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

and is of two sorts; in the first, the letters of the alphabet in the order of the Abjad being taken to denote units, tens, and hundreds to a thousand; and in the second the letters composing the names of the letters of the alphabet being employed for the same purpose. Arithmetic, by means of the Arabic numerals, and instruction at great length in the different styles of address, and in the forms of correspondence, petitions, etc., etc., complete a course of Persian instruction. But in the Persian schools of this district, this course is very superficially taught, and some of the teachers do not even profess to carry their pupils beyond the Gulistan and Bostan. In a Persian school, after the years of mere childhood, when the pupils are assumed to be capable of stricter application, the hours of study with interval extend from six in the morning to nine at night. In the first place in the morning they revise the lessons of the previous day, after which a new lesson is read, committed to memory, and reported to the master. About mid-day they have leave of absence for an hour when they dine, and on their return to school they are instructed in writing. About three o’clock they have another reading lesson which is also committed to memory, and about an hour before the close of day they have leave to play. The practice with regard to the forenoon and afternoon lessons in reading, is to join the perusal of a work in prose with that of a work in verse; as the Gulistan with the Bostan and Abdulfazl’s letters with the Secundar Nameh, the forenoon lesson being taken from one and the afternoon lesson from the other. In the evening they repeat the lessons of that day several times, until they have them perfectly at command; and, after making some preparation for the lessons of the next day, they have leave to retire. Thursday every week is devoted to the revision of old lessons; and when that is completed, the pupils seek instruction or amusement according to their own pleasure in the perusal of forms of prayer and stanzas of poetry, and are dismissed on that day at three o’clock without any new lesson. On Friday, the sacred day of Mussalmans, there is no schooling. In other districts in respectable or wealthy Mussalman families, besides the literary instructor called Miyan or Akhun, there is also a domestic tutor or Censor Morum called Atalik, a kind of head-servant whose duty it is to train the children of the family to good manners, and to see that they do not neglect any duty assigned to them; but I do not find any trace of this practice in Rajshahi. 282