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

taught grammar, general literature, rhetoric, logic, law, the
mythological poems, and astronomy, as well as the Agama
shastra. The students often prosecute their studies till they are
thirty-five and even forty years of age, and are almost invariably
the sons of Brahmans. They are supported in various ways—
first, by the liberality of those learned men who instruct them;
secondly, by the presents they receive on occasions of invitation
to religious festivals and domestic celebrations; thirdly, by their
relations at home; and fourthly, by begging, recourse being had
to one means when others fail. The instructors are enabled to
assist their pupils, sometimes from their own independent
means, sometimes from the occasional gifts they receive from
others, and sometimes from the produce of small endowments.
At least ten are stated to have small grants of land for the
support of learning, one of these consisting of 25 beeghas of
Brahmottur land, and another of 176 beeghas of Lakhiraj land.
The quantity of land in the other cases in not mentioned, but it
is not stated to be generally Brahmottur.
In one instance it is stated that the owner of the estate on
which the school is situated gave the Pundit a yearly present of
32 rupees, and in another instance a monthly allowance of 5 or
8 rupees. In a third instance the Pundit of the school lived on his
patrimony, and at the same time acted as family priest to the
zemindar.
DINAJPUR: (pp.112-114)
Of the twenty-two sub-divisions of the district, there are fif-
teen without any schools of learning, and the remaining seven
have only sixteen schools. Most of the teachers possess lands
which enable them to provide for their own subsistence as well
as that of their pupils, and they receive gifts from all Hindoos of
any distinction. There is, however, no necessity for a person who
holds these lands to instruct youth, and when the celebrity of a
teacher has procured large grants of land, his heirs, although
they continue to enjoy the estate, are not bound to teach. They
may retain the high title of Pundit without devoting themselves
to the business of instruction or they may even betake
themselves to the degrading affairs of the world without forfeiting
the property. Very much, however, to the credit of the
Brahmans, such a neglect is not usual, and one son of the
family continues generally to profess the instruction of youth. If
there are other sons they follow their natural inclination. With
such a system, however liberal it may be in appearance, and to
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whatever merit the individual professors are justly entitled, it
must be evident that the work of education will go on but slowly.
It is even to be feared that it would altogether stop, were it not
for the charity which usually follows considerable reputation as
a teacher.
Students usually commence the study of the Sanskrit
language about twelve years of age, after they have been
instructed in the knowledge taught in the elementary schools.
The principal studies are, as elsewhere in Bengal, grammar, law,
and metaphysics and less frequently the philosophical theology
of the Veds, the ritual of modern Hindooism, and astronomy, to
which may be added medicine or rather magic.
The Vaidyas or medical tribe, and even some rich
Kayasthas, are permitted to study such portions of Sanskrit
literature as have been composed by wise men; but they are
excluded from whatever is supposed to be of divine origin and
authority. Dr Buchanan remarks that the exclusiveness with
which Sanskrit learning has been appropriated to the sacred
tribe may have tended to increase the general ignorance; but
that there can be no doubt that those who possess it enjoy very
considerable advantages over their countrymen. The Brahmans
generally speaking have an intelligence and acuteness far
beyond other Hindoos; and he further thinks that they are
subject to fewer vices, and that those persons will be found to
approach nearest their good qualities who are admitted even to
the porch of science. Here as well as elsewhere it will be found
that although intellectual cultivation and moral excellence are
neither identical nor always concomitant yet the addiction to
intellectual pursuits and enjoyments, coeteries paribus, leads to
the elevation and improvement of the moral character. Amongst
the multiplied means, therefore, which civilisation and
philanthropy will suggest for the reformation of a whole people,
let us not altogether neglect one of which, however unfamiliar it
may be to our conceptions, experience has established the
utility, and which has in fact been the salt of the earth,
preserving the country for centuries past amid general
debasement and corruption from total ignorance and
depravation.
It does not appear that there is any school in which Arabic
or the sciences of the Mahomedans are taught,—a remarkable
fact respecting a populous district in which so large a proportion
of the inhabitants is Mahomedan.
Although some of the Mahomedan priests can read the
portions of the Koran that are appropriated for certain
ceremonies,

