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

and explained the faculties of the mind; but, the favourite study
of the Indian sages, was a metaphysical and abstruse
philosophy, founded on superstition and error. They regarded
logic, rhetoric and grammar with particular approbation; and
those who aspired to a superior reputation, acquired those
sciences with unceasing labour, and intense application. They
spent their lives in their cultivation. The Hindoos made no use of
experiments, and it is extraordinary that without this aid, they
should have become acquainted with the most difficult and
hidden branches of Mathematics, Astronomy and Algebra. Have
the acquisitions been the fruits of their own study and reflection;
or have they been obtained from extraneous and a more ancient
source which is now forgotten and lost? It is not possible to
determine these questions; and as we cannot prove that they
derived their knowledge from another people, it is but fair to
consider them as the inventors of all which they possess, which
they have preserved through so many perils and which they
must have cultivated with so much ardour.
The learning of the Malabar is probably more limited than
that of the more central people of India; but they are not
inattentive to the cultivation of letters. They are particularly
anxious and attentive to instruct their children to read and to
write. Education with them is an early and an important
business in every family. Many of their women are taught to read
and write. The Bramans are generally the school masters, but
any of the respectable castes may, and often do, practice
teaching. The children are instructed without violence, and by a
process peculiarly simple. It is the same system which has
caused so much heat and controversy, as to the inventors of it,
in this country, and the merit of which was due to neither of the
claimants.¹ The system was borrowed from the Bramans and
brought from India to Europe. It has been made the foundation
of National schools in every enlightened country. Some gratitude
is due to a people from whom we have learnt to diffuse among
the lower ranks of society instruction by one of the most
unerring and economical methods which has ever been invented.
The pupils are the monitors of each other, and the characters
are traced with a rod, or the finger on the sand. Reading and
writing are acquired at the same time, and by the same process.
This mode of teaching however is only initial. If the pupil is
meant to study the higher branches of learning, he is removed
from these primary schools, where the arts of reading, writing
and accounts
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are acquired, and placed under more scientific masters. It is to
these elementary schools that the labouring classes in India owe
their education. It gives them an access, from the introduction of
the system into this part of the world; advantage which the same
classes in Europe, only now partially conferred on them a
superior share of intelligence and placed them in a situation to
perform better all the duties of life.
About 200 years ago, Peter Della Valle published an
account of this mode of instruction in Malabar. He wrote from
Tkkeri 22nd November 1623.
‘In the meantime,’ he says, ‘while the burthens were getting
in order, I entertained myself in the porch of the temple,
beholding little boys learning arithmetic after a strange manner,
which I will here relate. They were four, and having all taken the
same lesson before the master, to get that same by heart, and
repeat likewise their former lessons, and not forget them, one of
them singing musically with a certain continued tone,² (which
hath the force of making a deep impression in the memory)
recited part of the lesson; as for example, “one by itself makes
one”; and whilst he was thus speaking, he writ down the same
number, not with any kind of pen, nor in paper, but (not to
spend paper in vain) with his finger on the ground, the pavement
being for that purpose strewed all over with fine sand;³ after the
first had wrote what he sung, all the rest sung and writ down the
same thing together. Then the first boy sung, and writ down
another part of the lesson; as, for example, two by itself makes
two, which all the rest repeated in the same manner; and so
forward in order. When the pavement was full of figures, they
put them out with the hand, and if need were, strewed it with
new sand from a little heap which they had before them
wherewith to write further. And thus they did as long as exercise
continued; in which manner likewise they told one, they learnt to
read and write without spoiling paper, pens or ink, which
certainly is a pretty way. I asked them, if they happen to forget
or be mistaken in any part of the lesson, who corrected and
taught them, they being all scholars without the assistance of
any master; they answered me, and said true, that it was not
possible for all four to forget or mistake in the same part, and
that they thus exercised together, to the end, that if one
happened to be out, the
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other might correct him. Indeed a pretty, easy and secure way of
learning.'⁴
We are continually reproaching the natives of India with
the slow advances they have made in knowledge and their
neglect of opportunities to acquire it. There we have an instance
of the same neglect in Europeans, who have allowed two
centuries to pass after they were acquainted with this invention,
before they applied it to any practical use. It was at length
introduced into this country without any acknowledgement and
it was even claimed as an invention by two individuals who
disputed upon the priority of discovery.
The Missionaries⁵ have now honestly owned that the
system upon which these schools are taught was borrowed from
India. It has been probably improved by us, but this is the fate of
all original conceptions, which commonly make the most rapid
advances at second hand.
No people probably appreciate more justly the importance
of instruction than the Hindoos; hence instead of offering
obstacles or creating opposition to the establishment of schools,
they have formed institutions themselves to meet various cases
of ignorance and misery. They are not averse to a spirit of
enquiry and discussion.⁶ All they wanted was a government that
would not check and discourage this spirit.
