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

Annexure A
I
MINUTE OF GOVERNOR SIR THOMAS MUNRO
ORDERING THE COLLECTION OF DETAILED INFORMATION
ON INDIGENOUS EDUCATION:
25.6.1822*
(TNSA: Revenue Consultations: Vol.920: dated 2.7.1822)

1. Much has been written both in England and in this
   country about the ignorance of the people of India and the
   means of disseminating knowledge among them. But the
   opinions upon this subject are the mere conjectures of
   individuals unsupported by any authentic documents and
   differing so widely from each other as to be entitled to very little
   attention. Our power in this country and the nature of its own
   municipal institutions have certainly rendered it practicable to
   collect material from which a judgment might be formed of the
   state of the mental cultivation of the people. We have made
   geographical and agricultural surveys of our provinces. We have
   investigated their resources and endeavoured to ascertain their
   population, but little or nothing has been done to learn the state
   of education. We have no record to show the actual state of
   education throughout the country. Partial inquiries have been
   made by individuals, but those have taken place at distant
   periods—and on a small scale and no inference can be drawn
   from them with regard to the country in general. There may be
   some difficulty in obtaining such a record as we want. Some
   Districts will not—but others probably will furnish it—and if we
   get it only from two or three it will answer in some degree for all
   the rest. It cannot be expected to be very accurate, but it will at
   least enable us to form an estimate of the state of instructions
   among the people. The only record which can furnish the
   information required is a list of the schools in which reading and
   writing are taught in
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each district showing the number of scholars in each and the
caste to which they belong. The Collectors should be directed to
prepare this document according to the form which accompanies
this paper. They should be desired to state the names of the
book generally read at the schools. The time which scholars
usually continue, at such schools. The monthly or yearly charge
to the scholars and whether any of the schools are endowed by
the public and if so the nature and amount of the fund. When
there are colleges or other institutions for teaching Theology,
Law, Astronomy, etc. an account should be given of them. These
sciences are usually taught privately without fee or reward by
individuals to a few scholars or disciples, but there are also
some instances in which the native governments have granted
allowances in money and land for the maintenance of the
teachers.
2. In some districts, reading and writing are confined
almost entirely to Bramins and the mercantile class. In some
they extend to other classes and are pretty general among the
Patails of villages and principal Royets. To the women of
Bramins and of Hindoos in general they are unknown because
the knowledge of them is prohibited and regarded as
unbecoming of the modesty of the sex and fit only for public
dancers. But among the women of the Rujbundah and some
other tribes of Hindoos who seem to have no prejudice of this
kind, they are generally taught. The prohibition against women
learning to read is probably from various causes, much less
attended to in some districts than in others and as it is possible
that in every district a few females may be found in the reading
schools, a column has been entered for them in the Form
proposed to be sent to the Collector. The mixed and impure
castes seldom learn to read, but as a few of them do, columns
are left for them in the Form.
3. It is not my intention to recommend any interface
whatever in the native schools. Everything of this kind ought to
be carefully avoided, and the people should be left to manage
their schools in their own way. All that we ought to do is to
facilitate the operations of these schools by restoring any funds
that may have been diverted from them and perhaps granting
additional ones, where it may appear advisable. But on this
point we shall be better able to judge when we receive the
information now proposed to be called for.
25th June 1822. (Signed)
Thomas Munro
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II
Ordered in consequence that the
following letter be despatched:
No.459
Revenue Department
To,
The President and Members of the Board of Revenue
Gentlemen,
I am directed to state that it is considered by the
Honourable the Governor-in-Council to be an object of interest
and of importance to obtain as accurate information as may be
procurable with regard to the actual state of education
throughout the country, and to desire that the several Collectors
may be required to furnish such information according to the
accompanying Form. Besides reporting the number of schools in
which reading and writing are taught, the number of scholars in
each and the castes to which they belong, the Collectors should
state the time which scholars usually continue at school, the
monthly or yearly charge to the scholars, whether any of the
schools are endowed by the public and in such cases the nature
and amount of the fund. When there are colleges or other
institutions for teaching Theology, Law, Astronomy, etc., an
account of them should be given. These sciences are usually
taught privately to a few scholars or disciples by individuals
without any fee or reward, but there are also some instances in
which the native government has granted allowances in money
and land for the maintenance of the teachers.
Although generally education is confined to particular
castes and is not extended to females, yet as there are
exceptions, which in certain districts may be numerous, the
accompanying Form is adopted to include them.
It is to be clearly understood by the Collectors that no
interference whatever with the native school is intended.
Everything of that kind should be carefully avoided and the
people should be left to manage their schools in their own way.
All that ought to be done is to facilitate the operation of the
schools, by restoring any funds that may have been diverted
from them and perhaps granting additional funds where it may
appear advisable.
Fort St. George, D. Hill,
2nd July 1822. Secretary to Government
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III
CIRCULAR—FORT ST. GEORGE—25TH JULY 1822
(TNSA: BRP—Vol.920, Pro. 25.7.1822, pp.6971-72 No.7)

