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

farfetched) to the new concepts, laws and procedures which were
being created by the British state. It is primarily this
requirement which gave birth to British Indology. The second
approach was a product of the mind of the Edinburgh
enlightenment (dating back to around 1750) which men like
Maconochie represented. They had a fear, born out of historical
experience, philosophical observation and reflection (the
uprooting of entire civilizations in the Americas), that the
conquest and defeat of a civilisation generally led not only to its
disintegration, but the disappearance of precious knowledge
associated with it. They advocated, therefore, the preparation of
a written record of what existed, and what could be got from the
learned in places like Varanasi. The third approach was a
projection of what was then being attempted in Great Britain
itself: to bring people to an institutionalised, formal, law-abiding
Christianity and, for that some literacy and teaching became
essential. To achieve such a purpose in India, and to assist
evangelical exhortation and propaganda for extending Christian
‘light’ and ‘knowledge’ to the people, preparation of the
grammars of various Indian languages became urgent. The task
according to William Wilberforce, called for ‘the circulation of the
holy scriptures in the native languages’ with a view to the
general diffusion of Christianity, so that the Indians ‘would, in
short become Christians, if I may so express myself, without
knowing it.’30
All these efforts, joined together, also led to the founding of
a few British sponsored Sanskrit and Persian colleges as well as
to the publication of some Indian texts or selections from them
which suited the purpose of governance. From now on, Christian
missionaries also began to open schools. Occasionally, they
wrote about the state and extent of indigenous education in the
parts of India in which they functioned. However, British interest
was not centered on the people, their knowledge, or education,
or the lack of it. Rather, their interest in ancient texts served
their purpose: that of making the people conform to what was
chosen for them from such texts and their new interpretations.
Their other interest (till 1813, this was only amongst a section of
the British) was in the christianisation of those who were
considered ready for such conversions (or, in the British
phraseology of the period, for receiving ‘the blessings of
Christian light and moral improvements’). These conversions
were also expected to serve a more political purpose, in as much
as it was felt that it could establish some affinity of outlook and
belief
16

between the rulers and the ruled. A primary consideration in all
British decisions from the very beginning, continued to be the
aim of maximising the revenue receipts of Government and of
discovering any possible new source which had remained exempt
from paying any revenue to Government.
III
Instructions regarding the collection of information about the
extent and nature of indigenous Indian education (including its
contemporary state) were largely the consequence of the long
debate in the House of Commons in 1813. This debate focussed
on the clause relating to the promotion of ‘religious and moral
improvement’ in India.³¹ Before any new policy could be devised,
the existing position needed to be better known. But the quality
and coverage of these surveys varied from Presidency to
Presidency, and even from district to district. (This generally
happens in the gathering of any such information, and more so
when such collection of data was a fairly new thing.)
The information which is thus available today, whether
published, or still in manuscript form in the government
records—as is true of the details of the Madras Presidency
indigenous education survey—largely belongs to the 1820’s and
1830’s period. An unofficial survey made by G.W. Leitner in
1882 for the Punjab compared the situation there for the years
before 1850, with that in 1882.
Before highlighting the main points of information given by
the surveys and then proceeding with its analysis, some
preliminary observations about the data as a whole are in order.
The first observation concerns the largely quantitative
nature of the data presented and the fact that it concentrates
largely on the institution of the school as we know it today. This,
however, may help propagate wrong impressions.
It is important to emphasize that indigenous education was
carried out through pathshalas, madrassahs and gurukulas.
Education in these traditional institutions—which were actually
kept alive by revenue contributions by the community including
17

illiterate peasants—was called shiksha (and included the ideas of
prajna, shil and samadhi). These institutions were, in fact, the
watering holes of the culture of traditional communities.
Therefore, the term ‘school’ is a weak translation of the roles
these institutions really played in Indian society.
For this reason, the quantitative nature of the data
presented should be read with great caution. The increase in the
numbers of schools in England may not necessarily have been a
good thing, as it merely signified the arrival of factory schooling.
On the other hand, the decline in the numbers of traditional
educational institutions is to be intensely deplored, since this
meant quality education was being replaced by a substandard
substitute. These aspects must always be kept at the back of our
minds when we commence analysing the data for significance.
Before we do that, the highlights first.
The most well-known and controversial point which
emerged from the educational surveys lies in an observation
made by William Adam. In his first report, he observed that there
exist about 1,00,000 village schools in Bengal and Bihar around
the 1830s.³² This statement appears to have been founded on
the impressions of various high British officials and others who
had known the different areas rather intimately and over long
periods; it had no known backing of official records. Similar
statements had been made, much before W. Adam, for areas of
the Madras Presidency. Men like Thomas Munro, had observed
that ‘every village had a school.’³³ For areas of the newly
extended Presidency of Bombay around 1820, senior officials like
G.L. Prendergast noted ‘that there is hardly a village, great or
small, throughout our territories, in which there is not at least
one school, and in larger villages more.’³⁴ Observations made by
Dr G.W. Leitner in 1882 show that the spread of education in
the Punjab around 1850 was of a similar extent.
18