In Malabar is still to be seen the earliest mode of writing.
The paper is the natural produce of the woods. They make no
use of ink; the characters are engraved on the leaves of trees.
The leaf of a particular palm is selected and dried until it can
bear the impression of the styles. These leaves strung or tied to-
gether are formed into books. They are enclosed in a wooden
cover, sometimes gilded and lackered, so as to make neat and
handsome appearance. On these leaves also they write their let-
ters, which they fold up, but the original practice of the country
did not require them to be sealed. ‘The original Acts of the
Council of Basil 900 years since, with the Bulla or leaden affix,
which has a silken cord passing through every parchment,’ is
mentioned in the above words by Evelyn as existing in his time
at Cambridge, and which would appear to be the same form as
that in which the Malabar MSS are preserved.⁷
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In Norway and Sweden they formerly wrote, or rather
engraved, on flakes and planks. They wrote on wooden tablets.
Poetry was inscribed on staves. A verse is therefore still called a
stave.⁸
The mode of writing or engraving on leaves was probably at
one period extended all over India. It is mentioned by
Abdulrizack who travelled in 1442, as the common practice at
Bisnaghur.⁹
There is no difficulty in multiplying schools at present in
India to any extent provided funds are furnished. The people are
anxious and earnest in calling upon the Missionaries for teach-
ers. With a little patience, we may introduce into these schools
any books that we please. In them the children know of no
precedence, but that which is derived from merit.¹⁰ This is an ex-
traordinary testimony in favour of the native character, and from
a source where we can expect no kindly prejudice. They
entertain no suspicion of the ultimate designs of their
instructors; but with candour and openness send their children
to school, where we are elsewhere informed, no difficulty was
found in introducing the scriptures, when done with discretion.¹¹
They sacrifice all the feelings of wealth, family pride and caste
that their children may have the advantages of a good education.
This desire is strongly impressed on the minds of all the
Hindoos. It is inculcated by their own system, which provided
schools in every village. The learned and the ignorant, one of the
Missionaries writes from Chinsuram, congratulate one another,
that their children now enjoy the great blessings of education.
Native free schools were once universal throughout India.
It has been long the practice in Malabar to translate the
Sanscrite writings into the common tongue, and to transcribe
them in the vernacular character. By this means knowledge has
been more generally diffused among the inhabitants; it is less
confined to any order or class, and the people are better
acquainted with the mysteries and dogmas of their religion. This
spirit of enquiry and of liberty has most probably been affected
by the sooders who compose the great body of population, and
who were in possession of the principal authority and property
in the country.
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The Malabars have a mode of writing peculiar to
themselves: it may be called with more propriety engraving. The
letters are imprinted on a palm leaf dried and prepared by a
particular process. Instead of a pen, they make use of an iron
instrument with a sharp point resembling the stylus of the
ancients. When they write on paper, they have recourse to the
pen; but this is only in imitation of our manners or of the
Mohammedans. Stones, skins, leaves, and the bark of trees,
were the earliest materials made use of in writing. These leaves
are not subject to decay, and resist vermin. They may be
preserved a long time, much longer perhaps than paper; they
write in general only on one side and from left to right. They cut
the leaves into different sizes, and manufacture them of different
qualities, which may be compared to different sorts of paper.
They are made to answer either for books, notes or letters. They
are formed into neat and convenient sized volumes not by
stitching or binding but by stringing them together. A blank
space is left at the end like our margin, through this a hole is
made which admits a string or cord, generally of silk, and this
drawn tight, or tied round them keeps the whole secure. The
leaves are opened and unfolded by the Natives with the same
facility as we do those of our books. The Malabar books are
bound or covered by two pieces of wood which serve as boards,
and which are varnished and painted according to taste.
In Malabar in short, the original practice was to use neither
pens, ink, nor paper. The leaf of the palm, smoked and dried
served the purpose of paper. They engraved on this with a
pointed iron resembling that with which the ancients inscribed
letters on wax, and with a quickness and facility equal to our
fastest writers. (Omitted here)
The following contains a list of books which are to be found
in Malabar: many were lost or destroyed during the disturbances
under the Mohammedan Government, but the whole are still
said to be existing in Travancore. This probably comprises the
greatest part of Malabar literature. About 30 or 40 of these
works have been transferred from the Sanscrit into the common
tongue. Many of the Sanscrit words are allowed to remain in the
translations and the affinity of the languages permits this
liberty.
In the notes to the Lusiad mention is made of a Malabar
work which is probably contained in No.181 of the bibliography;
265

it may have been written by some Secretary and is perhaps at
present suppressed or concealed.