1. I am directed by the Board of Revenue to transmit to you
   the accompanying copy of a letter with its enclosure from the
   Secretary to Government in the Revenue Department, and to
   desire that you will submit the required information together
   with a statement in the prescribed Form at your earliest
   convenience.
2. In calling for the information from the different parts of
   your Collectorate, you will cause your public servants clearly to
   understand, and to make known to the people that no
   interference with the schools is intended, though every
   assistance will be given to facilitate their operations and to
   restore any funds which may appear to have been diverted from
   their original purposes.
   Fort St. George, R. Clarke,
   25th July 1822. Secretary
   (Statement on following page)
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93

IV
PRINCIPAL COLLECTOR, CANARA TO BOARD
OF REVENUE:
27.8.1822
(TNSA: BRP: Vol.924 Pro.5.9.1822, pp.8425-29 Nos.35-6)

1. I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter
   dated 25th ultimo, together with its enclosure being copy of
   letter from the Secretary to Government Revenue Department
   dated 2nd July directing me to forward a statement filled up as
   per Form transmitted, and to report upon the state of education
   in this zillah.
   As the preparation of the necessary information to fill up
   the statement in question, would take up a considerable time
   and as any just criterion of the actual extent of such schools as
   exist in this zillah cannot be formed upon it, I have considered it
   expedient to submit this address, explanatory of the foregoing
   causes, which will I think show the preparation of the document
   for this Province unnecessary.
2. There are no colleges in Canara for the cultivation of the
   abstruse Sciences. Neither are there any fixed schools and
   masters to teach in them.
   There is no instance known of any institutions of the above
   description having ever received support in any shape from the
   former governments.
3. The education of the few Bramin children of the higher
   classes in towns or villages, is conducted in the house of the
   principal man. He selects a teacher, who receives for each child
   a small sum, a present of cloth at particular ceremonies, and the
   same for a few others, children of the friends of the principal
   man, who also meet at his own house for the same purpose. The
   Moolla* in the same manner teaches a few Mussulman children
   on the same principle. It is entirely a private education, and the
   master is as often changed as the scholars. There is nothing
   belonging to it which can assimilate it with a shadow of public
   education, or indeed of regularity in learning.
   The children are taught to read and write and accounts,
   and unless belonging to the highest classes, the attainment of
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Persian and Hindwy and Canarese at the same time is seldom or
ever pursued. Indeed, amongst those classes, it is so entirely a
private tuition, that any estimate of the numbers of their child-
ren learning such languages could not be but erroneous.
4. Education is undoubtedly at its lowest ebb in Canara. To
the Bramins of the country the Conkanny and Shinnawee and to
the 2nd class of the former, the little education given, is
confined. Amongst the farmers, generally speaking, and probably
amongst one half of its population, the most common forms of
education are unknown and in disuse, or more correctly
speaking were never in use.
5. As applicable to the subject I beg leave to introduce an
extract from a letter to the assistant surgeon of the zillah,
written to him in consequence of a wish on the part of the
Superintendent General of Vaccination to obtain information
from me, on the practicability of inducing the upper classes of
natives in Canara, to undertake the situations of practitioners,
who from their supposed superior attainments would be enabled