Since these observations were made, they have been
treated very differently: by some, with the sanctity reserved for
divine utterances; and by others, as blasphemous. Naturally, the
first view was linked with the growth of a vocal Indian
nationalism. Its exponents, besides prominent Indians of the late
nineteenth and early twentieth century, have also included many
illustrious Englishmen, like Keir Hardie, and academics like Max
Mueller. The second, the blasphemous view of them, was
obviously held by those who were in the later period, in one
capacity or another, concerned with the administration of India;
or those who felt impelled, sometimes because of their
commitment to certain theoretical formulations on the
development of societies, to treat all such impressions as unreal.
Especially after 1860, it had become necessary to ensure that
men who had had a long period of service in the British Indian
administration or its ancillary branches and who also had the
ability to write, should engage in the defence of British rule,
especially its beginnings, and consequently attempt to refute any
statements which implied that the British had damaged India in
any significant manner.
While much ink has been spilt on such a controversy, little
attempt is known to have been made for placing these state-
ments or observations in their contextual perspective. Leaving
Leitner’s work, most of these statements belong to the early
decades of the nineteenth century. For the later British
administrator, the difficulty of appreciating the substance of the
controversy is quite understandable. For England had few
schools for the children of ordinary people till about 1800. Even
many of the older Grammar Schools were in poor shape at the
time. Moreover, the men who wrote about India (whether
concerning its education, or its industry and crafts, or the
somewhat higher real wages of Indian agricultural labourers
compared to such wages in England)³⁵ belonged to the late
eighteenth and early nineteenth century society of Great Britain.
Naturally, when they wrote about a school in every village in
India—whether that may or may not have been literally true—in
contrast to the British situation, it must have appeared to them
so. And though they did not much mention this contrast in so
many words, it may reasonably be assumed that, as perceptive
observers, it was the very contrast which led them to make such
judgements.
These surveys, based not on mere impressions but on hard
data, reveal a great deal: the nature of Indian education; its
19

content; the duration for which it ordinarily lasted; the numbers
actually receiving institutional education in particular areas;
and, most importantly, detailed information on the background
of those benefiting from these institutions.
The idea of a school existing in every village, dramatic and
picturesque in itself, attracted great notice and eclipsed the
equally important details. The more detailed and hard facts have
received hardly any notice or analysis. This is both natural and
unfortunate. For these latter facts provide an insight into the
nature of Indian society at that time. Deeper analysis of this data
and adequate reflection on the results followed by required
further research may help solve even the riddle of what has been
termed ‘the legend of the 1,00,000 schools’.³⁶
According to this hard data, in terms of the content, the
and proportion of those attending institutional school education,
the situation in India in 1800 is certainly not inferior to what
obtained in England then; and in many respects Indian
schooling seems to have been much more extensive (and, it
should be remembered, that it is a greatly damaged and
disorganised India that one is referring to). The content of
studies was better than what was then studied in England. The
duration of study was more prolonged. The method of school
teaching was superior and it is this very method which is said to
have greatly helped the introduction of popular education in
England but which had prevailed in India for centuries. School
attendance, especially in the districts of the Madras Presidency,
even in the decayed state of the period 1822-25, was
proportionately far higher than the numbers in all variety of
schools in England in 1800. The conditions under which
teaching took place in the Indian schools were less dingy and
more natural;³⁷ and, it was observed, the teachers in the Indian
schools were generally more dedicated and sober than in the
English versions. The only aspect, and certainly a very important
one, where Indian institutional education seems to have lagged
behind was with regard to the education of girls. Quite possibly,
girl schooling may have been proportionately more extensive in
England in 1800, and was definitely the case, a few decades
later. Accounts of education in India do often state (though it is
difficult to judge their substantive accuracy from the data which
is so far known), that
20