There is extant in India the writings of a Malabar poet, who
wrote nine hundred epigrams, each consisting of eight verses,
in ridicule of the worship of the Bramans, whom he treats with
great asperity and contempt. Would any of our diligent enquirers
after oriental learning favour us with an authentic account of the
works of this poet of Malabar, he would undoubtedly confer a
singular favour on the republic of letters.’¹²
The author was probably a Deist: this is the secret
profession of many Bramans, who are often at no pains to
conceal their sentiments, and express openly their entire
disbelief in all the Hindoo deities. I have been acquainted
intimately with several Bramans who entertained these opinions,
and who avowed their belief in one God only, the supreme being,
the Creator of all. Reformers have appeared at different times in
India, and the Vedantic sect in particular put no faith in the
popular superstition.
The Malabars have a number of dramas or naticas and are
fond of theatrical exhibitions.
I have been present at these exhibitions. The theatre is
either in the open air, or under a slight temporary covering;¹³ but
sometimes large enough to contain several thousand spectators.
On these occasions, they have regular rows of forms and
benches, on which the audience seat themselves. The men and
women are intermixed as in our play houses. This is an amiable
and remarkable contrast with the manners and jealous reserve
of other parts of India. I have seen probably two thousand men
and women assembled and sitting close together to witness one
of these exhibitions. This, however, was on a great occasion of
the marriage of a Raja’s daughter. There was a very large pendall
erected, with rows of seats one above another, for the
accommodation of the audience. The dramatist personae were
gods, goddesses, kings, heroes and their attendants. The actors
were dressed, suitably as they imagined to the characters they
represented, but there was no machinery employed. The whole of
the scenery consisted of a sheet or a calampoe, which formed a
curtain.
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The subject of the piece seemed to be the embarrassment
of a Raja who was married to two wives. They tormented him
with their quarrels and jealousies. He prayed to the Gods for
relief. His prayers were heard, and he received a charm which
enabled him to put whichever of the ladies he chose asleep. He
was delighted with the remedy and looked forward for nothing in
future but happiness. On a trial however he was disappointed.
The waking wife was as suspicious as ever, and was continually
upbraiding him for his partiality to her rival. He throws them by
turns asleep, but has no relief. Each as she awoke was still
jealous of the other. I have forgotten how it ended, but the
account of this marriage was published in the newspapers of the
time in India, about 1793. I cannot at present lay my hands on
the account of this wedding which afterwards was transferred to
some of the periodical publications at home. The object I think
was to inculcate that one wife was preferable to two.
Notes

1. Bell and Lancaster System.
2. This is done in our infant schools.
3. They have small boards of the size and shape of our plates covered
   with sand or chalk.
4. Letters, Peter Della Valle, p.100.
5. The Missionary Register for January, 1879.
6. Ibid.
7. Evelyn VI, p.277.
8. Edinburg Review, No.67.
9. See p.518.
10. Missionary Register for January 1822.
11. Ibid..
12. Lusiad, Book 8, p.300
13. Pendall
    267

Annexure D
Extracts From William Adam’s State of Education in Bengal 1835-
38
I
W. ADAM ON INDIGENOUS ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
GENERAL: (pp.6-9)
By this description are meant those schools in which instruction
in the elements of knowledge is communicated, and which have
been originated and are supported by the natives themselves, in
contra-distinction from those that are supported by religious or
philanthropic societies. The number of such schools in Bengal is
supposed to be very great. A distinguished member of the
General Committee of Public Instruction in a minute on the
subject expressed the opinion, that if one rupee per mensem
were expended on each existing village school in the Lower
Provinces, the amount would probably fall little short of 12 lakhs
of rupees per annum. This supposes that there are 100,000
such schools in Bengal and Bihar, and assuming the population
of those two Provinces to be 40,000,000 there would be a village
school for every 400 persons. There are no data in this country
known to me by which to determine out of this number the
proportion of school-going children, or of children capable of
going to school, or of children of the age at which, according to
the custom of the country, it is usual to go to school. In Prussia
(See Cousin’s Report on the State of Public Instruction in Prussia,
p.140) it has been ascertained by actual census that in a
population of 12,256,725 there were 4,487,461 children under
fourteen years of age; which gives 366 children for every 1,000
inhabitants, or about eleven-thirtieths of the nation. Of this
entire population of children it is calculated that three-sevenths
are of an age to go to school, admitting education in the schools
to begin at the age of seven years complete, and there is thus in
the entire Prussian monarchy the number of 1,923,200 children
capable of receiving the benefits of education. These proportions
will not strictly apply to
268

the juvenile population of this country because the usual age for
going to school is from five to six, and the usual age for leaving
school is from ten to twelve instead of fourteen. There are thus
two sources of discrepancy. The school-going age is shorter in
India than in Prussia, which must have the effect of diminishing
the total number of school-going children; while on the other
hand, that diminished number is not exposed to the causes of
mortality to which the total school-going population of Prussia is
liable from the age of twelve to fourteen. In want of more precise
data, let us suppose that these two contrary discrepancies bal-
ance each other, and we shall then be at liberty to apply the
Prussian proportions to this country. Taking, therefore, eleven-
thirtieths of the above-mentioned 400 persons, and three-
sevenths of the result, it will follow that in Bengal and Bihar
there is on an average a village school for every sixty-three
children of the school-going age. These children, however,
include girls as well as boys, and as there are no indigenous
girls’ schools, if we take the male and female children to be in
equal or nearly equal proportions, there will appear to be an
indigenous elementary school for every thirty-one or thirty-two
boys. The estimate of 100,000 such schools in Bengal and Bihar
is confirmed by a consideration of the number of villages in
those two Provinces. Their number has been officially estimated
at 150,748 of which, not all, but most have each a school. If it be
admitted that there is so large a proportion as a third of the
villages that have no schools, there will still be 100,000 that
have them. Let it be admitted that these calculations from
uncertain premises are only distant approximations to the truth,
and it will still appear that the system of village schools is
extensively prevalent; that the desire to give education to their
male children must be deeply seated in the minds of parents
even of the humblest classes; and that these are the institutions,
closely interwoven as they are with the habits of the people and
the customs of the country, through which primarily, although
not exclusively, we may hope to improve the morals and intellect
of the native population.
