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

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

form and sound of the letters have been taught without regard to their size and relative proportion; but the master with an iron- style now writes on the palm-leaf letters of a determinate size and in due proportion to each other, and the scholar is required to trace them on the same leaf with a reed-pen and with charcoal-ink which easily rubs out. This process is repeated over and over again on the same leaf until the scholar no longer requires the use of the copy to guide him in the formation of the letters of a fit size and proportion and he is consequently next made to write them on another leaf which has no copy to direct him. He is afterwards exercised in writing and pronouncing the compound consonants, the syllables formed by the junction of vowels with consonants, and the most common names of persons. In other parts of the country, the names of castes, rivers, mountains, etc., are written as well as of persons; but here the names of persons only are employed as a school- exercise. The scholar is then taught to write and read, and by frequent repetition he commits to memory the Cowrie Table, the Numeration Table as far as 100, the Katha Table (a land- measure table), and the Ser Table (a dry-measure table). There are other tables in use elsewhere which are not taught in the schools of this district. The third stage of instruction extends from two to three years which are employed in writing on the plantain-leaf. In some districts the tables just mentioned are postponed to this stage, but in this district they are included in the exercises of the second stage. The first exercise taught on the plantain-leaf is to initiate the scholar into the simplest forms of letter writing, to instruct him to connect words in composition with each other, and to distinguish the written from the spoken forms of Bengali vocables. The written forms are often abbreviated in speech by the omission of a vowel or a consonant, or by the running of two syllables into one, and the scholar is taught to use in writing the full not the abbreviated forms. The correct orthography of words of Sanscrit origin which abound in the language of the people, is beyond the reach of the ordinary class of teachers. About the same time the scholar is taught the rules of arithmetic, beginning with addition and subtraction, but multiplication and division are not taught as separate rules—all the arithmetical processes hereafter mentioned being effected by addition and subtraction with the aid of a multiplication table which extends to the number 20, and which is repeated aloud once every morning by the whole school and is thus acquired not as a separate task by each boy, but by the mere force of joint repetition and mutual imitation. After addition and subtraction, the arithmetical rules taught divide 277

themselves into two classes, agricultural and commercial, in one or both of which instruction is given more or less fully according to the capacity of the teacher and the wishes of the parents. The rules applied to agricultural accounts explain the forms of keeping debit and credit accounts; the calculation of the value of daily or monthly labour at a given monthly or annual rate; the calculation of the area of land whose sides measure a given number of kathas or bigas; the description of the boundaries of land and the determination of its length, breadth, and contents; and the form of revenue accounts for a given quantity of land. There are numerous other forms of agricultural accounts, but no others appear to be taught in the schools of this district. The rules of commercial accounts explain the mode of calculating the value of a given number of sers at a given price per maund; the price of a given number of quarters and chataks at a given price per ser; the price of a tola at a given rate per chatak; the number of cowries in a given number of annas at a given number of cowries per rupee; the interest of money; and the discount chargeable on the exchange of the inferior sorts of rupees. There are other forms of commercial account also in common use, but they are not taught in the schools. The fourth and last stage of instruction generally includes a period of two years, often less and seldom more. The accounts briefly and superficially taught in the preceding stage are now taught more thoroughly and at a greater length, and this is accompanied by the composition of business letters, petitions, grants, leases, acceptances, notes of hand, etc., together with the forms of address belonging to the different grades of rank and station. When the scholars have written on paper about a year, they are considered qualified to engage in the unassisted perusal of Bengali works, and they often read at home productions as the translation of the Ramayana, Manasa Mangal, etc., etc. This sketch of a course of Bengali instruction must be regarded rather as what it is intended to be than what it is, for most of the school-masters whom I have seen, as far as I could judge from necessarily brief and limited opportunities of observation, were unqualified to give all the instruction here described, although I have thus placed the amount of their pretensions on record. All, however, do not even pretend to teach the whole of what is here enumerated; some, as will be seen from Table II, professing to limit themselves to agricultural, and others to include commercial accounts. The most of them appeared to have a very superficial acquaintance with both.

