# Adam's Reports on Vernacular Education in Bengal and Behar/Report 2/Section 3

SECTION III.
Schools of Learning.
The state of learned instruction in this district will be considered with reference to the two great divisions of the population, Musalmans and Hindus.
I. Mahomedan Schools of Learning.—There are no public schools of Mahomedan learning within the limits of the Nattore thana; and I met with only one Mahomedan family in which any attention was paid to Arabic learning, that of Dost Mahomed Khan Chaudhuri, who has already been mentioned as the patron of a Persian elementary school. In that family, besides the Persian munshi, a maulavi is employed to instruct the eldest son in Arabic. The name of the maulavi is Gholam Muktidar, formerly a student of the Calcutta Madrasa, and now about 30 years of age. He receives twelve rupees per month with food; ​but when I conversed with him he was evidently dissatisfied with this allowance, and of his own accord spoke of resigning his place. His pupil began to study Arabic about thirteen years of age, and will probably continue the study till he is twenty. His Arabic studies were preceded by a course of Persian reading, and the works by which he was introduced to a knowledge of Arabic were also written in Persian. He began with the Mizan on prosody, Munshaib on etymology, Tasrif on inflection, Zubda on permutations, and Hidayat-us-Sarf on etymology including derivation—all different branches of Arabic grammar and written in Persian prose. These were followed by the Miat Amil, containing an exposition of a hundred rules of syntax and translated from the original Arabic prose into Persian verse; Jummal, treating of the varieties and construction of sentences, and written in Arabic prose; Titimma in Arabic, containing definitions of grammatical terms and additional rules of syntax; Sharh-i-Miat Amil, a commentary on the Miat Amil; and Hidayat-un-Nahv a comprehensive treatise on Arabic syntax. It was intended that he should afterwards read the Kafia, a still more comprehensive and difficult treatise on syntax; Sharh-i-Molla, a commentary on the Kafia by Molla Jami; Tahzib and Sharh-i-Tahzib, text-book and commentary on logic; Sharh-i-Vikaia, a commentary on a treatise of law and religion; and Fariz-i-Sharifi, a treatise on the Mahomedan law of inheritance. It thus appears that the student’s attention is almost exclusively occupied during a long and laborious course of study in acquiring a familiarity with language, its forms and combinations, until towards the close when logic, law, and religion are superficially taught.
The only public institution of Mahomedan learning, of which I can find any trace in this district, is situated at Kusbeh Bagha, in the thana of Bilmariya. The tables appended to this report have been limited to institutions situated in thana Nattore, and they consequently contain no reference to it; but the following details will not be out of place under this head.
The madrasa at Kusbeh Bagha is an endowed institution of long standing. The property appears to have originally consisted of two portions, which are stated to have been bestowed by two separate royal grants (sanads). One of the grants was said to be in the office of the Collector of the district and another is in the possession of the incumbent and was shown to me. On subsequently examining the document in the Collector’s Office, I found it to be merely a copy of the original which I saw at Kusbeh. The latter bears what the owner believes to be the autograph of the Emperor Shah Jehan, but what is more probable the complexly ornamented impression of his Majesty’s seal. The foldings of the document are so much worn that several portions are illegible, and amongst others the place where the year of the Hijri is given; but another date quite legible is the nineteenth ​year of the Shah’s reign which, calculating from his first proclamation of himself as Emperor in the life-time of his father, would be 1050, and from his full accession to the throne, after the death of his father, 1056 of the Hijri. These years correspond with 1640 and 1646 of the Christian era, which would make this endowment rather less than 200 years old. This, however, does not appear to have been the original grant, for it professes only to confirm former grants of the Shah’s predecessors, in virtue of which Maulana Sheikh Abdul Wahab then possessed 42 villages yielding annually 8,000 Rupees, which are ordered in the grant of Shah Jehan to be considered as Madad-i-Maash, or means of subsistence for his own use and that of his brothers, children, servants, and dependants. The title of Maulana given to Sheik Abdul Wahab, the highest honorary title bestowed on men of learning amongst Musalmans, implies that it was because of his learning, for the encouragement of learning, and to assist him in the means he had already adopted to promote it, that the grant was made and confirmed. Such appears to have been the interpretation put upon it by every successive inheritor of the grant, for they have all maintained the madrasa in a more or less efficient state, even as at present when their own family has ceased to afford learned men to conduct it. The management, however, seems to have been entirely left in their hands without any express reservation of power on the part of the State to interfere. One of the present incumbents, Musafir-ul-Islam, states that from a personal feeling of hostility to the family, a part of the property was resumed by one of the Moghul governors of Bengal, and an assessment imposed of 872 Rupees per annum, which continues to be paid to the British Government. I learn also from the Commissioner of the Division, that this endowment has been recently investigated and confirmed under Regulation II. of 1819.
The present total income of the estate is stated to be 8,000 Rupees, exactly the value mentioned in Shah Jehan’s grant, a coincidence which makes the accuracy of the information doubtful, and the doubt is confirmed by the Collector who values the estate at upwards of 30,000 Rupees per annum. The attempt to conceal, the real value of the endowment may be ascribed either to an innocent or a guilty timidity; and in like manner I am uncertain whether to attribute to a weak or a corrupt motive an endeavor made to bribe my maulavi and thereby to influence, as was hoped, the tenor of this report. There may have been either a consciousness of something needing concealment, or merely an anxiety to avoid an investigation supposed to entail expense and trouble.