It is not, however, in the present state of these schools,
that they can be regarded as valuable instruments for this
purpose. The benefits resulting from them are but small, owing
partly to the incompetency of the instructors, and partly to the
early age at which through the poverty of the parents the
children are removed. The education of Bengalee children, as
has been just stated, generally commences when they are five or
six years old and terminates in five years, before the mind can be
fully awakened to a sense of the advantages of knowledge or the
reason
269

sufficiently matured to acquire it. The teachers depend entirely
upon their scholars for subsistence, and being little respected
and poorly rewarded, there is no encouragement for persons of
character, talent or learning to engage in the occupation. These
schools are generally held in the houses of some of the most
respectable native inhabitants or very near them. All the child-
ren of the family are educated in the vernacular language of the
country; and in order to increase the emoluments of the
teachers, they are allowed to introduce, as pupils, as many
respectable children as they can procure in the neighbourhood.
The scholars begin with tracing the vowels and consonants with
the finger on a sand-board and afterwards on the floor with a
pencil of steatite or white crayon; and this exercise is continued
for eight or ten days. They are next instructed to write on the
palm-leaf with a reed-pen held in the fist not with the fingers,
and with ink made of charcoal which rubs out, joining vowels to
the consonants, forming compound letters, syllables, and words,
and learning tables of numeration, money, weight, and measure,
and the correct mode of writing the distinctive names of persons,
castes, and places. This is continued about a year. The iron style
is now used only by the teacher in sketching on the palm-leaf
the letters which the scholars are required to trace with ink.
They are next advanced to the study of arithmetic and the use of
the plantain-leaf in writing with ink made of lamp-black, which
is continued about six months, during which they are taught
addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, and the
simplest cases of mensuration of land and commercial and
agricultural accounts, together with the modes of address proper
in writing letters to different persons. The last stage of this
limited course of instruction is that in which the scholars are
taught to write with lamp-black ink on paper, and are further
instructed in agricultural and commercial accounts and in the
composition of letters. In country places the rules of arithmetic
are principally applied to agricultural and in towns to
commercial accounts; but in both town and country schools the
instruction is superficial and defective. It may be safely affirmed
that in no instance whatever is the orthography of the language
of the country acquired in those schools, for although in some of
them two or three of the more advanced boys write out small
portions of the most popular poetical compositions of the
country, yet the manuscript copy itself is so inaccurate that they
only become confirmed in a most vitiated manner of spelling,
which the imperfect qualifications of the teacher do not enable
him to correct. The scholars are entirely without instruction,
both literary and oral,
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regarding the personal virtues and domestic and social duties.
The teacher, in virtue of his character, or in the way of advice or
reproof, exercises no moral influence on the character of his
pupils. For the sake of pay he performs menial service in the
spirit of a menial. On the other hand, there is no text or school-
book used containing any moral truths or liberal knowledge, so
that education being limited entirely to accounts, tends rather to
narrow the mind and confine its attention to sordid gain, than to
improve the heart and enlarge the understanding. This
description applies, as far as I at present know, to all indigenous
elementary schools throughout Bengal.
ELEMENTARY BENGALI SCHOOLS (pp.137-146)
It is expressly prescribed by the authorities of Hindu law
that children should be initiated in writing and reading in their
fifth year; or, if this should have been neglected, then in the
seventh, ninth, or any subsequent year, being an odd number.
Certain months of the year, and certain days of the month and
week, are also prescribed as propitious to such a purpose; and
on the day fixed, a religious service is performed in the family by
the family-priest, consisting principally of the worship of
Saraswati, the goddess of learning, after which the hand of the
child is guided by the priest to form the letters of the alphabet,
and he is also then taught, for the first time, to pronounce them.
