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

respectable pundits of the place, who invariably taught at their houses or in the tols attached to them, where the pupils were all lodged partly at their own expense and partly at the expense of their preceptors. The total number of pupils who were at that time so circumstanced amounted to about 380; their ages averaging between 25 and 35 years. Few, it was observed, commenced their studies until they had attained the age of 21 years, and they often pursued them for 15 years, when, having acquired a perfect knowledge of the shastra and all its arcana, they returned to their native homes and set up as pundits and teachers themselves. In 1818, Mr Ward enumerated 31 schools of learning at Nuddea, containing in all 747 students, of whom not fewer than five studied under one teacher. So many as one hundred and twenty-five students are stated to have been receiving the instructions of one teacher at the same time, but the accuracy of Mr Ward’s information in this particular may be doubted. The principal studies were logic and law, and there was only one school for general literature, one for astronomy, and one for grammar. The following are the details in Mr Ward’s words:— ‘Nyaya Colleges Shivu-Nat’hu-Vidya-Vachusputee has one hundred and twenty-five students Ramu-Lochunu-Nyayu-Vhooshunu, twenty ditto Kashee-Nat’hu Turku-Chooramunee, thirty ditto Ubhuyanundu-Turkalunkaru, twenty ditto Ramu-Shurunu-Nyayu-Vagesshu, fifteen ditto Bhola-Nat’hu-Shiromunee, twelve ditto Radha-Nat’hu Turku-Punchanunu, ten ditto Ramu-Mohunu-Vidya Vachusputee, twenty ditto Shri Ramu-Turku-Bhooshunu, twenty ditto Kalee-Kantu-Chooramunee, five ditto Krishnu-Kantu-Vidya-Vageeshu, fifteen ditto Turkalunkaru, fifteen ditto Kalee-Prusunu, fifteen ditto Madhubu-Turku-Sidhantu, twenty-five ditto Kumula-Kantu-Turku-Chooramunee, twenty-five ditto Eeshwuru-Turku-Bhooshunu, twenty ditto Kantu-Vidyalunkaru, forty ditto Law Colleges Ramu-Nat’hu-Turku-Siddantu, forty students Gunga-Dhuru-Shiromunee, twenty-five ditto 298

Devee-Turkalunkaru, twenty-five ditto Mohunu-Vidya-Vachusuputee, twenty ditto Gangolee-Tukalunkaru, ten ditto Krishnu-Turku-Bhooshunu, ten ditto Pranu-Krishnu-Turku-Vageeshu, five ditto Poorohitu, five ditto Kashee-Kantu-Turku-Chooramunee, thirty ditto Kalee-Kantu-Turku-Punchanunu, twenty ditto Gudadhura-Turku-Vageeshu, twenty ditto College where the Poetical Works are read Kalee-Kantu-Turku-Chooramunee, fifty students Where the Astronomical Works are read Gooroo-Prusadu-Siddhantu-Vageeshu, fifty students Where the Grammar is read Shumboo-Nat'hu Chooramunee, five students.’ In 1821, the junior Member and Secretary of the General Committee of Public Instruction, H.H. Wilson, Esquire, in prosecuting a special investigation on which he was deputed, collected at the same time some general information respecting the state of learning at Nuddea. At that period Nuddea contained about twenty-five establishments for study. These are called tols, and consist of a thatched chamber for the pundit and the class, and two or three ranges of mud-hovels in which the students reside. The pundit does not live on the spot, but comes to the tol every day on which study is lawful at an early hour and remains till sunset. The huts are built and kept in repair at his expense, and he not only gives instructions gratuitously but assists to feed and clothe his class, his means of so doing being derived from former grants by the rajah of Nuddea, and presents made to him by the zemindars in the neighbourhood at religious festivals, the value of which much depends on his celebrity as a teacher. The students are all full-grown men, some of them old men. The usual number in a tol is about twenty or twenty-five, but in some places, where the pundit is of high repute, there are from fifty to sixty. The whole number is said to be between 500 and 600. The greater proportion consists of natives of Bengal, but there are many from remote parts of India, especially from the south. There are some from Nepaul and Assam, and many from the eastern districts, especially Tirhoot. Few if any have means of subsistence of their own. Their dwelling they obtain from their teacher, and their clothes and food in presents from him and the shop-keepers and land-holders in the town or 299