The purposes to which the property is applied are four. The first is the maintenance of the Khunkar families, the descendants of Sheik Abdul Wahab; the name Khunkar applied to them being probably a corruption of Akhun, teacher, with an arbitrary ​postfix. There are two such families, having two brothers for their respective heads. They are at enmity with each other, and their quarrel has led to outrage and murder amongst their dependants by which they have been disgraced; but their descent and position still procure for them great respect from the Musalman population, although not equal to that which their fathers enjoyed. The second purpose is the maintenance of public worship which is conducted daily at the stated hours of prayer, and attended by the leading persons belonging to the establishment in an ancient-looking but substantial mosque built from the revenues of the estate. The third purpose is the entertainment of fakirs or religious mendicants of the Mahomedan faith, several of whom, when I visited the institution, were lying about very filthy and some sick. The fourth purpose is the support of the madrasa, of which I have now to speak in detail.
In the madrasa both Persian and Arabic are taught. I have before considered Persian as a branch of elementary instruction; but as it professedly does not here terminate in itself, but is regarded as an introduction to Arabic, it must, in the present instance, be viewed as a branch of a learned education.
The name of the Persian teacher is Nissar Ali. He is about 60 years of age, and receives eight rupees per month, besides lodging, food, washing, and other personal expenses, together with presents at the principal Mahomedan festivals. He receives every thing in short of daily use and consumption except clothes which he provides for himself. The Persian scholars are 48, of whom 12 belong to the village of Kusbeh Bagha, and 36 to other villages, 12 of the latter having been absent at the time of my visit. All the pupils of both descriptions, besides instruction, receive lodging, clothing, food, washing, oil, and stationery, including what is necessary for copying manuscripts to be used as text-books. The Persian course of study, commencing with Alif Be, proceeds to the formal reading of the Koran and thence to the Pandnameh, Amadnameh, Gulistan, Bostan, Joseph and Zuleikha, Jami-ul-Kawanin, Insha Yar Mahomed, Secandarnameh, Bahar Danish, Abulfazl, &c.
​There is no fixed age for admission or dismission, for beginning or completing the course of study. Students are admitted at the arbitrary pleasure of Musafir-ul-Islam, and they leave sooner or later according to their own caprice. During the period that they are nominally students, their attendance from day to day is equally uncontrolled and unregulated except by their own wishes and convenience. Many of the students are mere children, while others are grown up men. The business of the school commences at six in the morning and continues till eleven, and again at mid-day and continues till four. Every scholar reads a separate lesson to the master, one coming when another withdraws, so that there is a total absence of classification. The weekly periods of vacation are for Arabic students every Tuesday and Friday, and for Persian students every Thursday and Friday; and the annual periods of vacation are the whole of the month Ramzan, ten days for the Mohurram, and five days at four different periods of the year required by other religious observances.
It thus appears that this institution has no organization or discipline and that the course of instruction is exceedingly meagre; and the question arises whether the interference of Government through the General Committee of Public Instruction or in any other way is justifiable; and if so to what useful purposes that interference might be directed. The recent confirmation of this endowment under Regulation II. of 1819 has been mentioned; but as far as I can learn this decision has the effect only of declaring the lands to be Lakhiraj or not liable to assessment by Government without determining the purposes to which their annual profits should be applied. If any of those purposes are of a strictly public nature, the interference of Government in order to secure attention to them is not precluded.
Without going into a verbal discussion of the terms of the royal grant, nothing would seem to be less objectionable than to recognize and confirm in perpetuity the practical interpretation put upon it by every successive holder of the endowment. That interpretation indicates four distinct purposes formerly mentioned, viz., the support of the Khunkar families; the maintenance of public worship; hospitality to the poor and sick; and the promotion of learning. The present holders of the endowment might be reasonably required to separate the funds applicable to the two former purposes which are personal and religious, from those which are applicable to the two latter which are of public and general interest; and after this separation which might be effected by amicable representations of its propriety and advantages, they would remain sole and uncontrolled disposers of the personal and religious fund, and under the control of Government the sole trustees of the public and general fund.
Musafir-ul-Islam, one of the holders of the endowment, at the same time that he stated the total produce of the estate to be ​8,000 Rupees, estimated his expenditure on account of the madrasa at one-fourth or 2,000 Rupees, adding that his brother Aziz-ul-Islam refused to contribute anything to the support of the institution, in consequence of which the number of students was one-half less than it had formerly been. If we assume 30,000 Rupees to be the real annual produce of the estate of which one-fourth is applicable to the promotion of learning and one-fourth to the relief of the poor and sick, the general and public fund would be equal to 15,000 Rupees per annum. The first object of the interference of Government would be to secure this or any other just amount of fixed property for the maintenance of the school and hospital; the second would be to procure the adoption of a determinate course of useful instruction; the third to claim and exercise a visiting power; and the fourth to require periodical returns. The attainment of these objects would make this institution a more efficient and useful one than it is at present, without disturbing the tenure of the property or encroaching on the lawful rights of its present holders.