This ceremony is not of indispensable obligation on Hindus, and
is performed only by those parents who possess the means and
intention of giving their children more extended instruction. It is
strictly the commencement of the child's school education, and
in some parts of the country he is almost immediately sent to
school; but in this district [Rajshahy] I do not find that there is
any determinate age for that purpose. It seems to be generally
regulated by means and opportunities of the parent and by the
disposition and capacity of the child; and as there is a specified
routine of instruction, the age of leaving school must depend
upon the age of commencement.
The Bengali schools in Nattore are ten in number,
containing 167 scholars, who enter school at an age varying
from five to ten years, and leave it at an age varying from ten to
sixteen. The whole period spent at school also varies, according
to the statements of the different teachers from five to ten years;
two stating that their instructions occupied five years, one six
years, three seven years, two eight years, one nine years, and
one ten years—an enormous consumption of time especially at
the more
271

advanced ages, considering the nature and amount of the
instruction communicated.
The teachers consist both of young and middle-aged men,
for the most part simple-minded, but poor and ignorant, and,
therefore, having recourse to an occupation which is suitable
both to their expectations and attainments, and on which they
reflect as little honor as they derive emolument from it; they do
not understand the importance of the task they have
undertaken; they do not appear to have made it even a subject of
thought; they do not appreciate the great influence which they
might exert over the minds of their pupils; and they
consequently neglect the highest duties which their situation
would impose, if they were better acquainted with their powers
and obligations. At present they produce chiefly a mechanical
effect upon the intellect of their pupils which is worked upon
and chiseled out, and that in a very rough style, but which
remains nearly passive in their hands, and is seldom taught or
encouraged to put forth its self-acting and self-judging
capacities. As to any moral influence of the teachers over the
pupils—any attempt to form the sentiments and habits, and to
control and guide the passions and emotions—such a notion
never enters into their conceptions, and the formation of the
moral character of the young is consequently wholly left to the
influence of the casual associations amidst which they are
placed, without any endeavour to modify or direct them. Any
measures that may be adopted to improve education in this
country will be greatly inadequate if they are not directed to
increase the attainments of the teachers, and to elevate and
extend their views of the duties belonging to their vocation.
The remuneration of the teachers is derived from various
sources. Two teachers have their salaries wholly, and another
receives his in part, from benevolent individuals who appear to
be influenced only by philanthropic motives; a fourth is
remunerated solely in the form of fees; and the remaining six are
paid by fees and partly by perquisites. There are in general four
stages or gradations in the course of instruction indicated by the
nature of the materials employed for writing on, viz., the ground,
the palm-leaf, the plantain-leaf, and paper; and at the
commencement of each stage after the first a higher fee is
charged. In one instance the first and second stages are merged
into one; in another instance the same fee is charged for the
third and fourth: and in a third, the first, second, and third
stages are equally charged; but the rule I have stated is observed
272

in a majority of cases, and partially even in those exceptions.
Another mode adopted in two instances, of regulating the fees is
according to the means of the parents whose children are in-
structed; a half, a third, or a fourth less being charged to the
children of poor than to the children of rich parents in the
successive stages of instruction. The perquisites of the teachers
vary from four annas to five rupees a month; in the former case
consisting of a piece of cloth or other occasional voluntary gift
from the parents; and in the latter, or in similar cases, of food
alone, or of food, washing, and all personal expenses, together
with occasional presents. Those who receive food as a perquisite
either live in the house of one of the principal supporters of the
school, or visit the houses of the different parents by turns at
meal-times. The total income of the teachers from fixed salaries
and fluctuating fees and perquisites varies from three rupees
eight annas to seven rupees eight annas per month, the average
being rather more than five rupees per month.
The school at Dharail (No.34) affords a good specimen of
the mode in which a small native community unite to support a
school. At that place there are four families of Chaudhuris, the
principal persons in the village; but they are not so wealthy as to
be able to support a teacher for their children without the
cooperation of others. They give the teacher an apartment in
which his scholars may meet, one of the outer apartments of
their own house in which business is sometimes transacted, and
at other times worship performed and strangers entertained.
One of those families further pays four annas a month, a second
an equal sum, a third eight annas, and a fourth twelve annas,
which include the whole of their disbursements on this account,
no presents or perquisites of any kind being received from them,
and for the sums mentioned their five children receive a Bengali
education. The amount thus obtained, however, is not sufficient
for the support of the teacher, and he, therefore, receives other
scholars belonging to other families—of whom one gives one
anna, another gives three annas, and five give each four annas a
month, to which they add voluntary presents amounting per
month to about four annas, and consisting of vegetable, rice, fish
and occasionally a piece of cloth, such as a handkerchief or an
upper or under garment. Five boys of Kagbariya, the children of
two families, attend the Dharail school, the distance being about
a mile, which, in the rainy season, can be travelled only by
water. Of the five, two belonging to one family give together two
annas, and the three others belonging to the other family give
together four annas a month, and thus the whole income of the
273

master is made up. This case shows by what pinched and
stinted contributions the class just below the wealthy and the
class just above the indigent unite to support a school; and it
constitutes a proof of the very limited means of those who are
anxious to give a Bengali education to their children, and of the
sacrifices which they make to accomplish that object.
