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

VI. Modesty becomes every one, but is a particular ornament to the learned and rich. VII. The state of a married pair, who never deviate from the path of honour, virtue, and mutual duty, is as difficult as that of those who impose on themselves the several penances. In the gardens, or sacred enclosures, in which children are taught, the Lingam, or Priapus, represented under the form of a cylinder, is generally found. It is, however, not worshipped by all the Indians, but only by the Shivanites. These are a particular sect, who pay divine honour to Fire, under the form of the god Shiva, as the principle or creative power by which everything was produced. Besides the above idol, there are two other statues, which, for the most part, are placed before the entrance of the school. One of them represents Ganesha, the protector of the sciences, and of learned men; and the other the goddess Sarasvadi, the goddess of eloquence and history. Every student, as he enters the school, always directs his eyes to these two idols; raises his hands to his head, and shows his respect for them by repeating certain forms of prayer. That with which he salutes Ganesha is commonly in the following words: Sal Guruve nama: Adoration to thee, thou true master. Or, Ganabadaye name: Adoration to thee, O Ganabadi. This is real idolatry; but these practices at any rate prove that the Indians accustom their children early to honour the gods, and to consider them as their protectors and benefactors. “Those who are desirous of knowing the power of religion, and the influence of religious opinions,” said the Marquis of Kergariou, who commanded the Calypso frigate, “need only go to India”. This observation is indeed just; for among 2000 Indians you will scarcely find one who is not convinced of the necessity of supplicating the gods. Education, and the nature of the climate, are the strongest incitements to the natives to worship the deity, and to submit themselves to his will. The other sciences and branches of learning taught to the Indian youth are: Poetry, Gavya; Fencing, Payatta; Botany and medicine, Vaydyassastra, or Bheszagiashastra: Navigation, Naushastra: The use of the spear on foot (Hastiludium), Cundera: The art of playing at ball, Pandacali: Chess, Ciudarangam: Tennis, Coladi: Logic, Tarkashastra: Astrology, Giodisha: Law, Svadhyaya: Silence, Mauna.(Youth destined to be Brahmans, must spend ten years within the precincts of the temple at Trichur, and avoid all intercourse with the female sex. They are obliged also to observe the strictest silence, which continues for five years. This is the first degree of philosophy. A. It thence appears, that Phythagoras must have borrowed his philosophy in part from the Indian Philosophers, or others whose doctrine was similar, for his scholars were subjected to silence for the same number of years. See Diogenes Lacrtus, lib.viii.10, and Aul. Gollius, Noct, Att, 1-ib. i.9F.) The reader will have already 257

remarked, that surgery, anatomy, and geography are excluded from this catalogue. The Indians are of opinion, that their country is the most beautiful and happiest in the whole world: and for that reason they have very little desire to be acquainted with foreign kingdoms. Their total abstinence from all flesh, and the express prohibition of their religion which forbids them to kill animals, prevent them from dissecting them and examining their internal construction. Of the Indian poetry I have already spoken in my Samscred grammar; and I shall give some further account of it hereafter. Their navigation is confined merely to their navigable rivers; for in general, the Pagan Indians have the greatest aversion to the sea. The management of the lance, fencing, playing at ball and tennis, have been introduced into their education on good grounds, to render their youth active and robust, and that they may not want dexterity to distinguish themselves in battles and engagements where cannons are not used. There are particular masters for all these exercises, arts and sciences; and each of them, as already mentioned, is treated with particular respect by the pupils. Twice a year each master receives a piece of silk, which he employs for clothing; and this present is called Samanam. All the Indian girls, those alone excepted who belong to the castes of the Shudras and Nayris, are confined at home till their twelfth year; and when they go out, they are always accompanied by their mother or aunt. They inhabit a particular division of the house, called Andarggraha, which none of the male sex dare approach. The boys, in the ninth year of their age, are initiated with great ceremony into the calling or occupation of the caste to which their father belongs, and which they can never abandon. This law, mention of which occurs in Diodorous Siculus, Strabo, Arrian, and other Greek writers, is indeed exceedingly hard; but, at the same time, it is of great benefit to civil order, the arts and sciences, and even to religion. According to a like regulation, no one is allowed to marry from one caste into another. Hence it happens that the Indians do not follow that general and superficial method of education by which children are treated as if they were all intended for the same condition 258