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With the exception of the Multiplication Table, the rhyming arithmetical rules of Subhankar, and the form of address to Saraswati, all which the younger scholars learn by mere imitation of sounds incessantly repeated by the elder boys, without for a long time understanding what those sounds convey—with these exceptions, native school-boys learn everything that they do learn not merely by reading but by writing it. They read to the master or to one of the oldest scholars what they have previously written, and thus the hand, the eye, and the ear are equally called into requisition. This appears preferable to the mode of early instruction current amongst ourselves, according to which the elements of language are first taught only with the aid of the eye and the ear, and writing is left to be subsequently acquired. It would thus appear also that the statement which represents the native system as teaching chiefly by the ear, to the neglect of eye, is founded on a misapprehension, for how can the aid of the eye be said to be neglected when with the exceptions above-mentioned, nothing appears to be learned which is not rendered palpable to the sense by the act of writing? It is almost unnecessary to add that the use of monitors or leaders has long prevailed in the common schools of India, and is well known in those of Bengali. The disadvantages arising from the want of school-houses and from the confined and inappropriate construction of the buildings or apartments used as school-rooms have already been mentioned. Poverty still more than ignorance leads to the adoption of modes of instruction and economical arrangements which, under more favourable circumstances, would be readily abandoned. In the matter of instruction there are some grounds for commendation for the course I have described has a direct practical tendency; and, if it were taught in all its parts, is well adapted to qualify the scholar for engaging in the actual business of native society. My recollections of the village schools of Scotland do not enable me to pronounce that the instruction given in them has a more direct bearing upon the daily interests of life than that which I find given, or professed to be given, in the humbler village schools of Bengal. ELEMENTARY PERSIAN SCHOOLS: (pp.148-153) The Persian schools in Nattore are four in number, containing twenty-three scholars, who enter school at any age varying from four and a half to thirteen years, and leave it at an age varying from twelve to seventeen. The whole time stated to 279

be spent at school varies from four to eight years. The teachers intellectually are of a higher grade than the teachers of Bengali schools, although that grade is not high compared with what is to be desired and is attainable. Morally, they appear to have as little notion as Bengali teachers of the salutary influence they might exercise on the dispositions and characters of their pupils. They have no fees from the scholars and are paid in the form of fixed monthly allowances with perquisites. The monthly allowances vary from one rupee eight annas to four rupees, and they are paid by one, two or three families, who are the principal supporters of the school. The perquisites, which are estimated at two rupees eight annas to six rupees a month, and consist of food, washing, and other personal expenses, are provided either by the same parties or by those parents who do not contribute to the monthly allowance. The total remuneration of a teacher varies from four to ten rupees per month, averaging about seven rupees. The principal object of the patrons of these schools is the instruction of their own children; but in one instance a worthy old Mussalman, who has no children, contributes a small monthly allowance, without which the teacher would not have sufficient inducement to continue his labours; and in another case besides two children of the family, ten other boys are admitted, on whom instruction, food, and clothing, are gratuitously bestowed. Two of the schools have separate school- houses, which were built by the benevolent patrons who principally support them. The scholars of the other two assemble in out-buildings belonging to one or other of the families whose children receive instruction. Although in the Persian schools printed books are unknown, yet manuscript works are in constant use. The general course of instruction has no very marked stages or gradations into which it is divided. Like the Hindus, however, the Mussalmans formally initiate their children into the study of letters. When a child, whether a boy or a girl, is four years, four months, and four days old, the friends of the family assemble, and the child is dressed in his best clothes, brought in to the company, and seated on a cushion in the presence of all. The alphabet, the form of letters used for computation, the introduction to the Koran, some verses of Chapter LV, and the whole of Chapter LXXXVII, are placed before him, and he is taught to pronounce them in succession. If the child is self- willed, and refuses to read, he is made to pronounce the Bismillah, which answers every purpose, and from that day his education is deemed to have commenced. At school he is taught the alphabet, as with 280