neighbourhood. At the principal festivals they disperse for a few days in quest of alms, when they collect enough to sustain them till the next interval of leisure. The chief study at Nuddea is nyayu or logic; there are also some establishments for tuition in law, chiefly in the works of Raghunandana, a celebrated Nuddea pundit, and in one or two places grammar is taught. Some of the students, particularly several from the Dekhin, speak Sanscrit with great fluency and correctness. The account by Mr Wilson is the latest and probably the most correct of the state of learning at Nuddea. The variations in the number of colleges and students at the different periods are deserving of attention. According to the respective authorities there were in 1816 forty-six schools and 380 students; in 1818 thirty-one schools and 747 students; and in 1829 twenty-five schools, containing from 5 to 600 students. It would thus appear that, within the last twenty years, the number of schools has diminished, and the number of scholars has upon the whole in- creased. This would seem to support the inference that there is now, in the class from which students are drawn, and increased disposition to study Hindoo learning, accompanied by a diminished ability or inclination in the class by which the colleges are principally supported, to incur the expense of encouraging new tols proportioned to the increased number of students. Several of those schools of Hindoo learning in Nuddea are supported or aided by small annual allowances from the British Government. Thus in 1813, Ramchandra Vidyalankara who enjoyed an annual allowance of rupees 71, in consideration of his keeping up a chaupari or seminary, died. Application was shortly afterwards made to the Collector of the district, and by him referred to the Revenue Board, for the assignment of his allowance to a native who claimed it as the heir of Ramchandra Vidyalankara, but the proofs of his right of succession or qualifications not being satisfactory, it was not granted to him. In 1818, Balanath Siromani preferred a claim to this allowance as the son of Ramchandra Vidyalankara and his successor in the chaupari. On reference of this claim to the Revenue Board, the Collector was ordered to ascertain whether Balanath Siromani did actually keep a seminary in Nuddea; and it appearing on enquiry that he kept a chaupari in which he educated eight pupils in the tarka or nyayu shastra, the government determined in June 1820, that the pension of rupees 71 should be continued to him and the arrears paid up. 300

In June, 1818, application was made to the Revenue Board through the Collector of Nuddea, on behalf of Sivnath Vidya- Vachaspati, for a pension or allowance of rupees 90 per annum, which had been enjoyed by his father Sukra Tarkavagis, in consideration of his maintaining a seminary in Nuddea. The Board ordered the continuance of the pension and the payment of arrears. In November, 1819, an application was made through the Collector of Nuddea to the Board of Revenue, on behalf of Sriram Siromani, for a pension or allowance of rupees 36 per annum, in consideration of his keeping up a chaupari or seminary at Nuddea, which had been founded and endowed by the rajah of Nattore. It was in this case also ascertained that Sriram Siromani did keep up the seminary in which there were three pupils, and the allowance together with the arrears was accordingly ordered to be paid to him. A similar decision was passed in 1819 in favour of Ramjaya Tarka-Bangka, confirming to him an annual allowance of rupees 62, in consideration of his continuing to maintain a seminary in Nuddea in which he educated five pupils. In 1823, it was represented to the Board of Revenue that a Native College existed in the town of Nuddea in which Ramchandra Tarkavagis taught the puranas, on account of which he petitioned for the annual pension or allowance from government of sicca rupees 24, which had been enjoyed by his father while resident in Rajshahy, and which he solicited might be continued to him in Nuddea. The Revenue Board directed their nazir to make enquiry as to the facts stated, and to report the result. He accordingly reported that Ramchandra Tarkavagis did keep a seminary in the town of Nuddea in which he maintained and instructed in the shastras 31 students, of whose names a list was delivered in and that he had done so for nine years then last past. Under these circumstances, the Board recommended and the government determined that the pension should be continued to Ramchandra Tarkavagis, and the arrears which had accrued since the death of his father be paid to him. In 1829, the Committee of Public Instruction received orders to examine and report upon a petition to government from certain students at Nuddea, claiming the restoration or continuance of an allowance amounting to 100 rupees per month. The Committee deputed their junior Member and Secretary, and ascertained that all those students who came from places more 301

than three days’ journey from Nuddea had hitherto depended very much upon this grant from government which gave them from twelve annas to one rupee a month, and nearly sufficed to procure them food. The amount of the grant that reached the students was in fact but 90 rupees, 10 being set apart for some ceremony. The number of foreign students was generally between 100 to 150, and there were about the latter number at that time at Nuddea awaiting the result of their petition. If not complied with, they would have found it necessary to quit the place. Mr Wilson made particular enquiry of the students with respect to the distribution of the allowance and entire satisfaction was uniformly expressed on this subject. A petty suraf or podar accompanied by one of their number is deputed to receive the allowance at the Collector’s Treasury. On his return he divides it among the foreign students whose presence in the town is perfectly well known. The podar, whom Mr Wilson saw, keeps a shop for the sale of grain, and supplies the students with food, advancing them occasional maintenance on the credit of their monthly allowance. They are commonly in his debt, but he is too unimportant a personage, and the students are too numerous, and as Brahmans too influential, for him to practice any fraud upon them. The allowance, he has, no doubt, is fairly distributed; and although the value of the learning acquired at Nuddea may not be very highly estimated by Europeans, yet it is in great repute with the natives, and its encouragement even by the trifling sum awarded is a gracious and popular measure. There can be no doubt of its being a very essential benefit to those students who have no other fixed means of support. On Mr Wilson’s report it was determined to continue the allowance of rupees 100 per month to the petitioners. Little is said by any of the authorities to which I have referred of the schools of learning in this district beyond the town of Nuddea; but there can be no doubt that such exist at Santipore, Kishnaghur, and other places within the district. Mr Ward mentions transiently that, at Koomaru Hutta and Bhatpara, villages in this district, there are perhaps seven or eight such schools. At Santipore there was formerly a small Government endowment which appears to be at present in abeyance. In 1824, an application was made through the Collector of Nuddea to the Board of Revenue by Devi Prasad Nyayu Vachaspati Bhattacharyya, as the brother of Kali Prasad Tarkasiddhanta Bhattacharyya, who had died in the preceding year, for an annual allowance or pension of sicca rupees 156-11- 10, in consideration to his keeping a seminary in the town of Santipore. 302