While I offer these suggestions, I am at the same time strongly impressed with the conviction that the interference of Government with such institutions would be most beneficially exerted, not with reference to the circumstances of only one of them, but to the rights and duties of all institutions of the same class, so as by general rules to preserve their property, purify their management, and provide for their effectual supervision and real usefulness. If ever the whole subject should come before Government for consideration, its interference would be salutary not only with the view of providing for the just, economical, and most useful application of all such endowments now existing, but also with the view of laying a foundation on which, under the protection of known laws and regulations, similar endowments may hereafter be established.
II. Hindu Schools of Learning.—These may be considered either as endowed or unendowed.
I have met with only two instances of teachers of Hindu schools of learning in the actual enjoyment of endowments. At Basudevpur (No. 72) Srinatha Survabhauma has a small endowment of eight rupees per annum; and at Samaskhalasi (No. III) Kalinatha Vachaspati has an endowment of sixty rupees per annum. The founder of these endowments was the Ranee Bhawani. The present holders are both mere grammarians, in no way distinguished among their brethren for their talents and acquirements. It may be inferred that the endowments were made for the encouragement of learning only from the fact that learned teachers are the incumbents.
Representations were also made to me respecting certain endowments which formerly existed, but which have been recently discontinued, and are claimed as still rightfully due to persons now ​alive. The following explanation of the circumstances was given to me.
The Ranee Bhawani is stated to have been the founder of all the endowments referred to, and the mode that she adopted of giving effect to her wishes was to arrange with the collector of the district for a fixed increase of the annual assessment to which her estates were liable, the increase being equal to the various endowments which she established, and which were to be paid in perpetuity through the collector. Her estates, it is represented, thus became burdened with a permanent increase of annual assessment to Government, which increase continues to be levied from the successive holders of the estates to whom they have descended or by whom they have been purchased, while the endowments have been discontinued to the heirs and representatives of those on whom they were originally bestowed. The following are four cases of this description particularly described:—
1.—At Bejpara Amhatti, Gadadhara Siddhanta received in the above-mentioned manner 120 Rupees per annum which was continued to his eldest son; but on his death the payment was discontinued by the collector, as is alleged, about twelve years ago, although there are members of the family fully competent to fulfil the purposes of the endowment.
2.—At the same place there is a similar case in the family of Kasikanta Nyaya Punchanana, who received 120 Rupees per annum, which, after his death, was continued to his two sons, but on the death of one of them it was withdrawn from the other.
3.—At Boria, in the thana of Chaugaon a sum of 60 Rupees per annum was paid in the same way to Rudrakanta Bhattacharya and discontinued since his death.
4.—The fourth case is that which is imperfectly described in the Report of 1st July 1835, on the state of education in Bengal, p. 114. The details there given were taken from a Memoir prepared at the India House on education in this country, and published by order of the House of Commons in 1832. The facts appear to be that Ranee Bhawani established the endowment of 90 Rupees per annum in favor originally of Sripati Vidyalankara, after whose death it continued to be paid to his eldest son Chandra Sekhar Tarkavagisa, and after his death to the three younger sons Kasiswara Vachaspati, Govindarama Siddhanta, and Hararama Bhattacharya. Since their death the payment of the endowment has been discontinued to the family, although two members of it, one a son of Kasiswara Vachaspati, and the other a son of Govindarama Siddhanta, have each a school of learning at Tajpur in the thana of Chaugaon. This case is the more worthy of notice because, as appears from the statement prepared at the India House, the Government in 1813, on the recommendation of the Revenue Board, sanctioned the payment in perpetuity, on ​condition that the institutions of learning which it was employed to support should be continued in a state of efficiency.
Two or three other cases were reported to me, but not with sufficient precision to justify their mention in this place. With regard to the whole, as there was a strong feeling in the minds of the complaining parties, of the injustice assumed to be done to them, I assured them that no injustice was intended, and promised that I should not fail to bring the subject to the notice of the collector with a view to its re-consideration, and, after reference to the proper authorities, its final determination; reminding them at the same time, that I could neither answer to the collector for the correctness of their statements which they must themselves support by the necessary proofs, nor to them for the decision to which the authorities might come on a view of all the evidence belonging to the question. They expressed themselves quite satisfied that their claim should be considered on its merits; and accordingly on my return from the interior of the district, I mentioned the subject to Mr. Raikes, who had recently succeeded Mr. Bury as Collector and Magistrate. That gentleman engaged to give the subject his attention as soon as it should come before him in some official shape, and pointed out the mode that should be adopted which, for the guidance of the parties concerned, I communicated to them by letter.
​The unendowed Hindu schools of learning in the Nattore thana is taught by 39 Pundits of whom thirty-seven are Brahmans, and two are of the vaidya or medical caste.
The two medical professors are brothers and jointly conduct a medical school at Vaidya Belghariya. There is no instance of two or more Brahman-pundits in a similar way co-operating with each other, and uniting their talents and acquirements for their mutual advantage. Every one stands or falls by himself. In this district, and even in a single thana, there are materials for a Hindu University in which all the branches of Sanscrit learning might be taught; but instead of such a combination each Pundit teaches separately the branch or branches of learning which he has studied most, or for which there is the greatest demand, and the students make their selections and remove from one to another at their pleasure. The Brahman-pundits are either Varendra or Vaidika Brahmans, the former so-called from the ancient name of the district in which they reside, and the latter, as is supposed, from the former devotion of that class to the study of the Vedas, although in this district at the present day they are mere grammarians and of very limited attainments.