I have spoken of the emoluments of the teachers as low;
but I would be understood to mean that they are low, not in
comparison with their qualifications, or with the general rates of
similar labour in the district, but with those emoluments to
which competent men might be justly considered entitled. The
humble character of the men, and the humble character of the
service they render, may be judged from the fact already stated,
that some of them go about from house to house to receive their
daily food. All, however, should not be estimated by this
standard; and perhaps a generally correct opinion of their
relative position in society may be formed by comparing them
with those persons who have nearly similar duties to perform in
other occupations of life, or whose duties the teachers of the
common schools could probably in most instances perform if
they were called on to do so. Such, for instance, are the Patwari,
the Amin, the Shumarnavis, and the Khamarnavis employed on a
native estate. The Patwari, who goes from house to house, and
collects the zemindar's rents, gets from his employer a salary of
two rupees eight annas, or three rupees a month, to which may
be added numerous presents from the ryots of the first
productions of the season, amounting probably to eight annas a
month. The Amin, who on behalf of the zemindar decides the
disputes that take place among the villagers and measures their
grounds, gets from three rupees eight annas to four rupees a
month. The Shumarnavis, who keeps accounts of the collection
of rents by the different Patwaris, receives about five rupees a
month. And the Khamarnavis, who is employed to ascertain the
state and value of the crops on which the zemindar has claims in
kind, receives the same allowance. Persons bearing these
designations and discharging these duties sometimes receive
higher salaries; but the cases I have supposed are those with
which that of the common native school-master may be
considered as on a level, he being supposed capable of under-
taking their duties, and they of undertaking his. The holders of
these offices on a native estate have opportunities of making
unauthorised gains, and they enjoy a respectability and
influence which the native school-master does not possess; but
in other respects they are nearly on an equality; and, to
compensate for those disadvantages, the salary
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of the common school-master is in general rather higher, none of
those whom I met in Nattore receiving in all less than three
rupees eight annas, and some receiving as high as seven rupees
eight annas a month.
There are no school-houses built for, and exclusively
appropriated to, these schools. The apartments or building in
which the scholars assemble would have been erected, and
would continue to be applied to other purposes, if there were no
schools. Some meet in the Chandi Mandap, which is of the
nature of a chapel belonging to one of the principal families in
the village, and in which, besides the performance of religious
worship on occasion of the great annual festivals, strangers also
are sometimes lodged and entertained, and business transacted;
others in the Baithakkhana, an open hut principally intended as
a place of recreation and of concourse for the consideration of
any matters relating to the general interests of the village; others
in the private dwelling of the chief supporter of the school, and
others have no special place of meeting, unless it be the most
vacant and protected spot in the neighbourhood of the master’s
abode. The school (a) in the village numbered 4 meets in the
open air in the dry seasons of the year; and in the rainy season
those boys whose parents can afford it erect each for himself a
small shed of grass and leaves, open at the sides and barely
adequate at the top to cover one person from the rain. There
were five or six such sheds among 30 or 40 boys; and those who
had no protection, if it rained, must either have been dispersed
or remained exposed to the storm. It is evident that the general
efficiency and regularity of school-business, which are promoted
by the adaptation of the school-room to the enjoyment of comfort
by the scholars, to full inspection on the part of the teacher, and
to easy communication on all sides, must here be in a great
measure unknown.
Respecting the nature and amount of the instruction
received, the first fact to be mentioned is that the use of printed
books in the native language appears hitherto to have been
almost wholly unknown to the natives of this district, with the
exception of a printed almanac which some official or wealthy
native may have procured from Calcutta; or a stray missionary
tract which may have found its way across the great river from
the neighbouring district of Moorshedabad. A single case of each
kind came under observation; but as far as I could ascertain, not
one of the school-masters had ever before seen a printed book,
those which I presented to them from the Calcutta School-Book

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Society being viewed more as curiosities than as instruments of
knowledge. That Society has now established an agency for the
sale of it publications at Bauleah, hence works of instruction will
probably in time spread over the district.
