign lasted only for four years.

Hamayun (1530—1556 A.D.) was also a great scholar like his father. He provided patronage to man of arts and literature. In spite of many political difficulties, he rendered valuable service to the cause of education. He established a college at Delhi and appointed Shaikh Hussain as its Principal.

He was fond of the company of scholars and saints and spent lot of time in scholarly pursuits. He was also fond of collecting books and raised a beautiful library. In recognition of this interest to the cause of education his tomb was provided with a Madrasa.

Sher Shah Suri, who ruled India when Humayun was in exile, was also a great Patron of education and learning. He established a Madrasa at Narnaul which became a prominent centre of education. He was the first Muslim ruler who made provision for the education of ordinary Muslims too.

Akbar, the great Mughal ruler, showed much greater interest in education. It would not be wrong to say that his reign marked the beginning of a new chapter in the history of education for Muslim India, Though, Akbar was not himself much educated, he showed a great love for the scholars and education.

During his reign, subjects like philosophy, history, literature and arts made tremendous progress. He introduced certain changes in the existing curriculum of studies in educational institutions Subjects like logic, arithmetic’s, astronomy, accountancy and agriculture etc. were included in studies.

This naturally provided a secular bias to the educational system, Akbar paid great attention to the elementary education of children.