and for discharging the same duties; but those of each caste are from their infancy formed for what they are to be during their whole lives. A future Brahman, for example, is obliged, from his earliest years, to employ himself in reading and writing, and to be present at the presentation of offerings, to calculate eclipses of the sun and moon; to study the laws and religious practices; to cast nativities; in short to learn every thing, which, according to the injunction of the Veda, or sacred books of the Indians, it is necessary he should know. The Vayshya on the other hand, instruct youth in agriculture; the Kshetria, in the science of government and the military arts, the Shudra, in mechanics, the Mucaver, in fishing; the Ciana, in gardening and the Banyen, in commerce. By this establishment the knowledge of a great many things necessary for the public good is not only widely diffused, but transmitted to posterity; who are thereby enabled still farther to improve them, and bring them nearer to perfection. In the time of Alexander the Great, the Indians had acquired such skill in the mechanical arts, that Nearchus, the commander of his fleet, was much amazed at the dexterity with which they imitated the accoutrements of the Grecian soldiers. I once found myself in a similar situation. Having entrusted to an Indian artist a lamp made in Portugal, the workmanship of which was exceedingly pretty, some days after he brought me another so like my own that I could scarcely distinguish any difference. It, however, cannot be denied, that the arts and sciences in India have greatly declined since foreign conquerors expelled the native kings; by which several provinces have been laid entirely waste, and the castes confounded with each other. Before that period, the different kingdoms were in a flourishing condition; the laws were respected, and justice and civil order prevailed; but, unfortunately, at present everything in many of the provinces must give way to absolute authority and despotic sway. 259

Annexure C MALABAR BIBLIOGRAPHY, THEIR PROGRESS IN LITERATURE, EDUCATION—SYSTEM BORROWED FROM IT. ACCOUNT OF IT FROM PETER DELLA VALLE. CUSTOM IN MALABAR TO TRANSLATE WORKS FROM SANSCRIT, MANNER OF WRITING OR ENGRAVING ON LEAVES. QUOTATION FROM LUSIAD. LIST OF BOOKS. (National Library of Scotland Edinburgh: Walker of Bowland Papers 184 a 3, Chapter 31: pp.501-27) I do not propose to give a history of the literature of Malabar; far less to enquire into the origin and progress of the sciences of India. I mean only to preface by a few observations a biblio- graphical list which I obtained many years ago (in 1800) of some of the books and authors whose works are studied in that country (Malabar). The literature of Malabar has the same foundation, and consists of the same materials, as that of all the Hindoo nations. The whole of their original works are composed in Sanscrite, a language of great antiquity, but which is no longer spoken, though its history is intimately connected with several of the present languages of Europe, with those of Greece and Rome, and with the whole of the numerous family of cognate Gothic tongues. Sancrite holds the same place in India, that Latin and Greek do in Europe; but as it would require an amazing period of time, and many political changes in society before a language could fall into disuse and be unemployed in speech, this circumstance without any further proof, would carry us, back to the first ages. It is natural to suppose that the sciences would first prosper where men were not exposed to excessive labour in order to procure the necessaries of life; plenty and tranquility would leave them at liberty to cultivate knowledge, to apply their minds to books, and learning. Unfortunately the Hindoos, like the ancients, seem to have considered that almost exclusively as science, which is more grounded on precepts and ideal pictures, than on facts and demonstration. They taught the duties of life, 260

and explained the faculties of the mind; but, the favourite study of the Indian sages, was a metaphysical and abstruse philosophy, founded on superstition and error. They regarded logic, rhetoric and grammar with particular approbation; and those who aspired to a superior reputation, acquired those sciences with unceasing labour, and intense application. They spent their lives in their cultivation. The Hindoos made no use of experiments, and it is extraordinary that without this aid, they should have become acquainted with the most difficult and hidden branches of Mathematics, Astronomy and Algebra. Have the acquisitions been the fruits of their own study and reflection; or have they been obtained from extraneous and a more ancient source which is now forgotten and lost? It is not possible to determine these questions; and as we cannot prove that they derived their knowledge from another people, it is but fair to consider them as the inventors of all which they possess, which they have preserved through so many perils and which they must have cultivated with so much ardour. The learning of the Malabar is probably more limited than that of the more central people of India; but they are not inattentive to the cultivation of letters. They are particularly anxious and attentive to instruct their children to read and to write. Education with them is an early and an important business in every family. Many of their women are taught to read and write. The Bramans are generally the school masters, but any of the respectable castes may, and often do, practice teaching. The children are instructed without violence, and by a process peculiarly simple. It is the same system which has caused so much heat and controversy, as to the inventors of it, in this country, and the merit of which was due to neither of the claimants.¹ The system was borrowed from the Bramans and brought from India to Europe. It has been made the foundation of National schools in every enlightened country. Some gratitude is due to a people from whom we have learnt to diffuse among the lower ranks of society instruction by one of the most unerring and economical methods which has ever been invented. The pupils are the monitors of each other, and the characters are traced with a rod, or the finger on the sand. Reading and writing are acquired at the same time, and by the same process. This mode of teaching however is only initial. If the pupil is meant to study the higher branches of learning, he is removed from these primary schools, where the arts of reading, writing and accounts 261

