The Educational Heritage of Ancient India (How an Ecosystem of Learning was Laid to Waste)

Just a thousand years ago, India was dotted with universities across its length and breadth, where international students flocked to gain credentials in advanced education. This illustrated book describes how these multi-disciplinary centers of learning existed in several forms such as forest universities, brick-and-mortar universities and temple universities .

It examines the funding for these citadels of learning and their graduation ceremonies. The process by which India's ancient systems of education helped to fuel a knowledge revolution around the world with its manuscripts, forming the basis for monographs and academic papers, is explained with references. The marauding incursions by Muslim invaders, which disrupted the idyllic world of university learning in India, followed by European colonization, which led to further erosion and degeneration of India's traditional learning systems, have been taken up in some detail. Readers will get a snapshot view of India's education system down the ages from ancient to modern times.

Sahana Singh is an engineer-turned writer/editor who writes variety of issues including water management, environment and Indian history. A post-graduate from Delhi College of Engineering, she has won several awards for journalism including the Developing Asia Journalism Award in 2008. A short animation video made by her on the world's water crisis won the top prize at the TU Delft Urban Water Movie Contest awarded by the Delft University of Technology (Netherlands) in 2012. Her articles have been published in Reader's Digest, Washington Post, Discovery Channel Asia, Asian Water Magazine, Swarajya, India Facts and other publications. She has moderated panel discussions on water management at several conferences.

Sahana is a member of Indian History Awareness and Research, a think tank headquartered in Houston, USA. She is passionate about travelling and connecting the dots across different societies, civilizations and disciplines.