the absence of girls in schools was explained, however, by the
fact that most of their education took place in the home.
It is, however, the Madras Presidency and Bengal-Bihar
data which presents a kind of revelation. The data reveals the
background of the teachers and the taught. It presents a picture
which is in sharp contrast to the various scholarly pronounce-
ments of the past 100 years or more, in which it had been
assumed that education of any sort in India, till very recent
decades, was mostly limited to the twice-born³⁸ amongst the
Hindoos, and amongst the Muslims to those from the ruling
elite. The actual situation which is revealed was different, if not
quite contrary, for at least amongst the Hindoos, in the districts
of the Madras Presidency (and dramatically so in the Tamil-
speaking areas) as well as the two districts of Bihar. It was the
groups termed Soodras, and the castes considered below them³⁹
who predominated in the thousands of the then still-existing
schools in practically each of these areas.
The last issue concerns the conditions and arrangements
which alone could have made such a vast system of education
feasible: the sophisticated operative fiscal arrangements of the
pre-British Indian polity. Through these fiscal measures,
substantial proportions of revenue had long been assigned for
the performance of a multiplicity of public purposes. These seem
to have stayed more or less intact through all the previous
political turmoils and made such education possible. The
collapse of this arrangement through a total centralisation of
revenue, as well as politics led to decay in the economy, social
life, education, etc. This inference, if at all valid, warrants a re-
examination of the various currently held intellectual and
political assumptions with regard to the nature of pre-British
Indian society, and its political and state structure.
Before discussing this last issue any further, however, it is
necessary first to understand the various aspects of the educa-
tional data, and the controversy it gave rise to in the 1930s.
Since the detailed data of the Madras Presidency is the least
known and the most comprehensive, we shall examine it first.
21

IV
The available papers connected with this survey include the
instructions of Government, the circular from the Board of Reve-
nue to the district collectors conveying the instructions and the
prescribed form according to which information had to be com-
piled, the replies of the collectors from all the 21 districts of the
Presidency, the proceedings of the Board of Revenue on the
information received while submitting it to Government, and the
Madras Government’s proceedings on it. These are all
reproduced as Annexure A (i)-(xxx). It would have been useful for
a more thorough analysis, and for better understanding of the
situation if the details from which the collectors compiled their
reports could be found. A reference to the records of a few
districts, preserved in the Tamilnadu State Archives does not,
however, indicate any additional material having survived in
them. If any Taluka records still exist for this period it is quite
possible they may contain more detailed data about particular
villages, towns, colleges and schools.
In addition to the instructions conveyed in the Minute of
the Governor-in-Council, and the text of the letter from
Government to the Board of Revenue (both of which were sent to
the collectors), the prescribed form required from them details of
the number of schools and colleges in the districts, and the
number of male and female scholars in them. The number of
scholars, male as well as female were further to be provided
under the following categories: (i) Brahmin scholars, (ii) Vysee
scholars, (iii) Soodra scholars, (iv) scholars of all other castes
and (v) Mussalman scholars. The numbers under (i) to (iv) were
to be totalled separately. To these were added those under (v),
thus arriving at the total number of Hindoo and Mussalman
scholars, in the district, or some part of it. The category ‘all other
castes’, as mentioned earlier, evidently seems to have implied all
such castes considered somewhat below the Sat-Soodra
category. This included most such groupings which today are
listed among the scheduled castes.
It may be noted from the documents that while a reply was
received from the collector of Canara, he did not send any data
about the number of schools, and colleges, or any estimation of
the number of those who may have been receiving instruction in
the district, through what he termed private education. Apart
from the statement that ‘there are no colleges in Canara’, etc.,
22