are acquired, and placed under more scientific masters. It is to these elementary schools that the labouring classes in India owe their education. It gives them an access, from the introduction of the system into this part of the world; advantage which the same classes in Europe, only now partially conferred on them a superior share of intelligence and placed them in a situation to perform better all the duties of life. About 200 years ago, Peter Della Valle published an account of this mode of instruction in Malabar. He wrote from Tkkeri 22nd November 1623. ‘In the meantime,’ he says, ‘while the burthens were getting in order, I entertained myself in the porch of the temple, beholding little boys learning arithmetic after a strange manner, which I will here relate. They were four, and having all taken the same lesson before the master, to get that same by heart, and repeat likewise their former lessons, and not forget them, one of them singing musically with a certain continued tone,² (which hath the force of making a deep impression in the memory) recited part of the lesson; as for example, “one by itself makes one”; and whilst he was thus speaking, he writ down the same number, not with any kind of pen, nor in paper, but (not to spend paper in vain) with his finger on the ground, the pavement being for that purpose strewed all over with fine sand;³ after the first had wrote what he sung, all the rest sung and writ down the same thing together. Then the first boy sung, and writ down another part of the lesson; as, for example, two by itself makes two, which all the rest repeated in the same manner; and so forward in order. When the pavement was full of figures, they put them out with the hand, and if need were, strewed it with new sand from a little heap which they had before them wherewith to write further. And thus they did as long as exercise continued; in which manner likewise they told one, they learnt to read and write without spoiling paper, pens or ink, which certainly is a pretty way. I asked them, if they happen to forget or be mistaken in any part of the lesson, who corrected and taught them, they being all scholars without the assistance of any master; they answered me, and said true, that it was not possible for all four to forget or mistake in the same part, and that they thus exercised together, to the end, that if one happened to be out, the 262

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

In Norway and Sweden they formerly wrote, or rather engraved, on flakes and planks. They wrote on wooden tablets. Poetry was inscribed on staves. A verse is therefore still called a stave.⁸ The mode of writing or engraving on leaves was probably at one period extended all over India. It is mentioned by Abdulrizack who travelled in 1442, as the common practice at Bisnaghur.⁹ There is no difficulty in multiplying schools at present in India to any extent provided funds are furnished. The people are anxious and earnest in calling upon the Missionaries for teach- ers. With a little patience, we may introduce into these schools any books that we please. In them the children know of no precedence, but that which is derived from merit.¹⁰ This is an ex- traordinary testimony in favour of the native character, and from a source where we can expect no kindly prejudice. They entertain no suspicion of the ultimate designs of their instructors; but with candour and openness send their children to school, where we are elsewhere informed, no difficulty was found in introducing the scriptures, when done with discretion.¹¹ They sacrifice all the feelings of wealth, family pride and caste that their children may have the advantages of a good education. This desire is strongly impressed on the minds of all the Hindoos. It is inculcated by their own system, which provided schools in every village. The learned and the ignorant, one of the Missionaries writes from Chinsuram, congratulate one another, that their children now enjoy the great blessings of education. Native free schools were once universal throughout India. It has been long the practice in Malabar to translate the Sanscrite writings into the common tongue, and to transcribe them in the vernacular character. By this means knowledge has been more generally diffused among the inhabitants; it is less confined to any order or class, and the people are better acquainted with the mysteries and dogmas of their religion. This spirit of enquiry and of liberty has most probably been affected by the sooders who compose the great body of population, and who were in possession of the principal authority and property in the country. 264

