ABSTRACT

The fundamentals of Higher Education (HE) in India are deeply rooted in India's antiquity, continuity and sanctity. These three strands of Indian HE are intertwined in India's geography, history and politics. The sanctity of education could be deciphered from the ancient Sanskrit dictum, ' Matha, pitha, guru, devo', still lingering in the mouth of every educated Indian. The place of guru was so divine that he was placed next to God. The Sanskrit saying grades the obeisance: mother, above her father, above him teacher, and above all, God. A retrospective glance at the history of Indian HE brings to focus: the high standards of the ancient wisdom; the spread of the fame of Indian HE through the well-known residential universities like Nalanda and Vikramshila, Taxila, Kanchi and Vallabhi attracting scholars from abroad; and the amazingly dizzy numbers that now get enrolled in HE and the earnest attempts at democratizing it.