The Pundits are of all ages, from twenty-five to eighty-two; some just entering upon life proud of their learning and panting for distinction; others of middle age, either enjoying a well-earned reputation and a moderate competence, or disappointed in their expectations and anxious respecting the future; and some more advanced in years, possessing the heart-felt veneration of their countrymen; while others appear to be neglected and sinking to the grave under the pressure of poverty. All were willing to believe and desirous to be assured that Government intended to do something, as the fruit of the present inquiry, for the promotion of learning,—a duty which is in their minds constantly associated with the obligations attaching to the rulers of the country. The humbleness and simplicity of their characters, their dwellings, and their apparel, forcibly contrast with the extent of their acquirements and the refinement of their feelings. I saw men not only unpretending, but plain and simple in their manners, and although seldom, if ever, offensively coarse, yet reminding me of the very humblest classes of English and Scottish peasantry; living constantly half naked, and realizing in this respect the descriptions of savage life; inhabiting huts which, if we connect moral consequences with physical causes, might be supposed to have the effect of stunting the growth of their minds, or in which only the most contracted minds might be supposed to have room to dwell—and yet several of these men are adepts in the subtleties of the profoundest grammar of what is probably the most philosophical language in existence; not only practically skilled in the niceties of its usage, but also in the principles of its structure; familiar with all the varieties and ​applications of their national laws and literature; and indulging in the abstrusest and most interesting disquisitions in logical and ethical philosophy. They are in general shrewd, discriminating, and mild in their demeanor. The modesty of their character does not consist in abjectness to a supposed or official superior, but is equally shown to each other. I have observed some of the worthiest speak with unaffected humility of their own pretensions to learning, with admiration of the learning of a stranger and countryman who was present, with high respect of the learning of a townsman who happened to be absent, and with just praise of the learning of another townsman after he had retired, although in his presence they were silent respecting his attainments. These remarks have reference to the personal character of some of the Pundits, but they should not be understood to imply a favorable opinion of the general state of learning in the district which, as may be inferred from the subsequent details, is not very flourishing.
In 38 schools of Hindu learning the total number of students is 397, averaging 1017/38 in each school. The students are divided into two classes, one of which consists of those who are natives of the villages in which the shools are situated, and the other of the natives of other villages, the former called natives and the latter foreigners corresponding respectively with the externes and internes of the Royal Colleges of France. The students of a school or college who are natives of the village in which it is situated, are the externes attending it daily for the purpose of receiving instruction, and daily returning home to their parents, relatives, or friends with whom they board and lodge; while the students who are natives of other villages than that in which the school is situated, are the internes, residing in the house of the teacher and receiving from him not only instruction, but also lodging and food. The school at Sridharpur (No. 477) is the only instance in which I found that the native students of the village received food as well as instruction; and in the same institution the foreign students, contrary to the usual practice, received not only food and lodging, but also other minor personal expenses—a liberality which implies more than the usual resources on the part of the teacher, and tends to increase his reputation. In other parts of the country, the students of Hindu Colleges are generally divided into three classes, which may be explained by the terms townsmen, or natives of the village in which the college is situated, countrymen, or natives of the district or province in which the college is situated, and foreigners, or natives of any other district or province; but at present the natives of no other district or province are ever attracted to Rajshahi for the acquisition of learning, and, therefore, the name of the third class has been here transferred to the second by a sort of verbal artifice, which is of general adoption and of long standing, but which can deceive nobody, and could have no ​other effect but to flatter the vanity of the race of Pundits by whom the change was made, as if their reputation for learning really had the effect, which it had not, of attracting foreign students to their seminaries. Of the two classes existing and recognized in this district, 136 students belong to the villages in which the schools are situated and 261 to other villages. The reasons that induce so many to leave their native villages are various. In some cases they leave the parental roof because there is no school of learning or none of sufficient repute in their native villages; but in the great majority of instances they prefer to pursue their studies at some distance from home, that they may be free from the daily distractions of domestic life, and from the requisitions often made by their fathers that they should perform some of the ceremonial observances of Hinduism in their stead in the family of some disciple at a distance. According to my information, the number is very few, although there probably are some, who have recourse to this measure from mere poverty, and with the view of gaining a livelihood at the expense of their teacher; for the large majority of students, although not wealthy, are above want, being the children either of Kulin-brahmans, Brahman-pundits, initiating or officiating priests, whose professional emoluments are comparatively considerable.