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yet Dr Buchanan heard a general complaint from the kazis that
few understood a single word of that language and that the
greater part had merely learned the passages by rote so as to
enable them to perform the ceremonies.
PURNEAH: (pp.119-122)
Throughout the district Dr Buchanan reckoned 119
schools of this description, possessing various degrees of
respectability. The subjects taught are grammar, logic, and law,
astronomy and the modern ritual, the teachers of the two latter,
although classed as learned men, being less respected than the
former. Some even of the most respected class were reputed to
possess but superficial acquirements. The students are said to
be inattentive and to take long vacations. About as many
students go to other districts from Purneah as are attracted to it
from other quarters. No Pundit had above eight scholars
altogether which is less than two for each teacher. The Pundits
in the district, including the professional teachers, amounted to
247, but the claims of many to the title were deemed
questionable. A great many other persons to the number of
1,800 or 1,900 assume the title of Pundit but are distinguished
from the former by the name of dasakarmas. They officiate as
priests to the Sudras, and towards the West they act in the same
capacity for very low castes; but in those parts few can read or
write any language. They understand, however, the poetical
legends when read, have acquired some knowledge of the
marvels they contain, have committed to memory the necessary
forms of prayer, and can perform the usual ceremonies. In the
eastern parts of the district, where the manners of Bengal pre-
vail, there is a class of Brahmans who officiate for the lower
castes of Sudras, and their knowledge is nearly on a level with
that of the dasakarmas. The dasakarmas, who act as priests for
the higher order of Sudras, can read and are able to pray from a
book. A good many of them have studied for a year or two under
a learned teacher, and have some slight knowledge of grammar
and law. Some of them can understand a part of the ceremonies
which they read, and some also can note nativities. A very few of
the medical tribe in the south east corner of the district have
studied the sacred tongue.
It is remarked that science is almost entirely confined to
two of the corners of the district, the old territory called Gour,
and the small portion situated to the west of the Kosi. In the
former case, the effect is attributed to the care of a native public
officer who had several estates in that vicinity, and still
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retained a part at the time of Dr Buchanan's investigation. He
appointed six pundits to teach, and gave them an allowance be-
sides the lands which they possess. They are reckoned higher in
rank than the other professors in the vicinity, and are called
rajpundits. The thirty-one pundits in that quarter addict them-
selves chiefly to the study of grammar, law, and the mythological
poems. Logic and metaphysics are neglected, as well as
astronomy and magic. In the western side of the district there
are no less than thirty-three teachers within a small space and
there astrology as well as metaphysics is studied; mythological
poems are not much read and magic is not known. The number
of the teachers is owing to the patronage of the Rajahs of
Darbhanga to whom the greater part of the lands belong; but
their patronage did not appear to be very efficacious, for, of the
thirty-three Pundits in the whole territory west of the Kosi, only
eight were considered well-versed in the sciences and learning,
which they professed to teach, viz., one in logic and
metaphysics, three in grammar, and four in astrology. All these
are Mithila Pundits.
Dr Buchanan has communicated some details of the
proportions in which the different branches of learning were
studied. Eleven Pundits taught metaphysics; of these six
confined themselves entirely to that branch; one also taught
grammar, another added law; two others with law also read the
Sri bhagvut; and one man included the whole of these within the
range of his instructions. There were no less than thirty-one
teachers of the law, of whom one only confined himself to that
pursuit; twenty of them taught one additional science; and of
these nineteen taught grammar, and one logic and metaphysics;
eight taught two additional branches, of whom three taught
grammar and explained the bhagvut, two taught logic and
metaphysics and also explained the bhagvut, two taught
grammar and the modern ritual, and one taught grammar and
astronomy. Two taught three other branches, one explaining
grammar, logic and the mythological poems, and the other
substituting the modern ritual for logic. Of eleven teachers of the
astronomical works, ten professed nothing else. Of seven
persons who taught the modern ritual, one only confined himself
to it, two professed the law, three taught grammar and the
metaphysical poems, and six were proficients in grammar. Only
five Pundits limited themselves to the teaching of grammar.