The Malabars have a mode of writing peculiar to themselves: it may be called with more propriety engraving. The letters are imprinted on a palm leaf dried and prepared by a particular process. Instead of a pen, they make use of an iron instrument with a sharp point resembling the stylus of the ancients. When they write on paper, they have recourse to the pen; but this is only in imitation of our manners or of the Mohammedans. Stones, skins, leaves, and the bark of trees, were the earliest materials made use of in writing. These leaves are not subject to decay, and resist vermin. They may be preserved a long time, much longer perhaps than paper; they write in general only on one side and from left to right. They cut the leaves into different sizes, and manufacture them of different qualities, which may be compared to different sorts of paper. They are made to answer either for books, notes or letters. They are formed into neat and convenient sized volumes not by stitching or binding but by stringing them together. A blank space is left at the end like our margin, through this a hole is made which admits a string or cord, generally of silk, and this drawn tight, or tied round them keeps the whole secure. The leaves are opened and unfolded by the Natives with the same facility as we do those of our books. The Malabar books are bound or covered by two pieces of wood which serve as boards, and which are varnished and painted according to taste. In Malabar in short, the original practice was to use neither pens, ink, nor paper. The leaf of the palm, smoked and dried served the purpose of paper. They engraved on this with a pointed iron resembling that with which the ancients inscribed letters on wax, and with a quickness and facility equal to our fastest writers. (Omitted here) The following contains a list of books which are to be found in Malabar: many were lost or destroyed during the disturbances under the Mohammedan Government, but the whole are still said to be existing in Travancore. This probably comprises the greatest part of Malabar literature. About 30 or 40 of these works have been transferred from the Sanscrit into the common tongue. Many of the Sanscrit words are allowed to remain in the translations and the affinity of the languages permits this liberty. In the notes to the Lusiad mention is made of a Malabar work which is probably contained in No.181 of the bibliography; 265

it may have been written by some Secretary and is perhaps at present suppressed or concealed. There is extant in India the writings of a Malabar poet, who wrote nine hundred epigrams, each consisting of eight verses, in ridicule of the worship of the Bramans, whom he treats with great asperity and contempt. Would any of our diligent enquirers after oriental learning favour us with an authentic account of the works of this poet of Malabar, he would undoubtedly confer a singular favour on the republic of letters.’¹² The author was probably a Deist: this is the secret profession of many Bramans, who are often at no pains to conceal their sentiments, and express openly their entire disbelief in all the Hindoo deities. I have been acquainted intimately with several Bramans who entertained these opinions, and who avowed their belief in one God only, the supreme being, the Creator of all. Reformers have appeared at different times in India, and the Vedantic sect in particular put no faith in the popular superstition. The Malabars have a number of dramas or naticas and are fond of theatrical exhibitions. I have been present at these exhibitions. The theatre is either in the open air, or under a slight temporary covering;¹³ but sometimes large enough to contain several thousand spectators. On these occasions, they have regular rows of forms and benches, on which the audience seat themselves. The men and women are intermixed as in our play houses. This is an amiable and remarkable contrast with the manners and jealous reserve of other parts of India. I have seen probably two thousand men and women assembled and sitting close together to witness one of these exhibitions. This, however, was on a great occasion of the marriage of a Raja’s daughter. There was a very large pendall erected, with rows of seats one above another, for the accommodation of the audience. The dramatist personae were gods, goddesses, kings, heroes and their attendants. The actors were dressed, suitably as they imagined to the characters they represented, but there was no machinery employed. The whole of the scenery consisted of a sheet or a calampoe, which formed a curtain. 266

The subject of the piece seemed to be the embarrassment of a Raja who was married to two wives. They tormented him with their quarrels and jealousies. He prayed to the Gods for relief. His prayers were heard, and he received a charm which enabled him to put whichever of the ladies he chose asleep. He was delighted with the remedy and looked forward for nothing in future but happiness. On a trial however he was disappointed. The waking wife was as suspicious as ever, and was continually upbraiding him for his partiality to her rival. He throws them by turns asleep, but has no relief. Each as she awoke was still jealous of the other. I have forgotten how it ended, but the account of this marriage was published in the newspapers of the time in India, about 1793. I cannot at present lay my hands on the account of this wedding which afterwards was transferred to some of the periodical publications at home. The object I think was to inculcate that one wife was preferable to two. Notes

