द ब्यूटीफुल ट्री: १८वीं सदी में भारत की स्वदेशी गुरुकुल शिक्षा (धर्मपाल)

other might correct him. Indeed a pretty, easy and secure way of learning.'⁴ We are continually reproaching the natives of India with the slow advances they have made in knowledge and their neglect of opportunities to acquire it. There we have an instance of the same neglect in Europeans, who have allowed two centuries to pass after they were acquainted with this invention, before they applied it to any practical use. It was at length introduced into this country without any acknowledgement and it was even claimed as an invention by two individuals who disputed upon the priority of discovery. The Missionaries⁵ have now honestly owned that the system upon which these schools are taught was borrowed from India. It has been probably improved by us, but this is the fate of all original conceptions, which commonly make the most rapid advances at second hand. No people probably appreciate more justly the importance of instruction than the Hindoos; hence instead of offering obstacles or creating opposition to the establishment of schools, they have formed institutions themselves to meet various cases of ignorance and misery. They are not averse to a spirit of enquiry and discussion.⁶ All they wanted was a government that would not check and discourage this spirit. In Malabar is still to be seen the earliest mode of writing. The paper is the natural produce of the woods. They make no use of ink; the characters are engraved on the leaves of trees. The leaf of a particular palm is selected and dried until it can bear the impression of the styles. These leaves strung or tied to- gether are formed into books. They are enclosed in a wooden cover, sometimes gilded and lackered, so as to make neat and handsome appearance. On these leaves also they write their let- ters, which they fold up, but the original practice of the country did not require them to be sealed. ‘The original Acts of the Council of Basil 900 years since, with the Bulla or leaden affix, which has a silken cord passing through every parchment,’ is mentioned in the above words by Evelyn as existing in his time at Cambridge, and which would appear to be the same form as that in which the Malabar MSS are preserved.⁷ 263