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

The First Report: A Survey of Post-1800 Material Adam's first report is a general statement of the situation and a presentation of the data which he could derive from post-1800 official and other sources. His conclusions: first, every village had at least one school and in all probability in Bengal and Bihar with 1,50,748 villages, ‘there will still be 1,00,000’ villages that have these schools.⁵⁹ Second, on the basis of personal observation and what he had learnt from other evidence, he inferred that on an average there were around 100 institutions of higher learning in each district of Bengal. Consequently, he concluded that the 18 districts of Bengal had about 1,800 such institutions. Computing the number studying in these latter at the lowest figure of six scholars in each, he also computed that some 10,800 scholars should be studying in them. He further observed that while the elementary schools ‘are generally held in the homes of some of the most respectable native inhabitants or very near them’, the institutions of higher learning had buildings generally of clay with ‘sometimes three or five rooms’ and ‘in others nine or eleven rooms’, with a reading-room which is also of clay. These latter places were also used for the residence of the scholars; and the scholars were usually fed and clothed by the teachers, and where required, were assisted by the local people. After describing the method of teaching in both types of institutions and going into their daily routine, Adam then presented and examined the post-1800 data on the subject, district by district. Table 10 gives an abstract of this examination. The Second Report: Survey of Nattore Thana The second report was wholly devoted to Adam's study of the situation in the Thana of Nattore in the district of Rajshahy. It was like a modern pilot survey in which Adam developed his 49