1. Bell and Lancaster System.
2. This is done in our infant schools.
3. They have small boards of the size and shape of our plates covered with sand or chalk.
4. Letters, Peter Della Valle, p.100.
5. The Missionary Register for January, 1879.
6. Ibid.
7. Evelyn VI, p.277.
8. Edinburg Review, No.67.
9. See p.518.
10. Missionary Register for January 1822.
11. Ibid..
12. Lusiad, Book 8, p.300
13. Pendall 267

Annexure D Extracts From William Adam’s State of Education in Bengal 1835- 38 I W. ADAM ON INDIGENOUS ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS GENERAL: (pp.6-9) By this description are meant those schools in which instruction in the elements of knowledge is communicated, and which have been originated and are supported by the natives themselves, in contra-distinction from those that are supported by religious or philanthropic societies. The number of such schools in Bengal is supposed to be very great. A distinguished member of the General Committee of Public Instruction in a minute on the subject expressed the opinion, that if one rupee per mensem were expended on each existing village school in the Lower Provinces, the amount would probably fall little short of 12 lakhs of rupees per annum. This supposes that there are 100,000 such schools in Bengal and Bihar, and assuming the population of those two Provinces to be 40,000,000 there would be a village school for every 400 persons. There are no data in this country known to me by which to determine out of this number the proportion of school-going children, or of children capable of going to school, or of children of the age at which, according to the custom of the country, it is usual to go to school. In Prussia (See Cousin’s Report on the State of Public Instruction in Prussia, p.140) it has been ascertained by actual census that in a population of 12,256,725 there were 4,487,461 children under fourteen years of age; which gives 366 children for every 1,000 inhabitants, or about eleven-thirtieths of the nation. Of this entire population of children it is calculated that three-sevenths are of an age to go to school, admitting education in the schools to begin at the age of seven years complete, and there is thus in the entire Prussian monarchy the number of 1,923,200 children capable of receiving the benefits of education. These proportions will not strictly apply to 268

the juvenile population of this country because the usual age for going to school is from five to six, and the usual age for leaving school is from ten to twelve instead of fourteen. There are thus two sources of discrepancy. The school-going age is shorter in India than in Prussia, which must have the effect of diminishing the total number of school-going children; while on the other hand, that diminished number is not exposed to the causes of mortality to which the total school-going population of Prussia is liable from the age of twelve to fourteen. In want of more precise data, let us suppose that these two contrary discrepancies bal- ance each other, and we shall then be at liberty to apply the Prussian proportions to this country. Taking, therefore, eleven- thirtieths of the above-mentioned 400 persons, and three- sevenths of the result, it will follow that in Bengal and Bihar there is on an average a village school for every sixty-three children of the school-going age. These children, however, include girls as well as boys, and as there are no indigenous girls’ schools, if we take the male and female children to be in equal or nearly equal proportions, there will appear to be an indigenous elementary school for every thirty-one or thirty-two boys. The estimate of 100,000 such schools in Bengal and Bihar is confirmed by a consideration of the number of villages in those two Provinces. Their number has been officially estimated at 150,748 of which, not all, but most have each a school. If it be admitted that there is so large a proportion as a third of the villages that have no schools, there will still be 100,000 that have them. Let it be admitted that these calculations from uncertain premises are only distant approximations to the truth, and it will still appear that the system of village schools is extensively prevalent; that the desire to give education to their male children must be deeply seated in the minds of parents even of the humblest classes; and that these are the institutions, closely interwoven as they are with the habits of the people and the customs of the country, through which primarily, although not exclusively, we may hope to improve the morals and intellect of the native population. It is not, however, in the present state of these schools, that they can be regarded as valuable instruments for this purpose. The benefits resulting from them are but small, owing partly to the incompetency of the instructors, and partly to the early age at which through the poverty of the parents the children are removed. The education of Bengalee children, as has been just stated, generally commences when they are five or six years old and terminates in five years, before the mind can be fully awakened to a sense of the advantages of knowledge or the reason 269