Enquiries were made as to the character of the deceased who is stated to have been a pundit of great ability, having when he died about 10 students under tuition. It also appeared by the evidence produced on the occasion that the brother and present claimant assisted the deceased in the tuition of his students who resided with him, and that they read the dharma shastra or works on law. The information thus produced not seeming to the Board of Revenue satisfactory, the Collector was directed to make further enquiries respecting the origin and the extent of the endowment and the service rendered, but his final report does not appear on the records. I have already mentioned the nature of the report, made by the Judge and Magistrate of this district in 1801, that there were no seminaries within the district in which either the Hindoo or Mahomedan law was taught, and I have met with no direct evidence to establish the existence of any Mahomedan institutions. With a considerable proportion, however, of Mahomedan population it seems exceedingly improbable that they should be entirely destitute of such institutions of education as are found to exist in other districts. DACCA & JALALPUR: (p.85) Hamilton speaks of certain schools in the district in which the principles or rather the forms of Hindoo religion and law are taught, but I have not been able to trace any further details respecting them. I find not the remotest reference to Mahomedan schools in a district remarkable for a large proportion of Moslem inhabitants. The public functionaries in 1823 reported to the General Committee that no grants or endowments of any description for the purpose of education were known to exist in the district. BACKERGUNGE: (p.86) I have not been able to obtain any information respecting indigenous schools, either elementary or learned, in this district, and I can only infer from the known state of education in other districts that here also such institutions must exist, although they have not in any way come under public notice. The Collector in 1823 reported that no endowments or funds for the purposes of education existed in the district. 303

CHITTAGONG: (pp.88-89) The official report of 1824 makes no mention of indigenous schools of learning, and it is probable that few exist in this district. It is, however, stated that there is much land that has been appropriated to charitable purposes, some for churches and some for the benefit of the poor, but no endowments were known at that time to exist for the benefit of education. In 1827, the Collector of the district was directed to make enquiries respecting a native institution supported by endowment, and to report the result to government. He reported that Meer Hinja had bequeathed lands for the endowment of a madrasa, and that they then yielded for the purpose of education not more than rupees 1,570 per annum, two-thirds of the endowment having been judicially assigned to the founder's children in the year 1790; that with the remaining one-third the then incumbent Maulavi Ali Machtulul Khan Kemoun professed himself unable to keep up the institution on its then present footing, which provided for the instruction of 50 students and for the support of three teachers, one of Arabic and two of Persian; that the number of students originally contemplated was 150; and that the buildings consisted of a small mosque in good order and two low ranges of attached houses for the dwelling of the master and disciples, which were of little value. The Collector suggested that the lands would realise twice their present rental, if put up to the highest bidder by order of government; and submitted that they should be so re-let, and the proceeds paid to the Maulavi in monthly installments, who in return should periodically submit his accounts and a report of the state of the institution to the Board of Revenue for the information of government. The Governor-General in Council approved this suggestion and it was ordered accordingly. TIPERA: (p.91) I have no information regarding either common schools or schools of learning in this district. Hamilton states, perhaps too positively, that there are not any regular schools or seminaries where the Hindoo and Mahomedan laws and religion are taught. In reply to enquiries made by the General Committee the local agents of government stated in 1823 that they could not discover that any endowments or funds of a public nature exist in the district, or that any grants have ever been made applicable to the purpose of public instruction. 304