to facilitate the progress of vaccination.
Extract of Paras 6th, 7th and 8th
6. I have stated that I consider there is no objection to the
Christian practitioner, but with regard to employment of
men of the other various castes in this district, causes exist
which I am led to believe would render the attempt futile.
The mass of people are cultivators, there are no
manufactures to speak of in Canara, it is a country of
cottages dispersed in valleys and jungles, each man living
upon his estate and hence there are few towns, even these
are thinly populated. Hence I am led to conjecture from a
lesser congregation of people the Arts and Sciences have
never, at least in later times, become of that consequence
in Canara to cause them to be taught and cherished.
Probably there is no District in the Peninsula so devoid of
artists or scientific men.
7. The soil of Canara is the natives undoubted right, gained
by the first of all claims, the original clearing of it for
cultivation. Thus, to this day his detestation of quitting his
house and the fields by which it is surrounded. For those
wants to which he is thus naturally exposed for cloth and
for the various necessities of life which his land does not
yield him, he is indebted to the few bazar men in the very
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few towns in each talook; these men chiefly Concanese are
again indebted to their more opulent brethren established
on the coast for supplies which are bartered for the
products of the soil. These again are confined to three or
four principal articles so that they do not afford room for
much individual foreign enterprise, and consequently the
provision of them remains with the people, who, have ever
retained it, and thus strangers are in a great degree
excluded from the country.
8. From these causes I certainly consider the general want
of Men of Science originates, and also that men, where
their occupation is so entirely taken up with one pursuit
would not be induced to quit it on any account, much less
for the occupation of a travelling vaccinator.
6. Subsequently to my arrival in Canara, I had endeavored
to persuade some of the original farmers, the Bunts, to send
their nephews (for they are the heirs, not the sons) to Mangalore
for education—without success. A Christian school has been
established in which Latin and Portuguese alone are taught.
7. Should the Board after this explanation still consider the
preparation of the Form transmitted with their letter, desirable,
and according to the views of the government, I shall endeavor to
obtain the particulars. It will be, I beg to repeat, a very fallacious
statement. Amongst the numerous servants of this extensive
Collectorate there is but one, who writes Persian; the literary
knowledge of all others is confined to Hindwy and Canarese.
Even Sanscrit is very partially known, and the Ballabund is
confined to a very few of the class of Bramins who read the
Shastras. Amongst this latter class I have found many, who
could not read some of the ancient inscriptions, which they
assert are in a different character from the Hala Canarese, and
Ballabund they were taught.
Mangalore,
Principal Collector’s Cutcherry,
27th August, 1822.
(Order thereon)—35-36 T. Harris,
Ordered to lie on the table: Principal Collector.
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V
COLLECTOR OF TINNEVELLY TO BOARD OF REVENUE:
18.10.1822
(TNSA: BRP: Vol.928 Pro.28.10.1822 pp.9936-7 No.46-7)
I have the honor of forwarding the Statement of Schools in
this District required by your Deputy's letter of the 25th July
last.
The preparation of the account has been delayed by
enquiry into the castes of the female scholars, who in almost all
instances are found to be dancing girls.
Tinnevelly District,
Sharenmadavy, J.B. Hudleston
18th October 1822. Collector.
(Statement on following page)
97

98

VI
ASSISTANT COLLECTOR, SERINGAPATAM TO BOARD OF
REVENUE:
29.10.1822
(TNSA: BRP: Vol.929 Pro.4.11.1822 pp.10260-2 Nos.33&4)