Not only are the printed books not used in these schools,
but even manuscript text-books, are unknown. All that the
scholars learn is from the oral dictation of the master; and
although what is so communicated must have a firm seat in the
memory of the teacher, and will probably find an equally firm
seat in the memory of the scholar, yet instruction conveyed
solely by such means must have a very limited scope. The
principal written composition which they learn in this way is the
Saraswati Bandana, or salutation to the Goddess of Learning,
which is committed to memory by frequent repetitions, and is
daily recited by the scholars in a body before they leave school
all kneeling with their heads bent to the ground, and following a
leader or monitor in the pronunciation of the successive lines or
couplets. I have before me two versions or forms of this
salutation obtained at different places; but they are quite
different from each other, although described by the same name,
and both are doggrels of the lowest description even amongst
Bengali compositions. The only other written composition used
in these schools, and that only in the way of oral dictation by the
master, consists of a few of the rhyming arithmetical rules of
Subhankar, a writer whose name is as familiar in Bengal as that
of Cocker in England, without any one knowing who or what he
was or when he lived. It may be inferred that he lived, or if not a
real personage that the rhymes bearing that name were
composed, before the establishment of the British rule in this
country, and during the existence of the Mussalman power, for
they are full of Hindustani or Persian terms, and contain
references to Mahomedan usages without the remotest allusion
to English practices or modes of calculation. A recent native
editor has deemed it requisite to remedy this defect by a
supplement.
It has been already mentioned that there are four different
stages in a course of Bengali instruction. The first period seldom
exceeds ten days, which are employed in teaching the young
scholars to form the letters of the alphabet on the ground with a
small stick or slip of bambu. The sand-board is not used in this
district, probably to save expense. The second period, extending
from two and a half to four years according to the capacity of the
scholar, is distinguished by the use of the palm-leaf as the
material on which writing is performed. Hitherto the mere
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form and sound of the letters have been taught without regard to
their size and relative proportion; but the master with an iron-
style now writes on the palm-leaf letters of a determinate size
and in due proportion to each other, and the scholar is required
to trace them on the same leaf with a reed-pen and with
charcoal-ink which easily rubs out. This process is repeated over
and over again on the same leaf until the scholar no longer
requires the use of the copy to guide him in the formation of the
letters of a fit size and proportion and he is consequently next
made to write them on another leaf which has no copy to direct
him. He is afterwards exercised in writing and pronouncing the
compound consonants, the syllables formed by the junction of
vowels with consonants, and the most common names of
persons. In other parts of the country, the names of castes,
rivers, mountains, etc., are written as well as of persons; but
here the names of persons only are employed as a school-
exercise. The scholar is then taught to write and read, and by
frequent repetition he commits to memory the Cowrie Table, the
Numeration Table as far as 100, the Katha Table (a land-
measure table), and the Ser Table (a dry-measure table). There
are other tables in use elsewhere which are not taught in the
schools of this district. The third stage of instruction extends
from two to three years which are employed in writing on the
plantain-leaf. In some districts the tables just mentioned are
postponed to this stage, but in this district they are included in
the exercises of the second stage. The first exercise taught on the
plantain-leaf is to initiate the scholar into the simplest forms of
letter writing, to instruct him to connect words in composition
with each other, and to distinguish the written from the spoken
forms of Bengali vocables. The written forms are often
abbreviated in speech by the omission of a vowel or a consonant,
or by the running of two syllables into one, and the scholar is
taught to use in writing the full not the abbreviated forms. The
correct orthography of words of Sanscrit origin which abound in
the language of the people, is beyond the reach of the ordinary
class of teachers. About the same time the scholar is taught the
rules of arithmetic, beginning with addition and subtraction, but
multiplication and division are not taught as separate rules—all
the arithmetical processes hereafter mentioned being effected by
addition and subtraction with the aid of a multiplication table
which extends to the number 20, and which is repeated aloud
once every morning by the whole school and is thus acquired not
as a separate task by each boy, but by the mere force of joint
repetition and mutual imitation. After addition and subtraction,
the arithmetical rules taught divide
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themselves into two classes, agricultural and commercial, in one
or both of which instruction is given more or less fully according
to the capacity of the teacher and the wishes of the parents. The
rules applied to agricultural accounts explain the forms of
keeping debit and credit accounts; the calculation of the value of
daily or monthly labour at a given monthly or annual rate; the
calculation of the area of land whose sides measure a given
number of kathas or bigas; the description of the boundaries of
land and the determination of its length, breadth, and contents;
and the form of revenue accounts for a given quantity of land.
There are numerous other forms of agricultural accounts, but no
others appear to be taught in the schools of this district. The
rules of commercial accounts explain the mode of calculating the
value of a given number of sers at a given price per maund; the
price of a given number of quarters and chataks at a given price
per ser; the price of a tola at a given rate per chatak; the number
of cowries in a given number of annas at a given number of
cowries per rupee; the interest of money; and the discount
chargeable on the exchange of the inferior sorts of rupees. There
are other forms of commercial account also in common use, but
they are not taught in the schools. The fourth and last stage of
instruction generally includes a period of two years, often less
and seldom more. The accounts briefly and superficially taught
in the preceding stage are now taught more thoroughly and at a
greater length, and this is accompanied by the composition of
business letters, petitions, grants, leases, acceptances, notes of
hand, etc., together with the forms of address belonging to the
different grades of rank and station. When the scholars have
written on paper about a year, they are considered qualified to
engage in the unassisted perusal of Bengali works, and they
often read at home productions as the translation of the
Ramayana, Manasa Mangal, etc., etc.