MYMUNSING: (p.92) Hamilton states that there are not any regular seminaries in this district for teaching the Mahomedan law, but that there are two or three schools in each pergunnah for instruction in Hindoo learning. The district is divided into nineteen pergunnahs and six tuppas, in all twenty-five local sub- divisions, which will give from 50 to 60 schools of Hindoo learning in the district. The scholars are taught gratuitously, it being deemed disgraceful to receive money for instruction. Indigenous schools for learning imply the existence of indigenous elementary schools, but I find no mention of them in any authority to which I have referred. The alleged non-existence of Mahomedan schools in a district in which the proportion of Mahomedans to Hindoos is as five to two is incredible. SYLHET: (p.93) The information respecting the state of education in this district is exceedingly scanty. Hamilton states that there are no regular schools and seminaries for teaching the Hindoo or Mahomedan law, but that in different places there are private schools where boys are taught to read and write. Of Mymunsing the reverse was stated, that it had schools of learning, but nothing was said of elementary schools. It is probable that in Sylhet the former are to be found as well as the latter, although neither may be numerous or very efficient. MOORSHEDABAD: (pp.94-96) In 1801 there was said to be only one school in the district for instruction in the Mahomedan law, while there were twenty for instruction in the Hindoo laws and customs. It seems very probable that the number both of Hindoo and Mahomedan schools of learning was then and still is much greater. In December, 1818, the Collector of Moorshedabad forwarded to the Board of Revenue the petition of one Kali Kanth Sarma, praying for the continuance to him of a pension of five rupees per month, which had been granted to his father, Jaya Ram Nyaya Panchanan, by the late Maha Rani Bhawani, former zemindar of Chucklah Rajshahy, for the support of a Hindoo college at that place. The Collector accompanied the petition by a 305

statement that the pension had, as represented, been enjoyed by the father of the petitioner and confirmed to him by the government on the report of the Collector in 1796, and that the petitioner was of good character and qualified for the superintendence of the college. The Revenue Board on forwarding this petition and the Collector’s letter to the government observed that the pension had in fact lapsed to the government in 1811, the petitioner not being then qualified to discharge the duties of the office, but that it was intended fully to ascertain his fitness for the office and in the event of his competency to give it to him. ‘On general principles,’ the Board added, ‘we entertain the opinion that pensions granted for the maintenance of public institutions for education and instruction should not be resumed so long as they shall be appropriated bona fide for the purpose for which they were assigned; and we observe on reference to our proceedings that government has generally been pleased to continue pensions for similar purposes, the Board having previously ascertained the qualifications of the persons in whose favour they have been granted and we are accordingly induced to recommend the present claim to the favourable consideration of his Lordship in Council.’ On this recommendation the government confirmed Kali Kanth Sarma in the receipt of this pension; and upon his decease in 1821 it was by the same authority conferred on his brother Chandrasiva Nyayalankara whose claim was undisputed and who then maintained seven students, five of them resident in his house. In July, 1822, the Collector of Moorshedabad forwarded to the Revenue Board a petition from Kishanath Nyaya Panchanand, the son of Ramkishore Sarma, reporting the death of his father, and praying the transfer and continuance to himself of a monthly pension of five rupees which had been granted in 1793 for the support of a Hindoo seminary at Vyspur near Colapur. The Collector reported the petitioner to be the heir and rightful claimant of the pension and well qualified for the performance of the duties of the school. Under these circumstances the transfer of the pension from the name of Ramkishore Sarma to his son Kishanath Nyaya Panchanand was authorised. BEERBHOOM: (pp.98-100) I find no account of the state of indigenous education in this district. Hamilton is silent on the subject, and in reply to inquiries made by the General Committee in 1823, the local Agent of Government stated that there were no seminaries for 306

the instruction of youth in the district, either public or private, and, as I suppose must be understood, either elementary or learned. If, as I suspect, this statement is incorrect, it is the more extraordinary, because the agent appears to have taken a great deal of trouble to collect information regarding the means existing in the district supposed to be applicable to the encour- agement of education. From the analogy of other neighbouring districts, it seems incredible that there should be no schools of any kind amongst a population in which there is a proportion of thirty Hindoos to one Mahomedan. In 1820, a Hindoo named Sarbanand, who claimed succession to the office of ojha or high-priest of the temple of Baidyanath already mentioned, made an offer to the government through the local agent to give 5,000 rupees as an endowment for a Native school in the district on condition that his claim to the succession of the ojhaship might be sanctioned and established by the authority of government. From a notice of this transaction contained in the records of the General Committee, it would appear that he actually sent the money to the Collector’s office, and that in addition to the establishment of a school he wished it to be, in part, expended on the excavation of a tank at Soory, the chief town of the district. The offer was declined, and Sarbanand informed that he must abide the regular adjudication of the law courts on his claim, which proved unfavourable. The acting Agent and Collector in Beerbhoom in 1823 seems to have considered that the funds of the temple were liable to be applied to the establishment of public institutions, but it does not appear on what grounds this opinion was formed. According to one account the collections of the temple average 30,000 rupees per annum, the amount depending on the number and liberality of the pilgrims. According to an official estimate made in 1822, the resources of the temple were supposed to be 1,50,000 rupees annually. A specific fact stated is that in two months the collections amounted to 15,000 rupees, but it is not said whether the two months were in the season of the year when the temple is most frequented. The present appropriation of the revenue after providing, I conclude, for the current expenses of the temple, is to the support of religious mendicants and devotees. The acting Agent and Collector also submitted two statements of the quantity of land dedicated to various religious purposes, expressing at the same time the opinion that the produce 307