In a majority of cases the apartments used as a school-house and as a place of accommodation for the students, are separate from the dwelling-house of the teacher, but built at his expense and often also applied to the purpose of hospitality to strangers. Sometimes the building is one that has descended from a deceased father or brother to its present possessor. The cost of each building varies from ten to sixty rupees in ordinary cases; but in one extraordinary instance it amounted to two hundred rupees defrayed by a spiritual disciple of the Pundit to whom it belongs. In eleven instances the teachers are too poor to erect separate apartments and they consequently give their instructions within their own dwellings. The foreign students or those who have no home in the village are lodged and fed and pursue their studies at night either in the building erected for a school-room, in separate lodging-apartments attached to it, or in the dwelling-house of the teacher, the last-mentioned course being adopted only when there is no other resource. The separate buildings in which the students are accommodated are of the humblest description, as may be judged from the cost of their erection; huts with raised earthen floors and open either only on one side or on all sides according to the space which the owner can command for ingress and egress. That sort which is open on all sides is used only as a place of reading and study either public or private, and never as a dwelling.
It will be seen from Table III. that the period occupied by an entire course of scholastic studies is in several instances not less than twenty-two years, so that a student must often have passed ​his thirtieth year before he leaves college. This is a great deduction from the most valuable years of a man’s life, but the period actually employed in collegiate study is lessened by the length of the vacations which the students receive or take. These extend generally from the month Asarh to the month Kartik, or from the middle of June to about the beginning of November, being from four to five months in the year, besides several shorter vacations at other periods. During the principal period of vacation those who are not natives of the villages in which they have been pursuing their studies return home and in most instances probably continue them there, but with less regularity and application than when under the eye of a Pundit.
The custom of inviting learned men on the occasion of funeral obsequies, marriages, festivals, &c., and at such times of bestowing gifts on them proportioned in value and amount to the estimation in which they are held as teachers, is general amongst those Hindus who are of sufficiently pure caste to be considered worthy of the association of Brahmans. The presents bestowed consist of two parts—first, articles of consumption, principally various sorts of food; and second, gifts of money. In the distribution of the latter at the conclusion of the celebration, a distinction is made between Sabdikas, philologers or teachers of general literature; Smarttas, teachers of law; and Naiyayikas, teachers of logic, of whom the first class ranks lowest, the second next, and the third highest. The value of the gifts bestowed rises not merely with the acquirements of the individual in his own department of learning, but with the dignity of the department to which he has devoted his chief labors and in which he is most distinguished. It does not, however, follow that the professors of the most highly honored branch of learning are always on the whole the most highly rewarded; for in Rajshahi, logic which, by the admission of all, ranks highest, from whatever cause, is not extensively cultivated and has few professors, and these receive a small number of invitations and consequently of gifts in proportion to the limited number of their pupils and the practical disuse of the study. Their total receipts, therefore, are not superior and even not equal to the emoluments enjoyed by learned men of an inferior grade, who have, moreover, a source of profit in the performance of ceremonial recitations on public occasions which the pride or self-respect of the logicians will not permit them to undertake. Whatever the amount, it is from the income thus obtained that the teachers of the different classes and grades are enabled to build school-houses and to provide food and lodging for their scholars; but several have assured me that to meet these expenses they have often incurred debt from which they are relieved only by the occasional and unexpected liberality of individual benefactors.
When a teacher of learning receives such an invitation is as above described, he generally takes one or two of his pupils with ​him, giving each pupil his turn of such an advantage in due course; and when the master of the feast bestows a gift of money on the teacher, it is always accompanied by a present to the pupil less in amount but proportioned to the respectability of the teacher’s character and the extent of his attainments. The teacher sometimes takes a favorite pupil more frequently than others, the object being to give a practical proof of the success of his instructions as well as to accustom the pupil to the intercourse of learned and respectable society. As the student is furnished with instruction, food, and lodging without cost, the only remaining sources of expense to him are his books, clothes, and minor personal expenses, all of which, exclusive of books, are estimated to cost him in no case more and often less than seven rupees per annum. His books he either inherits from some aged relative or at his own expense and with his own hands he copies those works that are used in the college as text-books. In the latter case the expense of copying includes the expense of paper, pens, ink, ochre, and oil. The ochre is mixed with the gum of the tamarind-seed extracted by boiling, and the compound is rubbed over the paper which is thus made impervious to insects and capable of bearing writing on both sides. The oil is for light, as most of the labor of copying is performed by night after the studies of the day have been brought to a close. An economical student is sometimes able, with the presents he receives when he accompanies his teacher to assemblies, both to defray these expenses and to relieve the straitened circumstances of his family at a distance. I have learned on good authority that ten and even twenty rupees per annum have been saved and remitted by a student to his family; but the majority of students require assistance from their families, although I am assured that what they receive probably never in any case exceeds four rupees per annum.
​1. The thirteen schools of general literature are Nos. 25, 45, 72 (a), 86 (a), 111, 143, 279 (b), 279 (d), 279 (e), 328, 374 (b), 374 (c), and 477, of Table III.; and they contain 121 students, of whom 51 belong to the villages in which the schools are situated and 70 to other villages. The age at which they enter on their studies varies from seven to fourteen, and that at which they leave college varies from twenty to thirty-two, the whole period of scholastic study thus varying from eleven to twenty-two years. The teachers, according to their own account, receive throughout the year various sums as presents, which average per month the lowest two rupees and the highest thirty rupees, and this in an average of the whole gives more than eleven rupees a month to each, without taking into account one of the number who is superannuated and receives nothing at all. All the students of a school of general literature receive throughout the year various sums which average the lowest four annas and the highest four rupees per month; and this in an average of the whole gives one rupee eleven annas per month to each institution. The total expense incurred by a student in copying the books used in a course of instruction in this department of learning is stated to vary from one to thirty-six rupees. The average in twelve of these thirteen schools is about thirteen rupees to each student for the cost of books in a whole course which makes the annual expense about a rupee.