he was of the view that teaching in Canara could not be termed
‘public education’; as it was organised on a somewhat
discontinuous basis by a number of parents in an area by
getting together and engaging the services of a teacher(s) for the
purpose of teaching their children. The major difficulty for the
collector, however, seemed to be that ‘the preparation of the
necessary information would take up a considerable time’; and,
that even if it were collected, no ‘just criterion of the actual
extent of schools as exist in this zillah could be formed upon it.’
He hoped, therefore, that his letter itself would be considered as
a satisfactory reply. It may be added here that Canara (from
about 1800 onwards, and till at least the 1850s), even more than
the northern areas of coastal Andhra, was the scene of continual
opposition and peasant resistance to British rule. Besides, it also
generally happened that whenever any such data was ordered to
be collected (and this happened quite often) on one topic or
another, the quality and extent of the information supplied by
the collectors varied a great deal. To some extent, such differ-
ences in these returns arose from the varying relevance of an
enquiry from district to district. A more important reason, per-
haps, was the fact that because of the frequent change of collec-
tors and their European assistants, many of them (at the time
such information was required) were not very familiar with the
district under their charge. Furthermore, quite a number were
for various reasons, too involved in other more pressing
activities, or, mentally much less equipped to meet such
continual demands for information.
The information from the districts, therefore, varies a great
deal in detail as well as quality. While the data from about half
the districts was organised taluka-wise, and in some even parga-
na-wise, from the other half it was received for the district as a
whole. Three districts—Vizagapatam, Masulipatam and
Tanjore—added one further category to the prescribed form
provided by Government, viz. the category of Chettris or Rajah
scholars between the columns for Brahmin and Vysee scholars.
Further, while some of the collectors especially of Bellary,
Cuddapah, Guntoor and Rajahmundry sent fairly detailed
textual replies, some others like Tinnevelly, Vizagapatam and
Tanjore left it to the data to tell the story. A few of the collectors
also mentioned the books used in the schools and institutions of
higher learning in their districts. The collector of Rajahmundry,
being the most detailed, provided a list of 43 books used in
Telugu schools. He also identified some of those used in the
schools of higher learning, as well as in the schools teaching
Persian and Arabic.

23

24

25

TOTAL SCHOOLS, COLLEGES AND SCHOLARS
Table 1 gives the total number of schools and institutions of
higher learning, along with the number of students in them in
their districts. The data is taken from the reports of the
collectors. Incidentally, the collectors of Ganjam and
Vizagapatam indicated that the data they were sending was
somewhat incomplete. This might also have been true of some of
the other districts which were wholly or partly under Zamindary
tenure.
Two of the collectors also sent detailed information
pertaining to those who were being educated at home, or in some
other private manner. The collector of Malabar sent details of
1,594 scholars who were receiving education in Theology, Law,
Astronomy, Metaphysics, Ethics and Medical Science in his
district from private tutors. The collector of Madras, on the other
hand, reported in his letter of February 1826 that 26,963 school-
level scholars were then receiving tuition at their homes in the
area under his jurisdiction. More will be said about this private
education subsequently.
The reports of the collectors were ultimately reviewed by
the Government of the Presidency of Madras on 10 March 1826.
The Governor, Sir Thomas Munro, was of the view that while the
institutional education of females seemed negligible, that of the
boys between the ages of 5 to 10 years appeared to be a ‘little
more than one-fourth’ of the boys of that age in the Presidency
as a whole. Taking into consideration those who were estimated
as being taught at home, he was inclined ‘to estimate the portion
of the male population who receive school education to be nearer
to one-third than one-fourth of the whole.’
CASTE-WISE DIVISION OF MALE SCHOOL STUDENTS
The more interesting and historically more relevant information,
however, is provided by the caste-wise division of students. This
is true not only as regards boys, but also with respect to the
rather small number of girls who, according to the survey, were
receiving education in schools. Furthermore, the information
becomes all the more curious and pertinent when the data is
grouped into the five main language areas—Oriya, Telugu,
Kannada, Malayalam and Tamil. These constituted the
Presidency of Madras at this period, and throughout the
nineteenth century. Table 2 gives the caste-wise number of
school-going male students in each district of the five language
areas.
26

It has generally been assumed that the education of any
kind in India, whether in the ancient period, or just at the
beginning of British rule was mainly concerned with the higher
and middle strata of society; and, in case of the Hindoos (who in
the Madras Presidency accounted for over 95% of the whole
population), it was more or less limited to the twice-born.
However, as
27

will be seen from Table 2, the data of 1822-25 indicate more or
less an opposite position. Such an opposite view is the most
pronounced in the Tamil-speaking areas where the twice-born
ranged between 13% in South Arcot to some 23% in Madras, the