With regard to the state of medical education and practice,
Dr Buchanan ascertained that there were twenty-six Bengalee
practitioners who used incantations (muntras); thirty-seven who
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rejected them and administered medicine; and five Mahomedan
physicians who seemed to be little superior to the Hindoos. The
doctrines of both are nearly the same, and seem to be founded
on the school of Galen. Those who practice at large make from
10 to 20 rupees a month. They do not keep their recipes or
doctrines secret, but seemed to practice in a liberal manner,
although without having gained a high reputation. A
considerable number are servants, and attend on wealthy
families for a monthly pension. Many of them cannot read. There
is another class of medical practitioners who reject incantations
and exhibit herbs. They have no books, and the greater part
cannot read the vulgar tongue. They have been early instructed
in the use of certain herbs in certain diseases. Dr Buchanan
heard of about 450 of them, but they seemed to be chiefly
confined to the Hindoo divisions of the district, and they are held
in very low estimation. There is also a class of persons who
profess to treat sores, but they are totally illiterate and destitute
of science, nor do they perform any operation. They deal chiefly
in oils. The only practitioner in surgery was an old woman, who
had become reputed for extracting the stone from the bladder,
which she performed after the manner of the ancients.
According to Dr Buchanan the science of the Arabs has
been exceedingly neglected in this district, so that very few even
of the kazis are supposed to understand the Koran or any Arabic
work on grammar, law or metaphysics. He did not hear of one
man who attempted to teach any of these branches of learning,
and he expresses a doubt whether even one man employed in
administering the Mohammedan law and born in the district was
tolerably well-versed in the subject, or so well informed or
liberally educated as the common attornies in a country town of
England.
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III
W. ADAM ON STATE OF NATIVE MEDICAL PRACTICE
(pp.195-200)
The state of Native Medical Practice in the (Rajshahy) district is
so intimately connected with the welfare of the people that it
could not be wholly overlooked; and as the few facts that I have
collected tend additionally to illustrate their character and
condition, it would be improper to omit them. They are
submitted with deference to those who may have made
professional inquiries, and can form a professional judgment on
the subject.
The number of those, who may be called general
practitioners and who rank highest in the native medical
profession in Nattore is 123, of whom 89 are Hindus and 34 are
Mahomedans. The Medical School at Vaidya Belghariya
possesses considerable interest, since it is, as far as I can
ascertain, the only institution of the kind in the district, and the
number of such institutions throughout Bengal is, I believe, very
limited. The two medical teachers of this school are employed as
domestic physicians by two wealthy families, and they have each
also a respectable general practice. As a domestic physician, the
junior teacher has a fixed salary of twenty-five rupees a month;
while the senior teacher in the same capacity has only fifteen
rupees a month, and that only as long his attendance may be
required during periods of sickness in the family that employs
him. I have spoken of that family as wealthy, but it is only
comparatively so being in very reduced circumstances; and to
that cause rather than to the low estimation in which the
physician is held, we must ascribe the scant remuneration he
receives. At another place, Hajra Nattore, No.26, there are three
educated Hindu practitioners, all three Brahmans and brothers
and more or less acquainted with Sanscrit, having acquired the
grammar of the language at Bejpara Amhatti, and subsequently
applied their knowledge of it to the study of the medical works in
that language. The eldest has practised since he was eighteen,
and he is now sixty-two years of age, and employs his leisure in
instructing his two nephews. On an average of the year he
estimates the income derived from his practice at five rupees a
month, while one of his brothers who is in less repute estimates
his own income at three rupees. At a third place, Haridev
Khalasi, No.100, there are four educated Hindu practitioners,
three of whom appeared to be in
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considerable repute for skill and learning. They were all absent,
and I had not an opportunity of conversing with them; but their
neighbours and friends estimated their monthly professional
income at eight, ten, and twelve rupees, respectively. There are
at most two or three other educated Hindu physicians in
Nattore, and all the rest are professionally uneducated, the only
knowledge they possess of medicine being derived from Bengali
translations of Sanscrit works which describe the symptoms of
the principal diseases and prescribe the articles of the native