sufficiently matured to acquire it. The teachers depend entirely upon their scholars for subsistence, and being little respected and poorly rewarded, there is no encouragement for persons of character, talent or learning to engage in the occupation. These schools are generally held in the houses of some of the most respectable native inhabitants or very near them. All the child- ren of the family are educated in the vernacular language of the country; and in order to increase the emoluments of the teachers, they are allowed to introduce, as pupils, as many respectable children as they can procure in the neighbourhood. The scholars begin with tracing the vowels and consonants with the finger on a sand-board and afterwards on the floor with a pencil of steatite or white crayon; and this exercise is continued for eight or ten days. They are next instructed to write on the palm-leaf with a reed-pen held in the fist not with the fingers, and with ink made of charcoal which rubs out, joining vowels to the consonants, forming compound letters, syllables, and words, and learning tables of numeration, money, weight, and measure, and the correct mode of writing the distinctive names of persons, castes, and places. This is continued about a year. The iron style is now used only by the teacher in sketching on the palm-leaf the letters which the scholars are required to trace with ink. They are next advanced to the study of arithmetic and the use of the plantain-leaf in writing with ink made of lamp-black, which is continued about six months, during which they are taught addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, and the simplest cases of mensuration of land and commercial and agricultural accounts, together with the modes of address proper in writing letters to different persons. The last stage of this limited course of instruction is that in which the scholars are taught to write with lamp-black ink on paper, and are further instructed in agricultural and commercial accounts and in the composition of letters. In country places the rules of arithmetic are principally applied to agricultural and in towns to commercial accounts; but in both town and country schools the instruction is superficial and defective. It may be safely affirmed that in no instance whatever is the orthography of the language of the country acquired in those schools, for although in some of them two or three of the more advanced boys write out small portions of the most popular poetical compositions of the country, yet the manuscript copy itself is so inaccurate that they only become confirmed in a most vitiated manner of spelling, which the imperfect qualifications of the teacher do not enable him to correct. The scholars are entirely without instruction, both literary and oral, 270

regarding the personal virtues and domestic and social duties. The teacher, in virtue of his character, or in the way of advice or reproof, exercises no moral influence on the character of his pupils. For the sake of pay he performs menial service in the spirit of a menial. On the other hand, there is no text or school- book used containing any moral truths or liberal knowledge, so that education being limited entirely to accounts, tends rather to narrow the mind and confine its attention to sordid gain, than to improve the heart and enlarge the understanding. This description applies, as far as I at present know, to all indigenous elementary schools throughout Bengal. ELEMENTARY BENGALI SCHOOLS (pp.137-146) It is expressly prescribed by the authorities of Hindu law that children should be initiated in writing and reading in their fifth year; or, if this should have been neglected, then in the seventh, ninth, or any subsequent year, being an odd number. Certain months of the year, and certain days of the month and week, are also prescribed as propitious to such a purpose; and on the day fixed, a religious service is performed in the family by the family-priest, consisting principally of the worship of Saraswati, the goddess of learning, after which the hand of the child is guided by the priest to form the letters of the alphabet, and he is also then taught, for the first time, to pronounce them. This ceremony is not of indispensable obligation on Hindus, and is performed only by those parents who possess the means and intention of giving their children more extended instruction. It is strictly the commencement of the child's school education, and in some parts of the country he is almost immediately sent to school; but in this district [Rajshahy] I do not find that there is any determinate age for that purpose. It seems to be generally regulated by means and opportunities of the parent and by the disposition and capacity of the child; and as there is a specified routine of instruction, the age of leaving school must depend upon the age of commencement. The Bengali schools in Nattore are ten in number, containing 167 scholars, who enter school at an age varying from five to ten years, and leave it at an age varying from ten to sixteen. The whole period spent at school also varies, according to the statements of the different teachers from five to ten years; two stating that their instructions occupied five years, one six years, three seven years, two eight years, one nine years, and one ten years—an enormous consumption of time especially at the more 271