of these endowments is generally estranged from the purposes to which it was originally devoted, and enjoyed by persons who have no claim to it. He seems to have considered that these endowments also were applicable to purposes of education but the reasons of the opinion are not given. The statements were prepared from the public registries of land and I subjoin them entire, noticing here only their general results. These are that in twenty-two pergunnahs there are 8,348 beeghas, besides 39 separate mouzahs or villages of dewottur lands; 16,331 beeghas of nazar lands; 5,086 beeghas of chiraghi lands and 1,015 beeghas of pirottur lands. In fifteen other pergunnahs that had been then recently transferred from the district of Moorshedabad to that of Beerbhoom, there are 1,934 beeghas of dewottur and 162 of pirottur lands, making the whole amount 32,877 beeghas of land, besides 39 villages. I have added to the statements a brief explanation of the distinctive terms employed to describe the different sorts of endowed lands; and I have recorded these endowments in this place because they were in some way connected in the mind of the acting Agent and Collector with the means existing in the district for the promotion of education; but I would not be understood to express a concurrence in the opinion, if it was entertained, that their application to such a purpose could be rendered legally obligatory. As far as I can ascertain from the terms employed to describe them, they are religious endowments. With the voluntary consent of the holders, they are, as I understand, capable of being applied to promote education when viewed as a religious duty; but without that consent it would be unjust to employ them for such a purpose, and it would also be imprudent by the employment of questionable means in pursuit of a great public object, such as national education, to rouse the religious feelings of the country against it.

RAJSHAHY: (pp.103-104) There is no doubt that in this district there are several schools of Hindoo learning, but I find no mention of any of them except two which are supported by an allowance from government. In June, 1813, the Collector of Rajshahy forwarded to the Revenue Board a petition from Kassessur Bachusputy, Govindram Sirhat, and Hurram Surma Buttacharjee, stating that their father had received from Rani Bhawani an allowance of 90 rupees per annum for the support of a college, which allowance on the decease of their father had been continued to their elder brother till his decease; and that since the date of that event they

308

had kept up the establishment, and therefore, prayed that the allowance might be continued to them. The Collector corroborated the averments in this petition, observing that Kassessur discharged the duties of one college in the town of Nattore, and that his two brothers had established another in the Mofussil. The Revenue Board, in forwarding the Collector's letter and the petition to government, observed that the pension had been conferred by the authority of government on the late Chundar Sikar Turkanshes for his life, on a representation from the Collector that he had no other means of subsistence, and was properly qualified and taught the sciences gratis; that he was attended by many students; was the only capable teacher in Nattore; and that the continuance of his pension might be deemed a public benefit. The Revenue Board further submitted that, as it appeared the brothers maintained the institutions of their father in full efficiency, the pension might be continued to them and their heirs in perpetuity, on the condition of their continuing to uphold these establishments under the supervision of the local agents of the British Government. The Bengal Government fully acquiesced in this suggestion, and sanctioned the payment of the allowance of 90 rupees per annum on the condition stated by the Revenue Board. RANGPUR: (pp.106-107) Hamilton on the state of learning in this district says that a few Brahmans have acquired sufficient skill in astronomy to construct an almanac, and five or six Pundits instruct youth in a science named Agam, or magic, comprehending astrology and chiromancy. The latter is reckoned a higher science than the calculation of nativities, and is monopolised by the sacred order. The Mahomedans, he adds, having no wise men of their own, consult those of the Hindoos. This account of the state of learning is very unfavourable and is not quite correct. The Agama shastra does not merely teach astrology and chiromancy, but is also occupied with the ritual observances of modern Hindooism, and it is not the only branch of learning taught in the schools. From details furnished by the canoongoes, it appears that in nine sub-divisions of the district there are 41 schools of Sanskrit learning containing each from 5 to 25 scholars, who are 309