ourselves, by the eye and ear, the forms of the letters being presented to him in writing and their names pronounced in his hearing, which he is required to repeat until he is able to connect the names and the forms with each other in his mind. The scholar is afterwards made to read the thirteenth section of the Koran, the chapters of which are short, and are generally used at the times of prayer and in the burial service. The words are marked with the diacritical points in order that the knowledge of letters, their junction and correct orthography and their pronunciation from the appropriate organs may be thoroughly acquired; but the sense is entirely unknown. The next book put into his hands is the Pandanameh of Sadi, a collection of moral sayings, many of which are above his comprehension, but he is not taught or required to understand any of them. The work is solely used for the purpose of instructing him in the art of reading and of forming a correct pronunciation, without any regard to the sense of the words pronounced. It is generally after this that the scholar is taught to write the letters, to join vowels and consonants, and to form syllables. The next book is the Amadnameh, exhibiting the forms of conjugating the Persian verbs which are read to the master and by frequent repetition committed to memory. The first book which is read for the purpose of being understood is the Gulistan of Sadi, containing lessons on life and manners and this followed or accompanied by the Bostan of the same author. Two or three sections of each are read; and simultaneously short Persian sentences relating to going and coming, sitting and standing, and the common affairs of life, are read and explained. The pupil is afterwards made to write Persian names, then Arabic names and next Hindi names, especially such as contain letters to the writing or pronunciation of which difficulty is supposed to attach. Elegant penmanship is considered a great accomplishment, and those who devote themselves to this art employ from three to six hours every day in the exercise of it, writing first single letters, then double or treble, then couplets, quatrains, etc. They first write upon a board with a thick pen, then with a finer pen on pieces of paper pasted together; and last of all, when they have acquired considerable command of the pen, they begin to write upon paper in single fold. This is accompanied or followed by the perusal of some of the most popular poetical productions such as Joseph and Zuleikha, founded on a well-known incident in Hebrew history; the loves of Leila and Majnun; the Secundar Nameh an account of the exploits of Alexander the Great, etc., etc. The mode of computing by the Abjad, or letters of the alphabet, is also taught, 281

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

Upon the whole the course of Persian instruction, even in its less perfect forms such as are found to exist in this district, has a more comprehensive character and a more liberal tendency than pursued in the Bengali schools. The systematic use of books although in manuscript is a great step in advance, accustoming the minds of the pupils to forms of regular composition, to correct and elegant language, and to trains of consecutive thought, and thus aiding both to stimulate the intellect and to form the taste. It might be supposed that the moral bearing of some of the text books would have a beneficial effect on the character of the pupils; but as far as I have been able to observe or ascertain, those books are employed like all the rest solely for the purpose of conveying lessons in language— lessons in the knowledge of sounds and words in the construction of sentences, or in anecdotal information, but not for the purpose of sharpening the moral perceptions or strengthening the moral habits. This in general native estimation does not belong to the business of instruction, and it never appears to be thought of or attempted. Others will judge from their own observation and experience whether the Mussalman character, as we see it in India, has been formed or influenced by such a course of instruction. The result of my own observations is that of two classes of persons, one exclusively educated in Mahomedan, and the other in Hindu literature; the former appears to me to possess an intellectual superiority, but the moral superiority does not seem to exist. ELEMENTARY ARABIC SCHOOLS: (pp.152-153) The Arabic schools, or schools for instruction in the formal or ceremonial reading of certain passages of the Koran, are eleven in number, and contain 42 scholars, who begin to read at an age varying from 7 to 14, and leave school at an age varying from 8 to 18. The whole time stated to be spent at school varies from one to five years. The teachers possess the lowest degree of attainment to which it is possible to assign the task of instruc- tion. They do not pretend to be able even to sign their names; and they disclaim altogether the ability to understand that which they read and teach. The mere forms, names, and sounds, of certain letters and combinations of letters they know and teach, and what they teach is all that they know of written language, without presuming, or pretending, or aiming to elicit the feeblest glimmering of meaning from these empty vocables. This whole class of schools is as consummate a burlesque upon mere forms of instruction, separate from a rational meaning and 283