28

Muslims form less than 3% in South Arcot and Chingleput to
10% in Salem, while the Soodras and the other castes ranged
from about 70% in Salem and Tinnevelly to over 84% in South
Arcot.
To make the foregoing tabulation more easily
comprehensible the caste-wise data may be converted into
percentages of the whole for each district. Table 3 shows the
result of such conversion.
In Malayalam-speaking Malabar, the proportion of the
twice-born was still below 20% of the total. Because of a larger
Muslim population, however, the number of Muslim school
students went up to nearly 27%; while the Soodras, and the
other castes accounted for some 54% of the school going
students.
In the largely Kannada-speaking Bellary, the proportion of
the twice-born (the Brahmins and the Vysees) went up to 33%,
while the Soodras, and the other castes still accounted for some
63%.
The position in the Oriya-speaking Ganjam was similar: the
twice-born accounting for some 35.6%, and the Soodras and
other castes being around 63.5%.
It is only in the Telugu-speaking districts that the twice-
born formed the major proportion of the school going students.
Here, the proportion of Brahmin boys varied from 24% in
Cuddapah to 46% in Vizagapatam; of the Vysees from 10.5% in
Vizagapatam to 29% in Cuddapah; of the Muslims from 1% in
Vizagapatam to 8% in Nellore; and of the Soodras and other
29

castes from 35% in Guntoor to over 41% in Cuddapah and
Vizagapatam.
SCHOOLS CLASSIFIED ACCORDING TO THE LANGUAGE
OF INSTRUCTION
Some of the districts also provided information regarding the
language in which education was imparted, and the number of
schools where Persian or English were taught. The number of
schools teaching English was only 10, the highest being 7 in the
district of North Arcot. Nellore, North Arcot and Masulipatam
had 50, 40 and 19 Persian schools respectively, while Coimba-
tore had 10, and Rajahmundry 5. North Arcot and Coimbatore
had schools which taught Grantham (1 and 5 respectively) as
well as teaching Hindvee [a sort of Hindustani] (16 and 14
respectively), and Bellary had 23 Marathi schools. The district of
North Arcot had 365 Tamil and 201 Telugu schools, while
Bellary had nearly an equal number of schools teaching Telugu
and Kannada. Table 4 indicates this data more clearly.
AGE OF ENROLLMENT, DAILY TIMINGS, ETC.
As mentioned earlier, the data varies considerably from district
to district. Many of the collectors provided information regarding
the age at which boys (and perhaps girls too) were admitted to
school, the usual age being five. According to the collector of
Rajahmundry, ‘the fifth day of the fifth month of the fifth year of
the boy’s age is the “lucky day” for his first entrance into school’,
while according to the collector of Cuddapah, the age for
admission for Brahmin boys was from the age of five to six and
that for Soodras from six to eight. The collector of Cuddapah
further mentioned two years as the usual period for which the
boys stayed at school. Nellore and Salem mentioned 3 to 5 or 6
years, while most others stated that the duration of study varied
from a minimum of five to about a maximum of 15 years. While
some collectors did not think much of the then current
education in the schools, or of the learning and scholarship of
the teachers, some thought the education imparted useful. The
collector of Madras observed: ‘It is generally admitted that before
they (i.e. the students) attain their 13th year of age, their
acquirements in the various branches of learning are uncom-
monly great.’⁴⁰
30

31

From the information given, it seems that the school functioned
for fairly long hours: usually starting about 6 A.M., followed by
one or two short intervals for meals, etc., and finishing at about
sunset, or even later. Table 5 charts out the information which
was received on these points from the several collectors. The
functioning of these schools, their methods of teaching, and the
subjects taught are best described in the annexed accounts of
Fra Paolino Da Bartolomeo (A.D. 1796) and of Alexander Walker
(ca 1820).⁴¹
BOOKS USED IN SCHOOLS
The main subjects reported to be taught in these Indian schools
were reading, writing and arithmetic. The following lists of books
used in the schools of Bellary, as also of Rajahmundry may be
worth noting, and may to some degree indicate the content of
learning in these schools.
NAMES OF THE BOOKS IN USE IN THE SCHOOLS IN
BELLARY DISTRICT⁴²
A. Most commonly used

1. Ramayanum 2. Maha Bharata 3. Bhagvata
   B. Used by Children from Manufacturing Classes
2. Nagalingayna-Kutha 2. Vishvakurma-Poorana
3. Kumalesherra Kalikamahata
   C. Used by Lingayat Children
4. Buwapoorana 2. Raghavan-Kunkauya
5. Geeruja Kullana 4. Unbhavamoorta
6. Chenna-Busavaswara-Poorana 6. Gurilagooloo, etc.
   D. Lighter Literature Read
7. Punchatantra 2. Bhatalapunchavunsatee
8. Punklee-soopooktahuller 4. Mahantarungenee
   32

