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

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

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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,

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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

and noted the number of women-midwives (there is not a man- midwife in the country) in the villages of Nattore, and find that they amount to 297. They are no doubt sufficiently ignorant, as are probably the majority of women-midwives at home. Still lower than the village doctors there is a numerous class of pretenders who go under the general name of conjurors or charmers. The largest division of this class are the snake- conjurors, their number in the single police sub-division of Nattore being not less than 722. There are few villages without one, and in some villages there are as many as ten. I could, if it were required, indicate the villages and the number in each; but instead of incumbering Table I with such details, I have judged it sufficient to state the total number in this place. They profess to cure the bites of poisonous snakes by incantations or charms. In this districts, particularly during the rainy season, snakes are numerous and excite much terror among the villagers. Nearly the whole district forming, it is believed, an old bed of the Ganges, lies very low; and the rapid increase of the waters during the rainy season drives the land-snakes from their holes, and they seek refuge in the houses of the inhabitants, who hope to obtain relief from their bites by the incantations of the conjurors. These take nothing for the performance of their rites, or for the cures they pretend to have performed. All is pecuniar- ily gratuitous to the individual but they have substantial advan- tages which enable them to be thus liberal. When the inhabitants of a village hitherto without a conjuror think that they can afford to have one, they invite a professor of the art from a neighbouring village where there happens to be one to spare, and give him a piece of land and various privileges and immunities. He possesses great influence over the inhabitants. If a quarrel takes place, his interference will quell it sooner than that of any one else; and when he requires the aid of his neighbours in cultivating his plot of ground or in reaping its produce, it is always more readily given to him than to others. The art is not hereditary in a family or peculiar to any caste. One I met with was a boatman, another a chowkidar and a third a weaver. Whoever learns the charm may practise it, but it is believed that those who practise it most successfully are ‘to the manner born’, that is, who have been born under a favourable conjunction of the planets. Every conjuror seems to have a separate charm, for I have found no two the same. They do not object to repeat it merely for the gratification of curiosity, and they allow it to be taken down in writing. Neither do they appear to have any mutual jealously, each readily allowing the virtue of other incantations than his own. 318

Sometimes the pretended curer of snake-bites by charms professes also to possess the power of expelling demons, and in other cases the expeller of demons disclaims being a snake- conjuror. Demon-conjurors are not numerous in Nattore; and tiger-conjurors who profess to cure the bites of tigers, although scarcely heard of in that thana, are more numerous in those parts of the district where there is a considerable space covered by jungle inhabited by wild beasts. Distinct from these three kinds of conjurors and called by a different name is a class of gifted (guni) persons who are believed to possess the power of preventing the fall of hail which would destroy or injure the crops of the villages. For this purpose when there is a prospect of a hailstorm, one of them goes out into the fields belonging to the villages with a trident and a buffalo's horn. The trident is fixed in the ground and the Gifted makes a wide circuit around it, running naked blowing the horn, and pronouncing incantations. It is the firm belief of the villagers that their crops are by this means protected from hailstorm. Both men and women practise this business. There are about a dozen in Nattore, and they are provided for in the same way as the conjurors. Some of these details may appear, and in themselves probably are, unimportant, but they help to afford an insight into the character of the humblest classes of native society who constitute the great mass of the people, and whose happiness and improvement are identical with the prosperity of the country; and although they exhibit the proofs of a most imbecile superstition, yet it is superstition which does not appear to have its origin or support in vice or depravity, but in a childish ignorance of the common laws of nature which the most imperfect education or the most limited mental cultivation would remove. These superstitions are neither Hindu nor Mahomedan, being equally repudiated by the educated portions of both classes of religionists. They are probably antecedent to both systems of faith and have been handed down from time immemorial as a local and hereditary religion of the cultivators of the soil, who, amid the extraordinary changes which in successive ages and under successive races of conquerors this country has undergone, appear always to have been left in the same degraded and prostrate condition in which they are now found.

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(c) BOOKS USED IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS Abbreviations: Murshidabad = MD; South Beerbhoom = BM; S. Behar = SB; Burdwan = Bun; Tirhoot = TT 326

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