advanced ages, considering the nature and amount of the instruction communicated. The teachers consist both of young and middle-aged men, for the most part simple-minded, but poor and ignorant, and, therefore, having recourse to an occupation which is suitable both to their expectations and attainments, and on which they reflect as little honor as they derive emolument from it; they do not understand the importance of the task they have undertaken; they do not appear to have made it even a subject of thought; they do not appreciate the great influence which they might exert over the minds of their pupils; and they consequently neglect the highest duties which their situation would impose, if they were better acquainted with their powers and obligations. At present they produce chiefly a mechanical effect upon the intellect of their pupils which is worked upon and chiseled out, and that in a very rough style, but which remains nearly passive in their hands, and is seldom taught or encouraged to put forth its self-acting and self-judging capacities. As to any moral influence of the teachers over the pupils—any attempt to form the sentiments and habits, and to control and guide the passions and emotions—such a notion never enters into their conceptions, and the formation of the moral character of the young is consequently wholly left to the influence of the casual associations amidst which they are placed, without any endeavour to modify or direct them. Any measures that may be adopted to improve education in this country will be greatly inadequate if they are not directed to increase the attainments of the teachers, and to elevate and extend their views of the duties belonging to their vocation. The remuneration of the teachers is derived from various sources. Two teachers have their salaries wholly, and another receives his in part, from benevolent individuals who appear to be influenced only by philanthropic motives; a fourth is remunerated solely in the form of fees; and the remaining six are paid by fees and partly by perquisites. There are in general four stages or gradations in the course of instruction indicated by the nature of the materials employed for writing on, viz., the ground, the palm-leaf, the plantain-leaf, and paper; and at the commencement of each stage after the first a higher fee is charged. In one instance the first and second stages are merged into one; in another instance the same fee is charged for the third and fourth: and in a third, the first, second, and third stages are equally charged; but the rule I have stated is observed 272

in a majority of cases, and partially even in those exceptions. Another mode adopted in two instances, of regulating the fees is according to the means of the parents whose children are in- structed; a half, a third, or a fourth less being charged to the children of poor than to the children of rich parents in the successive stages of instruction. The perquisites of the teachers vary from four annas to five rupees a month; in the former case consisting of a piece of cloth or other occasional voluntary gift from the parents; and in the latter, or in similar cases, of food alone, or of food, washing, and all personal expenses, together with occasional presents. Those who receive food as a perquisite either live in the house of one of the principal supporters of the school, or visit the houses of the different parents by turns at meal-times. The total income of the teachers from fixed salaries and fluctuating fees and perquisites varies from three rupees eight annas to seven rupees eight annas per month, the average being rather more than five rupees per month. The school at Dharail (No.34) affords a good specimen of the mode in which a small native community unite to support a school. At that place there are four families of Chaudhuris, the principal persons in the village; but they are not so wealthy as to be able to support a teacher for their children without the cooperation of others. They give the teacher an apartment in which his scholars may meet, one of the outer apartments of their own house in which business is sometimes transacted, and at other times worship performed and strangers entertained. One of those families further pays four annas a month, a second an equal sum, a third eight annas, and a fourth twelve annas, which include the whole of their disbursements on this account, no presents or perquisites of any kind being received from them, and for the sums mentioned their five children receive a Bengali education. The amount thus obtained, however, is not sufficient for the support of the teacher, and he, therefore, receives other scholars belonging to other families—of whom one gives one anna, another gives three annas, and five give each four annas a month, to which they add voluntary presents amounting per month to about four annas, and consisting of vegetable, rice, fish and occasionally a piece of cloth, such as a handkerchief or an upper or under garment. Five boys of Kagbariya, the children of two families, attend the Dharail school, the distance being about a mile, which, in the rainy season, can be travelled only by water. Of the five, two belonging to one family give together two annas, and the three others belonging to the other family give together four annas a month, and thus the whole income of the 273

master is made up. This case shows by what pinched and stinted contributions the class just below the wealthy and the class just above the indigent unite to support a school; and it constitutes a proof of the very limited means of those who are anxious to give a Bengali education to their children, and of the sacrifices which they make to accomplish that object. I have spoken of the emoluments of the teachers as low; but I would be understood to mean that they are low, not in comparison with their qualifications, or with the general rates of similar labour in the district, but with those emoluments to which competent men might be justly considered entitled. The humble character of the men, and the humble character of the service they render, may be judged from the fact already stated, that some of them go about from house to house to receive their daily food. All, however, should not be estimated by this standard; and perhaps a generally correct opinion of their relative position in society may be formed by comparing them with those persons who have nearly similar duties to perform in other occupations of life, or whose duties the teachers of the common schools could probably in most instances perform if they were called on to do so. Such, for instance, are the Patwari, the Amin, the Shumarnavis, and the Khamarnavis employed on a native estate. The Patwari, who goes from house to house, and collects the zemindar's rents, gets from his employer a salary of two rupees eight annas, or three rupees a month, to which may be added numerous presents from the ryots of the first productions of the season, amounting probably to eight annas a month. The Amin, who on behalf of the zemindar decides the disputes that take place among the villagers and measures their grounds, gets from three rupees eight annas to four rupees a month. The Shumarnavis, who keeps accounts of the collection of rents by the different Patwaris, receives about five rupees a month. And the Khamarnavis, who is employed to ascertain the state and value of the crops on which the zemindar has claims in kind, receives the same allowance. Persons bearing these designations and discharging these duties sometimes receive higher salaries; but the cases I have supposed are those with which that of the common native school-master may be considered as on a level, he being supposed capable of under- taking their duties, and they of undertaking his. The holders of these offices on a native estate have opportunities of making unauthorised gains, and they enjoy a respectability and influence which the native school-master does not possess; but in other respects they are nearly on an equality; and, to compensate for those disadvantages, the salary 274

