In ancient India, both formal and informal ways of education system existed. Indigenous education was imparted at home, in temples, pathshalas, tols, chatuspadis and gurukuls. There were people in homes, villages and temples who guided young children in imbibing pious ways of life. Temples were also the centres of learning and took an interest in the promotion of knowledge of our ancient system. Students went to viharas and universities for higher knowledge. Teaching was largely oral, and students remembered and meditated upon what was taught in the class.

With the disappearance of the Gurukula system and the ancient universities like those at Nālandā and Takṣaśilā (Taxila, now in Pakistan) as also the gradual dissolution of the powerful kingdoms by conquests from outside, it became necessary to evolve a method by which the ancient knowledge and wisdom of the East, especially of India, could be revived and preserved.

It is the Western scholars of the 19th and the 20th centuries who were mainly responsible for this revival, though many an Indian scholar also has contributed considerably to it. Further, they started to preserve the ancient knowledge and education system, information, culture, etc. by setting up institutes and libraries.