E. Dictionaries and Grammars used

1. Nighantoo 2. Umara 3. Subdamumburee
2. Shubdeemunee-Durpana 5. Vyacurna 6. Andradeepeca
3. Andranamasungraha, etc.
   NAMES OF THE BOOKS IN USE IN THE SCHOOLS IN
   RAJAHMUNDRY⁴³
4. Baula Ramauyanum 2. Rookmeny Culleyanum
5. Paurejantahpatraranum 4. Molly Ramauyanum
6. Raumayanum 6. Dansarady Satacum
7. Kreestna Satacum 8. Soomaty Satacum
8. Janakey Satacum 10. Prasunnaragara Satacum
9. Ramataraka Satacum 12. Bahscara Satacum
10. Beesanavecausa Satacum 14. Beemalingaswara Satacum
11. Sooreyanaraina Satacum 16. Narraina Satacum
12. Plaholanda Charatra 18. Vasoo Charatra
13. Manoo Charetra 20. Sumunga Charetra
14. Nala Charetra 22. Vamana Charetra
15. Ganintum 24. Pauvooloory Ganintum
16. Bhauratam 26. Bhaugavatum
17. Vejia Valousum 28. Kroostnaleelan Velausum
18. Rathamathava Velausum 30. Suptama Skundum
19. Astma Skundum 32. Rathamathava Sumvadum
20. Bhaunoomaly Paranayem 34. Veerabhadra Vejayem
21. Leelansoondary Paranayem 36. Amarum
22. Sooranthanaswarum 38. Voodeyagapurvem
23. Audepurvem 40. Gajandra Motchum
24. Andhranamasungraham 42. Coochalopurksyanum
25. Resekajana Manobharanum
    INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER LEARNING
    While several of the collectors observed that no institutions of
    higher learning were then known to exist in their districts, the
    rest reported a total of 1,094 such places. These were
    enumerated under the term ‘colleges’ (as mentioned in the
    prescribed form). The largest number of these, 279, were in the
    district of Rajahmundry with a total of 1,454 scholars,
    Coimbatore came next with 173 such places (724 scholars),
    Guntoor had 171 (with 939 scholars), Tanjore 109 (with 769
    scholars), Nellore 107, North Arcot 69 (with 418 scholars), Salem
    53 (with 324 scholars), Chingleput 51 (with 398 scholars),
    Masulipatam 49
    33

34

(with 199 scholars), Bellary 23, Trichnopoly 9 (with 131
scholars), and Malabar with one old institution maintained by
the Samudrin Raja (Zamorin), with 75 scholars. In most other
districts where no such institutions were known, the collectors
reported that such learning—in the Vedas, Sastras, Law,
Astronomy, Ganeetsastram, Ethics, etc.—was imparted in
Agraharams, or usually at home. The data regarding such
privately conducted learning in Malabar may be indicative of the
extent of such learning in other districts also (discussed in a
subsequent section). Table 6 indicates these and other details
more clearly.
In most areas, the Brahmin scholars formed a very small
proportion of those studying in schools. Higher learning,
however, being more in the nature of professional specialisation,
seems in the main to have been limited to the Brahmins. This
was especially true regarding the disciplines of Theology,
Metaphysics, Ethics, and to a large extent of the study of Law.
But the disciplines of Astronomy and Medical Science seem to
have been studied by scholars from a variety of backgrounds
and castes. This is very evident from the Malabar data: out of
808 studying Astronomy, only 78 were Brahmins; and of the 194
studying Medicine, only 31 were Brahmins. Incidentally, in
Rajahmundry, five of the scholars in the institution of higher
learning were Soodras. According to other Madras Presidency
surveys, of those practising Medicine and Surgery, it was found
that such persons belonged to a variety of castes. Amongst them,
the barbers, according to British medical men, were the best in
Surgery.⁴⁴
Besides the account provided by the Samudrin Raja
regarding the functioning of the institution supported by his
family in Malabar,⁴⁵ the collectors of Guntoor, Cuddapah,
Masulipatam, Madura and Madras also wrote in some detail on
the subject of higher learning. According to the collector of
Madras: ‘Astronomy, Astrology, etc. are in some instances taught
to the children of the poorer class of Brahmins gratis, and in
certain few cases an allowance is given proportionate to the
circumstances of the parents or guardians.’ The collector of
Madura on the other hand mentioned that:
35