taught grammar, general literature, rhetoric, logic, law, the mythological poems, and astronomy, as well as the Agama shastra. The students often prosecute their studies till they are thirty-five and even forty years of age, and are almost invariably the sons of Brahmans. They are supported in various ways— first, by the liberality of those learned men who instruct them; secondly, by the presents they receive on occasions of invitation to religious festivals and domestic celebrations; thirdly, by their relations at home; and fourthly, by begging, recourse being had to one means when others fail. The instructors are enabled to assist their pupils, sometimes from their own independent means, sometimes from the occasional gifts they receive from others, and sometimes from the produce of small endowments. At least ten are stated to have small grants of land for the support of learning, one of these consisting of 25 beeghas of Brahmottur land, and another of 176 beeghas of Lakhiraj land. The quantity of land in the other cases in not mentioned, but it is not stated to be generally Brahmottur. In one instance it is stated that the owner of the estate on which the school is situated gave the Pundit a yearly present of 32 rupees, and in another instance a monthly allowance of 5 or 8 rupees. In a third instance the Pundit of the school lived on his patrimony, and at the same time acted as family priest to the zemindar. DINAJPUR: (pp.112-114) Of the twenty-two sub-divisions of the district, there are fif- teen without any schools of learning, and the remaining seven have only sixteen schools. Most of the teachers possess lands which enable them to provide for their own subsistence as well as that of their pupils, and they receive gifts from all Hindoos of any distinction. There is, however, no necessity for a person who holds these lands to instruct youth, and when the celebrity of a teacher has procured large grants of land, his heirs, although they continue to enjoy the estate, are not bound to teach. They may retain the high title of Pundit without devoting themselves to the business of instruction or they may even betake themselves to the degrading affairs of the world without forfeiting the property. Very much, however, to the credit of the Brahmans, such a neglect is not usual, and one son of the family continues generally to profess the instruction of youth. If there are other sons they follow their natural inclination. With such a system, however liberal it may be in appearance, and to 310

whatever merit the individual professors are justly entitled, it must be evident that the work of education will go on but slowly. It is even to be feared that it would altogether stop, were it not for the charity which usually follows considerable reputation as a teacher. Students usually commence the study of the Sanskrit language about twelve years of age, after they have been instructed in the knowledge taught in the elementary schools. The principal studies are, as elsewhere in Bengal, grammar, law, and metaphysics and less frequently the philosophical theology of the Veds, the ritual of modern Hindooism, and astronomy, to which may be added medicine or rather magic. The Vaidyas or medical tribe, and even some rich Kayasthas, are permitted to study such portions of Sanskrit literature as have been composed by wise men; but they are excluded from whatever is supposed to be of divine origin and authority. Dr Buchanan remarks that the exclusiveness with which Sanskrit learning has been appropriated to the sacred tribe may have tended to increase the general ignorance; but that there can be no doubt that those who possess it enjoy very considerable advantages over their countrymen. The Brahmans generally speaking have an intelligence and acuteness far beyond other Hindoos; and he further thinks that they are subject to fewer vices, and that those persons will be found to approach nearest their good qualities who are admitted even to the porch of science. Here as well as elsewhere it will be found that although intellectual cultivation and moral excellence are neither identical nor always concomitant yet the addiction to intellectual pursuits and enjoyments, coeteries paribus, leads to the elevation and improvement of the moral character. Amongst the multiplied means, therefore, which civilisation and philanthropy will suggest for the reformation of a whole people, let us not altogether neglect one of which, however unfamiliar it may be to our conceptions, experience has established the utility, and which has in fact been the salt of the earth, preserving the country for centuries past amid general debasement and corruption from total ignorance and depravation. It does not appear that there is any school in which Arabic or the sciences of the Mahomedans are taught,—a remarkable fact respecting a populous district in which so large a proportion of the inhabitants is Mahomedan. Although some of the Mahomedan priests can read the portions of the Koran that are appropriated for certain ceremonies,

311

yet Dr Buchanan heard a general complaint from the kazis that few understood a single word of that language and that the greater part had merely learned the passages by rote so as to enable them to perform the ceremonies. PURNEAH: (pp.119-122) Throughout the district Dr Buchanan reckoned 119 schools of this description, possessing various degrees of respectability. The subjects taught are grammar, logic, and law, astronomy and the modern ritual, the teachers of the two latter, although classed as learned men, being less respected than the former. Some even of the most respected class were reputed to possess but superficial acquirements. The students are said to be inattentive and to take long vacations. About as many students go to other districts from Purneah as are attracted to it from other quarters. No Pundit had above eight scholars altogether which is less than two for each teacher. The Pundits in the district, including the professional teachers, amounted to 247, but the claims of many to the title were deemed questionable. A great many other persons to the number of 1,800 or 1,900 assume the title of Pundit but are distinguished from the former by the name of dasakarmas. They officiate as priests to the Sudras, and towards the West they act in the same capacity for very low castes; but in those parts few can read or write any language. They understand, however, the poetical legends when read, have acquired some knowledge of the marvels they contain, have committed to memory the necessary forms of prayer, and can perform the usual ceremonies. In the eastern parts of the district, where the manners of Bengal pre- vail, there is a class of Brahmans who officiate for the lower castes of Sudras, and their knowledge is nearly on a level with that of the dasakarmas. The dasakarmas, who act as priests for the higher order of Sudras, can read and are able to pray from a book. A good many of them have studied for a year or two under a learned teacher, and have some slight knowledge of grammar and law. Some of them can understand a part of the ceremonies which they read, and some also can note nativities. A very few of the medical tribe in the south east corner of the district have studied the sacred tongue. It is remarked that science is almost entirely confined to two of the corners of the district, the old territory called Gour, and the small portion situated to the west of the Kosi. In the former case, the effect is attributed to the care of a native public officer who had several estates in that vicinity, and still 312