The youths who commence the study of Sanscrit are expected to have acquired either at home or in a Bengali school merely a knowledge of Bengali writing and reading and a very slight acquaintance with the first rules of arithmetic, viz., addition and subtraction, without a knowledge of their applications. Hence learned Hindus having entered with these superficial acquirements and at an early age on the study of Sanscrit, and having devoted themselves almost exclusively to its literature, are ignorant of almost every thing else.
The studies embraced in a full course of instruction in general literature are grammar, lexicology, poetry and the drama, and rhetoric, the chief object of the whole being the knowledge of language as an instrument for the communication of ideas.
On entering a school of learning a student is at once put to the study of Sanscrit grammar. Grammar is a favorite study in this district and the most extensive and profound treatises on it in the Sanscrit language are those in most general use. In the thirteen schools of this class there are four different grammars used. Panini being taught in six, the Kalapa in two, the Mugdha-Bodha in three, and the Ratnamala in two. In teaching Panini the first work employed is the Bhasha Vritti a commentary by Furusottama Deva on Panini’s rules, omitting those which are peculiar to the dialect of the Vedas. This is followed by the study of the Nyasa, an exposition of the Kasica Vritti, ​which is a perpetual commentary on Panini’s rules. The Kasica Vritti does not itself in any case appear to be used as a text-book, but references are occasionally made to it. The Kalapa grammar is taught first in the Daurga Sinhi, an exposition by Durga Singa of the Katantra Vritti, the latter being a brief and obscure commentary on the original aphorisms. This is followed by the Katantra Parisista, a supplement to the Kalapa by Sripatdatta; by the Katantra Panjica, a commentary on the Daurgi Sinhi by Trilochandasa; by the commentary of Sushena Kaviraja on the same; and by Parisista Prabodha, a commentary by Gobinatha on the supplement above-mentioned. The original aphorisms of the Panini and Kalapa grammars are believed to possess divine authority, which is not attributed to any of the other works employed in this course of instruction. The Mugdha-bodha of Vopadeva is studied without any commentary in the two schools where it is used; and the Ratnamala, a compilation by Purusottama from the Panini and Kalapa grammars, is studied with the commentaries called Jiveshwari and Prabhaba Prakasika. A list of verbal roots with their meanings is also committed to memory in this part of the course.
Lexicology is the most appropriate name that has occurred to me for describing that branch of study by which, simultaneously with the study of grammar, a knowledge of the meaning of single words and of their synonyms is acquired. The only work employed for this purpose is the Amara Kosha by Amara Sinha, with the commentary of Raghunatha Chakravartti. The names of objects, acts, qualities, &c., are classified and their synonyms given, which the students begin to commit to memory without the meaning; and they afterwards read the work and its commentary with the teacher who explains them. This gives the student a large command of words for future use either in reading or composition; and it is after some acquaintance with the grammar and the dictionary that the teacher usually encourages and assists the student to compose, verbally or in writing, short sentences in Sanscrit.
The work in verse invariably read first is the Bhatti Kavya on the life and actions of Ram, so composed as to form a continued illustration of grammatical rules. This is followed without any fixed order by any of the following works or by others of the same class, viz., Raghu Kavya, also on the history of Ram; Magha Kavya, on the war between Sisupala and Krishna; Naishadha Kavya, on the loves of Nala and Damayanti; Bharavi Kavya, on the war between Yudisthira and Durgodhana, &c., &c., &c. The poetry of the drama may be said to be almost wholly neglected here: in one college only I found that the Mahanataka is read. ​It will be seen from Table III. that all these branches of general literature are not taught by every teacher. Some teach only grammar; others grammar and lexicology; others add poetry with or without the drama; and others embrace rhetoric. But the whole of these are required to constitute a complete course of philology and general literature. The teacher of grammar only, the mere grammarian, ranks in the lowest scale of learned men; and in proportion to the number of the other branches of general literature which he adds to his acquirements, he raises his reputation and emoluments as a Sabdik or philologer.
2. The nineteen schools of Hindu law are 9 (a), 18 (a), 18 (b), 46, 70 (a), 71, 72 (b), 84, 86 (a), 86 (c), 86 (e), 100, 170, 279 (c), 374 (a), 445, 447 (a), 447 (b), and 447 (c), of Table III., and contain 245 students, of whom 81 belong to the villages in which the schools are situated and 164 to other villages. The age at which they enter on their studies varies from nine to fifteen, and that at which they leave college varies from eighteen to thirty-two, the whole period of scholastic study varying from eight to twenty-three years. Omitting one school in which the age of beginning and completing study could not be satisfactorily ascertained, the average period of scholastic study in the remaining eighteen institutions is between sixteen and seventeen years. The professors of law receive throughout the year various sums as presents which, according to their own statements, average the lowest three rupees and the highest twenty-five per month. Omitting two schools respecting which this information could not be obtained, the average monthly receipts of the remaining seventeen amount to upwards of fourteen rupees each. All the students of a school of law throughout the year receive various sums as presents, which average the lowest four annas and the highest five rupees per month; and, omitting the two schools above-mentioned, the average monthly receipts of the remaining seventeen amount to rather less than two rupees each. The total expense which a student incurs in copying the books used in a course of instruction in a law-school varies from four to forty rupees; and omitting five schools in which this could not be ascertained, the average disbursements of each student in the remaining fourteen schools for books only during a whole course amount to upwards of twenty rupees.