of the common school-master is in general rather higher, none of those whom I met in Nattore receiving in all less than three rupees eight annas, and some receiving as high as seven rupees eight annas a month. There are no school-houses built for, and exclusively appropriated to, these schools. The apartments or building in which the scholars assemble would have been erected, and would continue to be applied to other purposes, if there were no schools. Some meet in the Chandi Mandap, which is of the nature of a chapel belonging to one of the principal families in the village, and in which, besides the performance of religious worship on occasion of the great annual festivals, strangers also are sometimes lodged and entertained, and business transacted; others in the Baithakkhana, an open hut principally intended as a place of recreation and of concourse for the consideration of any matters relating to the general interests of the village; others in the private dwelling of the chief supporter of the school, and others have no special place of meeting, unless it be the most vacant and protected spot in the neighbourhood of the master’s abode. The school (a) in the village numbered 4 meets in the open air in the dry seasons of the year; and in the rainy season those boys whose parents can afford it erect each for himself a small shed of grass and leaves, open at the sides and barely adequate at the top to cover one person from the rain. There were five or six such sheds among 30 or 40 boys; and those who had no protection, if it rained, must either have been dispersed or remained exposed to the storm. It is evident that the general efficiency and regularity of school-business, which are promoted by the adaptation of the school-room to the enjoyment of comfort by the scholars, to full inspection on the part of the teacher, and to easy communication on all sides, must here be in a great measure unknown. Respecting the nature and amount of the instruction received, the first fact to be mentioned is that the use of printed books in the native language appears hitherto to have been almost wholly unknown to the natives of this district, with the exception of a printed almanac which some official or wealthy native may have procured from Calcutta; or a stray missionary tract which may have found its way across the great river from the neighbouring district of Moorshedabad. A single case of each kind came under observation; but as far as I could ascertain, not one of the school-masters had ever before seen a printed book, those which I presented to them from the Calcutta School-Book

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Society being viewed more as curiosities than as instruments of knowledge. That Society has now established an agency for the sale of it publications at Bauleah, hence works of instruction will probably in time spread over the district. Not only are the printed books not used in these schools, but even manuscript text-books, are unknown. All that the scholars learn is from the oral dictation of the master; and although what is so communicated must have a firm seat in the memory of the teacher, and will probably find an equally firm seat in the memory of the scholar, yet instruction conveyed solely by such means must have a very limited scope. The principal written composition which they learn in this way is the Saraswati Bandana, or salutation to the Goddess of Learning, which is committed to memory by frequent repetitions, and is daily recited by the scholars in a body before they leave school all kneeling with their heads bent to the ground, and following a leader or monitor in the pronunciation of the successive lines or couplets. I have before me two versions or forms of this salutation obtained at different places; but they are quite different from each other, although described by the same name, and both are doggrels of the lowest description even amongst Bengali compositions. The only other written composition used in these schools, and that only in the way of oral dictation by the master, consists of a few of the rhyming arithmetical rules of Subhankar, a writer whose name is as familiar in Bengal as that of Cocker in England, without any one knowing who or what he was or when he lived. It may be inferred that he lived, or if not a real personage that the rhymes bearing that name were composed, before the establishment of the British rule in this country, and during the existence of the Mussalman power, for they are full of Hindustani or Persian terms, and contain references to Mahomedan usages without the remotest allusion to English practices or modes of calculation. A recent native editor has deemed it requisite to remedy this defect by a supplement. It has been already mentioned that there are four different stages in a course of Bengali instruction. The first period seldom exceeds ten days, which are employed in teaching the young scholars to form the letters of the alphabet on the ground with a small stick or slip of bambu. The sand-board is not used in this district, probably to save expense. The second period, extending from two and a half to four years according to the capacity of the scholar, is distinguished by the use of the palm-leaf as the material on which writing is performed. Hitherto the mere 276