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

he was of the view that teaching in Canara could not be termed ‘public education’; as it was organised on a somewhat discontinuous basis by a number of parents in an area by getting together and engaging the services of a teacher(s) for the purpose of teaching their children. The major difficulty for the collector, however, seemed to be that ‘the preparation of the necessary information would take up a considerable time’; and, that even if it were collected, no ‘just criterion of the actual extent of schools as exist in this zillah could be formed upon it.’ He hoped, therefore, that his letter itself would be considered as a satisfactory reply. It may be added here that Canara (from about 1800 onwards, and till at least the 1850s), even more than the northern areas of coastal Andhra, was the scene of continual opposition and peasant resistance to British rule. Besides, it also generally happened that whenever any such data was ordered to be collected (and this happened quite often) on one topic or another, the quality and extent of the information supplied by the collectors varied a great deal. To some extent, such differ- ences in these returns arose from the varying relevance of an enquiry from district to district. A more important reason, per- haps, was the fact that because of the frequent change of collec- tors and their European assistants, many of them (at the time such information was required) were not very familiar with the district under their charge. Furthermore, quite a number were for various reasons, too involved in other more pressing activities, or, mentally much less equipped to meet such continual demands for information. The information from the districts, therefore, varies a great deal in detail as well as quality. While the data from about half the districts was organised taluka-wise, and in some even parga- na-wise, from the other half it was received for the district as a whole. Three districts—Vizagapatam, Masulipatam and Tanjore—added one further category to the prescribed form provided by Government, viz. the category of Chettris or Rajah scholars between the columns for Brahmin and Vysee scholars. Further, while some of the collectors especially of Bellary, Cuddapah, Guntoor and Rajahmundry sent fairly detailed textual replies, some others like Tinnevelly, Vizagapatam and Tanjore left it to the data to tell the story. A few of the collectors also mentioned the books used in the schools and institutions of higher learning in their districts. The collector of Rajahmundry, being the most detailed, provided a list of 43 books used in Telugu schools. He also identified some of those used in the schools of higher learning, as well as in the schools teaching Persian and Arabic.

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