This sketch of a course of Bengali instruction must be
regarded rather as what it is intended to be than what it is, for
most of the school-masters whom I have seen, as far as I could
judge from necessarily brief and limited opportunities of
observation, were unqualified to give all the instruction here
described, although I have thus placed the amount of their
pretensions on record. All, however, do not even pretend to teach
the whole of what is here enumerated; some, as will be seen from
Table II, professing to limit themselves to agricultural, and
others to include commercial accounts. The most of them
appeared to have a very superficial acquaintance with both.

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With the exception of the Multiplication Table, the rhyming
arithmetical rules of Subhankar, and the form of address to
Saraswati, all which the younger scholars learn by mere
imitation of sounds incessantly repeated by the elder boys,
without for a long time understanding what those sounds
convey—with these exceptions, native school-boys learn
everything that they do learn not merely by reading but by
writing it. They read to the master or to one of the oldest
scholars what they have previously written, and thus the hand,
the eye, and the ear are equally called into requisition. This
appears preferable to the mode of early instruction current
amongst ourselves, according to which the elements of language
are first taught only with the aid of the eye and the ear, and
writing is left to be subsequently acquired. It would thus appear
also that the statement which represents the native system as
teaching chiefly by the ear, to the neglect of eye, is founded on a
misapprehension, for how can the aid of the eye be said to be
neglected when with the exceptions above-mentioned, nothing
appears to be learned which is not rendered palpable to the
sense by the act of writing? It is almost unnecessary to add that
the use of monitors or leaders has long prevailed in the common
schools of India, and is well known in those of Bengali.
The disadvantages arising from the want of school-houses
and from the confined and inappropriate construction of the
buildings or apartments used as school-rooms have already been
mentioned. Poverty still more than ignorance leads to the
adoption of modes of instruction and economical arrangements
which, under more favourable circumstances, would be readily
abandoned. In the matter of instruction there are some grounds
for commendation for the course I have described has a direct
practical tendency; and, if it were taught in all its parts, is well
adapted to qualify the scholar for engaging in the actual
business of native society. My recollections of the village schools
of Scotland do not enable me to pronounce that the instruction
given in them has a more direct bearing upon the daily interests
of life than that which I find given, or professed to be given, in
the humbler village schools of Bengal.
ELEMENTARY PERSIAN SCHOOLS: (pp.148-153)
The Persian schools in Nattore are four in number,
containing twenty-three scholars, who enter school at any age
varying from four and a half to thirteen years, and leave it at an
age varying from twelve to seventeen. The whole time stated to
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be spent at school varies from four to eight years. The teachers
intellectually are of a higher grade than the teachers of Bengali
schools, although that grade is not high compared with what is
to be desired and is attainable. Morally, they appear to have as
little notion as Bengali teachers of the salutary influence they
might exercise on the dispositions and characters of their pupils.
They have no fees from the scholars and are paid in the form of
fixed monthly allowances with perquisites. The monthly
allowances vary from one rupee eight annas to four rupees, and
they are paid by one, two or three families, who are the principal
supporters of the school. The perquisites, which are estimated at
two rupees eight annas to six rupees a month, and consist of
food, washing, and other personal expenses, are provided either
by the same parties or by those parents who do not contribute to
the monthly allowance. The total remuneration of a teacher
varies from four to ten rupees per month, averaging about seven
rupees. The principal object of the patrons of these schools is the
instruction of their own children; but in one instance a worthy
old Mussalman, who has no children, contributes a small
monthly allowance, without which the teacher would not have
sufficient inducement to continue his labours; and in another
case besides two children of the family, ten other boys are
admitted, on whom instruction, food, and clothing, are
gratuitously bestowed. Two of the schools have separate school-
houses, which were built by the benevolent patrons who
principally support them. The scholars of the other two assemble
in out-buildings belonging to one or other of the families whose
children receive instruction.
Although in the Persian schools printed books are
unknown, yet manuscript works are in constant use. The
general course of instruction has no very marked stages or
gradations into which it is divided. Like the Hindus, however, the
Mussalmans formally initiate their children into the study of
letters. When a child, whether a boy or a girl, is four years, four
months, and four days old, the friends of the family assemble,
and the child is dressed in his best clothes, brought in to the
company, and seated on a cushion in the presence of all. The
alphabet, the form of letters used for computation, the
introduction to the Koran, some verses of Chapter LV, and the
whole of Chapter LXXXVII, are placed before him, and he is
taught to pronounce them in succession. If the child is self-
willed, and refuses to read, he is made to pronounce the
Bismillah, which answers every purpose, and from that day his
education is deemed to have commenced. At school he is taught
the alphabet, as with
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