materia medica that should be employed for their cure, and the
proportions in which they should be compounded. I have not
been able to ascertain that there is a single educated Musalman
physician in Nattore, and consequently the 34 Mahomedan
practitioners I have mentioned, rank with the uneducated class
of Hindu practitioners, deriving all their knowledge of medicine
from Bengali translations of Sanscrit works to the prescriptions
of which they servilely adhere.
The only difference that I have been able to discover
between the educated and uneducated classes of native
practitioners is that the former prescribe with greater confidence
and precision from the original authorities, and the latter with
greater doubt and uncertainty from loose and imperfect
translations. The mode of treatment is substantially the same,
and in each case is fixed and invariable. Great attention is paid
to the symptoms of disease, a careful and strict comparison
being made between the descriptions of the supposed disease in
the standard medical works and the actual symptoms in the
case of the patient. When the identity is satisfactorily
ascertained, there is then no doubt as to the practice to be
adopted, for each disease has its peculiar remedy in the works of
established repute, and to depart from their prescriptions would
be an act of unheard of presumption. If, with a general
resemblance, there should be some slight difference of
symptoms, a corresponding departure from the authorised
prescription is permitted, but only as regards the medium or
vehicle through which it is administered. The medicines
administered are both vegetable and mineral. The former are
divided into those which are employed in the crude state, as
barks, leaves, common or wild roots, and fruits etc.; and those
which are sold in the druggist's shop as camphor, cloves, carda-
mums, etc. They are administered either externally or in the
forms of pill, powder, electuary, and decoction.
The preceding class of practitioners consists of individuals
who at best know nothing of medicine as a science, but practise
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it as an art according to a prescribed routine, and it may well be
supposed that many, especially of the uneducated class, are
nothing but quacks. Still as a class they rank higher both in
general estimation and in usefulness than the village doctors. Of
these there are not fewer than 205 in Nattore. They have not the
least semblance of medical knowledge, and they in general limit
their prescriptions to the simplest vegetable preparations, either
preceded or followed by the pronouncing of an incantation and
by striking and blowing upon the body. Their number proves
that they are in repute in the villages; and the fact is ascribable
to the influence which they exercise upon the minds of the
superstitious by their incantations. The village doctors are both
men and women; and most of them are Mahomedans, like the
class to which they principally address themselves.
The smallpox inoculators in point of information and
respectability come next to the class of general practitioners.
There are 21 of them in Nattore, for the most part Brahmans,
but uninstructed and ignorant, exercising merely the manual art
of inoculation. One man sometimes inoculates from 100 to 500
children in a day, receiving for each operation a fixed rate of
payment varying from one to two annas; the less amount if the
number of children is great, the greater amount if the number is
small. The cow-pox has not, I believe, been introduced into this
district amongst the natives, except at the head station.
Elsewhere the smallpox inoculators have been found its
opponents, but, as far as I can understand, their opposition does
not arise from interested motives, for the cow-pox inoculation
would give them as much labour and profit as they now have.
Their opposition arises, I am assured, from the prejudice against
using cow-pox. The veneration in which the cow is held is well-
known, and they fear to participate in a practice which seems to
be founded on some injury done to that animal when the matter
was originally extracted. The spread of the cow-pox would
probably be most effectually accomplished by the employment of
Mussalman inoculators whose success might in due time
convince the Brahman inoculators of their mistake.
Midwives are another class of practitioners that may be
noticed, although it has been denied that Hindus have any. An
eminent London physician, in his examination before the
Medical Committee of the House of Commons, is stated to have
affirmed that the inhabitants of China have no women-midwives,
and no practitioners in midwifery at all. ‘Of course,’ it is added,
‘the African nations and the Hindus are the same.’ I enquired
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and noted the number of women-midwives (there is not a man-
midwife in the country) in the villages of Nattore, and find that
they amount to 297. They are no doubt sufficiently ignorant, as
are probably the majority of women-midwives at home.
Still lower than the village doctors there is a numerous