retained a part at the time of Dr Buchanan's investigation. He appointed six pundits to teach, and gave them an allowance be- sides the lands which they possess. They are reckoned higher in rank than the other professors in the vicinity, and are called rajpundits. The thirty-one pundits in that quarter addict them- selves chiefly to the study of grammar, law, and the mythological poems. Logic and metaphysics are neglected, as well as astronomy and magic. In the western side of the district there are no less than thirty-three teachers within a small space and there astrology as well as metaphysics is studied; mythological poems are not much read and magic is not known. The number of the teachers is owing to the patronage of the Rajahs of Darbhanga to whom the greater part of the lands belong; but their patronage did not appear to be very efficacious, for, of the thirty-three Pundits in the whole territory west of the Kosi, only eight were considered well-versed in the sciences and learning, which they professed to teach, viz., one in logic and metaphysics, three in grammar, and four in astrology. All these are Mithila Pundits. Dr Buchanan has communicated some details of the proportions in which the different branches of learning were studied. Eleven Pundits taught metaphysics; of these six confined themselves entirely to that branch; one also taught grammar, another added law; two others with law also read the Sri bhagvut; and one man included the whole of these within the range of his instructions. There were no less than thirty-one teachers of the law, of whom one only confined himself to that pursuit; twenty of them taught one additional science; and of these nineteen taught grammar, and one logic and metaphysics; eight taught two additional branches, of whom three taught grammar and explained the bhagvut, two taught logic and metaphysics and also explained the bhagvut, two taught grammar and the modern ritual, and one taught grammar and astronomy. Two taught three other branches, one explaining grammar, logic and the mythological poems, and the other substituting the modern ritual for logic. Of eleven teachers of the astronomical works, ten professed nothing else. Of seven persons who taught the modern ritual, one only confined himself to it, two professed the law, three taught grammar and the metaphysical poems, and six were proficients in grammar. Only five Pundits limited themselves to the teaching of grammar. With regard to the state of medical education and practice, Dr Buchanan ascertained that there were twenty-six Bengalee practitioners who used incantations (muntras); thirty-seven who 313

rejected them and administered medicine; and five Mahomedan physicians who seemed to be little superior to the Hindoos. The doctrines of both are nearly the same, and seem to be founded on the school of Galen. Those who practice at large make from 10 to 20 rupees a month. They do not keep their recipes or doctrines secret, but seemed to practice in a liberal manner, although without having gained a high reputation. A considerable number are servants, and attend on wealthy families for a monthly pension. Many of them cannot read. There is another class of medical practitioners who reject incantations and exhibit herbs. They have no books, and the greater part cannot read the vulgar tongue. They have been early instructed in the use of certain herbs in certain diseases. Dr Buchanan heard of about 450 of them, but they seemed to be chiefly confined to the Hindoo divisions of the district, and they are held in very low estimation. There is also a class of persons who profess to treat sores, but they are totally illiterate and destitute of science, nor do they perform any operation. They deal chiefly in oils. The only practitioner in surgery was an old woman, who had become reputed for extracting the stone from the bladder, which she performed after the manner of the ancients. According to Dr Buchanan the science of the Arabs has been exceedingly neglected in this district, so that very few even of the kazis are supposed to understand the Koran or any Arabic work on grammar, law or metaphysics. He did not hear of one man who attempted to teach any of these branches of learning, and he expresses a doubt whether even one man employed in administering the Mohammedan law and born in the district was tolerably well-versed in the subject, or so well informed or liberally educated as the common attornies in a country town of England. 314

III W. ADAM ON STATE OF NATIVE MEDICAL PRACTICE (pp.195-200) The state of Native Medical Practice in the (Rajshahy) district is so intimately connected with the welfare of the people that it could not be wholly overlooked; and as the few facts that I have collected tend additionally to illustrate their character and condition, it would be improper to omit them. They are submitted with deference to those who may have made professional inquiries, and can form a professional judgment on the subject. The number of those, who may be called general practitioners and who rank highest in the native medical profession in Nattore is 123, of whom 89 are Hindus and 34 are Mahomedans. The Medical School at Vaidya Belghariya possesses considerable interest, since it is, as far as I can ascertain, the only institution of the kind in the district, and the number of such institutions throughout Bengal is, I believe, very limited. The two medical teachers of this school are employed as domestic physicians by two wealthy families, and they have each also a respectable general practice. As a domestic physician, the junior teacher has a fixed salary of twenty-five rupees a month; while the senior teacher in the same capacity has only fifteen rupees a month, and that only as long his attendance may be required during periods of sickness in the family that employs him. I have spoken of that family as wealthy, but it is only comparatively so being in very reduced circumstances; and to that cause rather than to the low estimation in which the physician is held, we must ascribe the scant remuneration he receives. At another place, Hajra Nattore, No.26, there are three educated Hindu practitioners, all three Brahmans and brothers and more or less acquainted with Sanscrit, having acquired the grammar of the language at Bejpara Amhatti, and subsequently applied their knowledge of it to the study of the medical works in that language. The eldest has practised since he was eighteen, and he is now sixty-two years of age, and employs his leisure in instructing his two nephews. On an average of the year he estimates the income derived from his practice at five rupees a month, while one of his brothers who is in less repute estimates his own income at three rupees. At a third place, Haridev Khalasi, No.100, there are four educated Hindu practitioners, three of whom appeared to be in 315