1. I have the honor to transmit in conformity to the
   instructions conveyed in your letter of the 25th July last, a
   statement exhibiting the number of seminaries within this zillah.
2. The extent of information acquired under the present
   prevailing system of education is extremely limited—nothing
   more is professed to be taught in these day-schools than
   reading, writing, and arithmetic, just competent for the
   discharge of the common daily transactions of society.
3. There are no traces on record, as far as I can ascertain,
   of endowments in land towards the support of colleges and
   schools having at a former period been granted either by the
   then existing government or any patriotic private individuals.
   The superintendents of the different seminaries were left for
   remuneration, entirely to the parents of the respective students
   frequenting them, and which system obtains to the present day.
4. It appears that for each pupil the preceptor receives 5
   annas monthly which makes the total annual expenditure for
   the purposes of education within the Island of Seringapatam
   amount to rupees 2,351 and annas 4. This sum, divided
   amongst 41 superintendents, gives each on an average the very
   inadequate and trifling income of rupees 57 annas 5 and pice 5.
   Seringapatam H. Vibart
   29th October 1822. Assistant Collector in charge.
   (Statement on following page)
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100

VII
COLLECTOR, TINNEVELLY TO BOARD OF REVENUE:
7.11.1822
(TNSA: BRP Vol.931, Pro.18.11.1822 No.37, pp. 10545-6)
I have now the honor of forwarding a complete account of
schools in this district according to the prescribed Form. The
accounts from the talook of Punjamahl not having been received
at the time of my sending those of the other talooks.
The total under the head of population appears to have
been erroneous, and is correctly given in the statement, now
sent:
Tinnevelly, J.B. Hudleston,
7th November 1822. Collector.
(Statement on following page)
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102

VIII
PRINCIPAL COLLECTOR, COIMBATORE TO
BOARD OF REVENUE:
23.11.1822
(TNSA: BRP: Vol.932, Pro.2.12.1822, pp.10939-943, No.43)
To,
The President and Members of the Board of Revenue
Gentlemen,

1. I have the honor to forward the information called for in
   Mr Clarke’s letter of the 25th July 1882 regarding the schools in
   the district.
2. The statement No.1 is drawn up after the Form which
   accompanied Mr Clarke’s letter.
   The statement No.2 shows the particular language taught
   in each school, the number of pupils, the average amount of
   stipends paid by parents, to the teachers, the average annual
   charge to pupils for the purchase of cadjans.
   The statement No.3 shows the number of institutions in
   which Theology, Law and Astronomy are taught, the number of
   pupils educated in them, and the amount of maximum land
   granted by the Hindu Government, for their support, and
   assumed either by the Mussulman, or by the British
   Government.
3. The earliest age at which boys attend school is 5 years,
   they continue there until they are 13 or 14. Those who study
   Theology, Law, etc., begin at about 15 and continue to frequent
   the colleges until they have attained a competent knowledge in
   the Science, or until they obtain employment.
4. Besides their regular stipends, school masters generally
   receive presents, from the parents of their pupils, at the Das-
   sarah and other great feasts; a fee is also given when the pupil
   begins a new book. The annual stipend from one pupil varies
   from Rs.14 to Rs.3 per annum, according to the circumstances
   of the parents. The school hours are from 6 a.m. to 10, and from
   1 to 2 p.m. until 8 at night. Besides the several festivals they
   have regular holidays, 4 days in each month on the full moon,
   the new moon, and a day after each.
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5. The education of females is almost entirely confined in
   this district to the dancing women, who are generally of the
   Kykeler caste, a class of weavers. There are exceptions to this
   rule, but the numbers are too insignificant to require notice.
6. There is a school for teaching English in the town of
   Coimbatore, which is superintended by an English writer
   belonging to this Cutcheree.
   Coimbatore, (Signed) J. SULLIVAN,
   23rd November 1822. Principal Collector.
   (Statements on following pages)
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