The teachers of law are in all cases conversant with the grammar and lexicology of the Sanscrit language and can give instructions in them; some are also acquainted more or less familiarly with the poetical and dramatic writings: and a smaller number with the works on rhetoric. Every teacher of law receives students at the earliest stage and instructs them according to the extent of his own acquirements in general literature, and when he has reached that limit, he carries them on to the study of law. His students sometimes object to this arrangement and leave him ​in order to complete with another teacher a course of study in general literature. The majority of law-students, however, begin and end their studies in general literature to whatever extent they may desire to proceed with a professor of that branch of learning, and afterwards resort to a teacher of law for instruction in his peculiar department. On those occasions on which the study of the law is specially directed to be suspended as on the first, eighth, and thirtieth of the waxing and waning of the moon, when it thunders, &c., &c., the students most commonly revert to their studies in general literature which at such times are not prohibited.
The compilation of Raghunandana on every branch of Hindu law, comprised in twenty-eight books, is almost exclusively studied in this district. It consists, according to Mr. Colebrooke, of texts collected from the institutes attributed to ancient legislators, with a gloss explanatory of the sense, and reconciling seeming contradictions. Of the twenty-eight books those are almost exclusively read which prescribe and explain the ritual of Hinduism. The first book invariably read is that on lunar days; and this is followed by the others without any fixed order of succession, such as those on marriage, on penance, on purification, on obsequies, on the intercalary month of the Hindu calendar, &c.; but the number of books read is seldom more than ten and never exceeds twelve, and is sometimes not more than four, three, and even two Raghunandana’s treaties on inheritance and Jimutavahana’s on the same subject, are also taught by one or two Pundits.
3. The two schools of logic are 9 (b), and 86 (b), of Table III., containing each four students, of whom two are Natives and six strangers to the villages in which the schools are situated. The age of commencing study is ten or twelve and that of leaving college twenty-four or thirty-two, the course of study taking up from twelve to twenty-two years which must be understood, as in the preceding case of law-schools, to include the preliminary studies in grammar, &c. Of these schools the teacher of one receives about twenty-five rupees a month in presents and his pupils two rupees; and the teacher of the other eight rupees a month and his pupils one. The expenditure of a student in the former for books during the whole course is stated to be about fourteen rupees, and that of a student in the latter about fifty rupees; the difference being probably occasioned by the circumstance that in the one case family-copies of books are used which are not possessed in the other.
The course of instruction in logic embraces the reading and explanation of the following works, viz., Bhasha Parichheda; an introduction to the system of logic, with definitions of terms, qualities, and objects; Vyapti Panchaka on the necessary or inherent qualities of objects; Sinha Vyaghra, a supplement to the preceding; Vyaddhikaranadharmabachinabhaba on the same subject; ​Siddhanta Lakshana, the same; Abachhedoktanirukti the same; Visesa Vyapti, the same; Paksata on inferential propositions; Samanya Laksana, on the definition of classes or genera; Samanya Nirukti, the same; Avayava, on syllogism; Hetwabhasha, on fallacies; Kusumanjali on the proofs of the divine existence, the attributes of the divine nature, and the means of absorption into it; and Vyutpattivada, a treatise on the derivation and meaning of the radical portions and of the suffixes and affixes of words. In one of the schools of logic, the second above-mentioned, only a few of these works are superficially and partially read.
4. Four schools of learning remain to be separately noticed, a Vedantic, a Pauranic, a Tantric, and a Medical School.
The Vedantic school, No. 70 (b) of Table III., can scarcely be said yet to exist. The Pundit, after completing the usual course of study in his native district of Rajshahi, to extend his acquirements went to Benares whence he had returned about a month before I saw him. He now proposes to open a school, and to teach the following branches of learning, viz., general literature, law, the puranas, and the vedanta, in which he claims to be profoundly versed, and from which I derive the title by which his intended school is designated. He had no pupils at the time of my visit to his village.
The Pauranic school, No. 279 (a) of Table III., contains twenty students, of whom five are natives and fifteen strangers to the village in which the school is situated. They begin to study about ten years of age and leave school about thirty-two. The teacher receives about twenty-five rupees a month and the students four, each of the latter expending about sixty rupees in copying the books they require for a whole course. The Pundit gives instruction in general literature, in law, and in astrology; but as he also teaches the puranas, chiefly the Mahabharata, and derives a great part of his emoluments from the public recitation of them in wealthy families, the name given to his school is derived from that branch of his acquirements. In astrology, he teaches the Joyatisa Tatwa by Raghunandana, a summary of astrological knowledge; the Jataka Chandrica, on the calculation of nativities; and the Satkritya Muktavali, the Dipika, and Samaya Pradipa, on lucky and unlucky days.