class of pretenders who go under the general name of conjurors
or charmers. The largest division of this class are the snake-
conjurors, their number in the single police sub-division of
Nattore being not less than 722. There are few villages without
one, and in some villages there are as many as ten. I could, if it
were required, indicate the villages and the number in each; but
instead of incumbering Table I with such details, I have judged it
sufficient to state the total number in this place. They profess to
cure the bites of poisonous snakes by incantations or charms. In
this districts, particularly during the rainy season, snakes are
numerous and excite much terror among the villagers. Nearly
the whole district forming, it is believed, an old bed of the
Ganges, lies very low; and the rapid increase of the waters
during the rainy season drives the land-snakes from their holes,
and they seek refuge in the houses of the inhabitants, who hope
to obtain relief from their bites by the incantations of the
conjurors. These take nothing for the performance of their rites,
or for the cures they pretend to have performed. All is pecuniar-
ily gratuitous to the individual but they have substantial advan-
tages which enable them to be thus liberal. When the
inhabitants of a village hitherto without a conjuror think that
they can afford to have one, they invite a professor of the art
from a neighbouring village where there happens to be one to
spare, and give him a piece of land and various privileges and
immunities. He possesses great influence over the inhabitants. If
a quarrel takes place, his interference will quell it sooner than
that of any one else; and when he requires the aid of his
neighbours in cultivating his plot of ground or in reaping its
produce, it is always more readily given to him than to others.
The art is not hereditary in a family or peculiar to any caste. One
I met with was a boatman, another a chowkidar and a third a
weaver. Whoever learns the charm may practise it, but it is
believed that those who practise it most successfully are ‘to the
manner born’, that is, who have been born under a favourable
conjunction of the planets. Every conjuror seems to have a
separate charm, for I have found no two the same. They do not
object to repeat it merely for the gratification of curiosity, and
they allow it to be taken down in writing. Neither do they appear
to have any mutual jealously, each readily allowing the virtue of
other incantations than his own.
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Sometimes the pretended curer of snake-bites by charms
professes also to possess the power of expelling demons, and in
other cases the expeller of demons disclaims being a snake-
conjuror. Demon-conjurors are not numerous in Nattore; and
tiger-conjurors who profess to cure the bites of tigers, although
scarcely heard of in that thana, are more numerous in those
parts of the district where there is a considerable space covered
by jungle inhabited by wild beasts. Distinct from these three
kinds of conjurors and called by a different name is a class of
gifted (guni) persons who are believed to possess the power of
preventing the fall of hail which would destroy or injure the
crops of the villages. For this purpose when there is a prospect of
a hailstorm, one of them goes out into the fields belonging to the
villages with a trident and a buffalo's horn. The trident is fixed in
the ground and the Gifted makes a wide circuit around it,
running naked blowing the horn, and pronouncing incantations.
It is the firm belief of the villagers that their crops are by this
means protected from hailstorm. Both men and women practise
this business. There are about a dozen in Nattore, and they are
provided for in the same way as the conjurors.
Some of these details may appear, and in themselves probably
are, unimportant, but they help to afford an insight into the
character of the humblest classes of native society who
constitute the great mass of the people, and whose happiness
and improvement are identical with the prosperity of the
country; and although they exhibit the proofs of a most imbecile
superstition, yet it is superstition which does not appear to have
its origin or support in vice or depravity, but in a childish
ignorance of the common laws of nature which the most
imperfect education or the most limited mental cultivation would
remove. These superstitions are neither Hindu nor Mahomedan,
being equally repudiated by the educated portions of both
classes of religionists. They are probably antecedent to both
systems of faith and have been handed down from time
immemorial as a local and hereditary religion of the cultivators
of the soil, who, amid the extraordinary changes which in
successive ages and under successive races of conquerors this
country has undergone, appear always to have been left in the
same degraded and prostrate condition in which they are now
found.

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320

321

322

323

324

325

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

327

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