considerable repute for skill and learning. They were all absent, and I had not an opportunity of conversing with them; but their neighbours and friends estimated their monthly professional income at eight, ten, and twelve rupees, respectively. There are at most two or three other educated Hindu physicians in Nattore, and all the rest are professionally uneducated, the only knowledge they possess of medicine being derived from Bengali translations of Sanscrit works which describe the symptoms of the principal diseases and prescribe the articles of the native materia medica that should be employed for their cure, and the proportions in which they should be compounded. I have not been able to ascertain that there is a single educated Musalman physician in Nattore, and consequently the 34 Mahomedan practitioners I have mentioned, rank with the uneducated class of Hindu practitioners, deriving all their knowledge of medicine from Bengali translations of Sanscrit works to the prescriptions of which they servilely adhere. The only difference that I have been able to discover between the educated and uneducated classes of native practitioners is that the former prescribe with greater confidence and precision from the original authorities, and the latter with greater doubt and uncertainty from loose and imperfect translations. The mode of treatment is substantially the same, and in each case is fixed and invariable. Great attention is paid to the symptoms of disease, a careful and strict comparison being made between the descriptions of the supposed disease in the standard medical works and the actual symptoms in the case of the patient. When the identity is satisfactorily ascertained, there is then no doubt as to the practice to be adopted, for each disease has its peculiar remedy in the works of established repute, and to depart from their prescriptions would be an act of unheard of presumption. If, with a general resemblance, there should be some slight difference of symptoms, a corresponding departure from the authorised prescription is permitted, but only as regards the medium or vehicle through which it is administered. The medicines administered are both vegetable and mineral. The former are divided into those which are employed in the crude state, as barks, leaves, common or wild roots, and fruits etc.; and those which are sold in the druggist's shop as camphor, cloves, carda- mums, etc. They are administered either externally or in the forms of pill, powder, electuary, and decoction. The preceding class of practitioners consists of individuals who at best know nothing of medicine as a science, but practise 316

it as an art according to a prescribed routine, and it may well be supposed that many, especially of the uneducated class, are nothing but quacks. Still as a class they rank higher both in general estimation and in usefulness than the village doctors. Of these there are not fewer than 205 in Nattore. They have not the least semblance of medical knowledge, and they in general limit their prescriptions to the simplest vegetable preparations, either preceded or followed by the pronouncing of an incantation and by striking and blowing upon the body. Their number proves that they are in repute in the villages; and the fact is ascribable to the influence which they exercise upon the minds of the superstitious by their incantations. The village doctors are both men and women; and most of them are Mahomedans, like the class to which they principally address themselves. The smallpox inoculators in point of information and respectability come next to the class of general practitioners. There are 21 of them in Nattore, for the most part Brahmans, but uninstructed and ignorant, exercising merely the manual art of inoculation. One man sometimes inoculates from 100 to 500 children in a day, receiving for each operation a fixed rate of payment varying from one to two annas; the less amount if the number of children is great, the greater amount if the number is small. The cow-pox has not, I believe, been introduced into this district amongst the natives, except at the head station. Elsewhere the smallpox inoculators have been found its opponents, but, as far as I can understand, their opposition does not arise from interested motives, for the cow-pox inoculation would give them as much labour and profit as they now have. Their opposition arises, I am assured, from the prejudice against using cow-pox. The veneration in which the cow is held is well- known, and they fear to participate in a practice which seems to be founded on some injury done to that animal when the matter was originally extracted. The spread of the cow-pox would probably be most effectually accomplished by the employment of Mussalman inoculators whose success might in due time convince the Brahman inoculators of their mistake. Midwives are another class of practitioners that may be noticed, although it has been denied that Hindus have any. An eminent London physician, in his examination before the Medical Committee of the House of Commons, is stated to have affirmed that the inhabitants of China have no women-midwives, and no practitioners in midwifery at all. ‘Of course,’ it is added, ‘the African nations and the Hindus are the same.’ I enquired 317