The Tantric school, No. 38 of Table III., contains twelve pupils of whom three are natives and nine strangers to the village in which the school is situated. They begin to study at eight years of age and leave school at thirty. The teacher receives eight rupees and the students about eight annas a month in presents; each of the latter expending about forty rupees in copying the books for a course. The Pundit teaches superficially grammar and the Vedanta, but his distinctive name is derived from his professional instruction in the Tantra. The works classed under this name may be generally described to be employed ​in explaining the formulæ peculiar to the votaries of Siva and the female deities, by which they seek to attain supernatural powers and accomplish objects either good or bad for themselves or others. The work taught by this Pundit is the Tantra Sara, a compilation on those subjects. One of the two Tantric sects, some of whose followers are found in this district, are intemperate and licentious in their habits and manners, not only believing that the use of intoxicating liquors is permitted, but that it is enjoined by the system of doctrines they profess. With such a belief the use of them is naturally carried to great excess, but the conduct of such persons is regarded with great abhorrence by other Hindus.
The Medical school. No. 70 (c) of Table III., contains seven students of whom four are residents of the village and three strangers. The period of commencing the study of medical works is from twenty-two to twenty-five years of age, and that of discontinuing the study from twenty-five to thirty years of age, the whole period of study varying from five to eight years. It is expected and required that medical students shall have previously acquired a knowledge of Sanscrit grammar and general literature in some of the schools of learning taught by Brahman-pundits, after which they commence a course of medical reading in this institution. The period of study is shortened or prolonged according to the ability of the students for a shorter or a longer period to dispense with the emoluments of private practice. The school is taught by two aged brothers, Vaidyas in caste, most respectable men, and in high repute as medical practitioners. Neither Vaidya teachers nor Vaidya pupils receive invitations or presents, as Brahman-pundits and their pupils do, and the former are consequently dependent solely on their own means for the maintenance of their establishment. Vaidya teachers, however, like Brahman-pundits, lodge and feed those pupils who have no home in the village in which the school is situated, and they also give their instructions to all gratuitously. A student incurs an expense of about sixteen rupees in copying the books necessary to be read in an entire course of study. The work first read is the Nidana, a standard medical work, after which the students of this school read Chakradatta by Chakrapani; Ratnamala by Ramakrisna; Dravya Guna by Narayana Dasa; a commentary by the same author on his own work Madhamati; commentaries of Vijaya Raksita and Siddhanta Chintamuni on the Nidana; a commentary on Chakradatta by Yasodhara; and Patyapatya, a work described as variously treating of the causes of disease, diagnosis, the practice of medicine, and materia medica.
In a general view of the state of Hindu learning in this district, grammar appears to be the only department of study in which a considerable number of persons have a distinguished proficiency. The most eminent Pandits are 18 (a) and 70 (b). Ramakanta Sarvabhauma a logician, and Siva Chandra Siddhanta a ​Vedantic, both highly reputed, and both apparently profound in the branches of learning to which they have devoted themselves. I might add also the medical professors who are venerable men and highly respected by all around them for their learning within their own peculiar range as well as for their general character. There are others who occupy a middle rank; but the majority of the Pundits are superficial men and I have reason to think would be so judged by competent persons amongst their own countrymen—that is, superficial compared with the highest existing standards of native learning, although all in general know well what they profess to know. In this district the poetry of the drama appears to be almost wholly neglected. I found only one instance in which the Mahanataka and that alone is read; whereas in some other districts dramatical literature is more generally and more fully studied, the Mahanakata being usually succeeded by Sakuntala, Kautuka Sarvaswa, Hasyarnava, Venisanhar, Murari, &c. In rhetoric, the Srutabodha and Kavyachandrica; the former on prosody and the latter on the rules of poetical composition and both in general use elsewhere, are not read in this district. In law, Menu and the Mitaksara, which are studied in other parts of Bengal, are here known only by name; and we have seen that logic, to which by general consent the highest honors are given in Bengal, has here only two professors, of whom one is scarcely worthy to be so ranked. Not only is learning low, but it is retrograding. One village that has two schools of learning (No. 9) had from ten to twelve within the recollection of one of the Pundits, and there has been no corresponding increase elsewhere within the district. The diminution is attributed to the breaking up of the great zemindaries and the withdrawal of the support which their owners gave to the cause of learning and of the endowments which they established. I have already mentioned the comparatively refined tone of feeling and character which the cultivation of Hindu learning appears to give to its possessors; and the effect in some measure extends to their families, for the children of Brahman-pundits are in general bright-looking and intelligent, modest and polite. The system of learned instruction also has a principle of diffusiveness in the gratuitousness with which the instruction is bestowed, but that principle operates only within the pale of the brahman caste, except to a limited extent in favor of Vaidyas, and beyond those limits none of the humanizing influences of learning are seen in the improved moral and intellectual character or physical condition of the surrounding humbler classes of society. It seems never to have entered into the conceptions of the learned that it was their duty to do something for the instruction of those classes who are as ignorant and degraded where learning abounds as where it does not exist; nor has learning any practical influence upon the physical comforts even of its possessors, for their houses are as ​rude, confined, and inconvenient as those of the more ignorant, and the pathways of brahman-villages are as narrow, dirty, and irregular as those inhabited by the humblest and most despised Chasas and Chandals.