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

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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.
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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
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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

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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
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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
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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
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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
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(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:
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In agraharam villages inhabited by Brahmins, it has been
usual from time immemorial to allot for the enjoyment of
those who study the Vaidams and Pooranams (religion and
historical traditions) an extent of maunium land yielding
from 20 to 50 fanams per annum and in a few but rare
instances to the extent of 100 fanams and they
gratuitously and generally instruct such pupils as may
voluntarily be brought to them.⁴⁶
The collector of Masulipatam made a similar observation
and stated:
If the boys are of Vydeea Brahmins, they are, so soon as
they can read properly, removed direct from schools to
college of Vadums and Sastrums.
The former is said to be the mother of all the sciences of
Hindoos, and the latter is the common term for all those
sciences, which are in Sanskrit, viz law, astronomy,
theology, etc. These sciences are taught by Brahmins only,
and more especially Brahmins holding Agraharams,
Mauniums, Rozunahs, or other emoluments, whose duty it
is to observe their religious obligation on all occasions.
In most of the towns, villages and hamlets of this country,
the Brahmins are teaching their boys the Vadum and
Sastrums, either in colleges or elsewhere in their respective
houses.⁴⁷
The more descriptive accounts, however, were from
Cuddapah and Guntoor. The collector of Cuddapah stated:
Although there are no schools or colleges supported by
public contribution, I ought not to omit that amongst
Brahmins, instruction is in many places gratuitously
afforded and the poorer class obtain all their education in
this way. At the age of from 10 to 16 years, if he has not
the means of obtaining instruction otherwise, a young
Brahmin leaves his home, and proceeds to the residence of
a man of his own caste who is willing to afford instruction
without recompense to all those resorting to him for the
purpose. They do not, however, derive subsistence from
him for as he is generally poor himself, his means could
not of course give support to others, and even if he has the
means his giving food and clothing to his pupils would
attract so many as
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to defeat that object itself which is professed. The Board
would naturally enquire how these children who are so
destitute as not to be able to procure instruction in their
own villages, could subsist in those to which they are
strangers, and to which they travel from 10 to 100 miles,
with no intention of returning for several years. They are
supported entirely by charity, daily repeated, not received
from the instructor for the reasons above mentioned, but
from the inhabitants of the villages generally. They receive
some portion of alms daily at the door of every Brahmin in
the village, and this is conceded to them with a
cheerfulness which considering the object in view must be
esteemed as a most honourable trait in the native
character, and its unobtrusiveness ought to enhance the
value of it. We are undoubtedly indebted to this benevolent
custom for the general spread of education amongst a class
of persons whose poverty would otherwise be an
insurmountable obstacle to advancement in knowledge,
and it will be easily inferred that it requires only the liberal
and fostering care of Government to bring it to perfection.⁴⁸
The collector of Guntoor was equally descriptive and
observed that though there seemed to be ‘no colleges for
teaching theology, law, astronomy, etc. in the district’ which are
endowed by the state yet,
These sciences are privately taught to some scholars or
disciples generally by the Brahmins learned in them,
without payment of any fee, or reward, and that they, the
Brahmins who teach are generally maintained by means of
maunium land which have been granted to their ancestors
by the ancient Zamindars of the Zillah, and by the former
Government on different accounts, but there appears no
instance in which native Governments have granted
allowances in money and land merely for the maintenance
of the teachers for giving instruction in the above sciences.
By the information which has been got together on the
subject, it appears that there are 171 places where
theology, laws and astronomy, etc. are taught privately,
and the number of disciples in them is 939. The readers of
these sciences cannot generally get teachers in their
respective villages and are therefore obliged to go to others.
In which case if the reader belongs to a family that can
afford to support him he gets
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what is required for his expenses from his home and which
is estimated at three rupees per month, but which is only
sufficient to supply him with his victuals; and if on the
other hand, his family is in too indigent circumstances to
make such allowance, the student procures his daily
subsistence from the houses in the village where taught
which willingly furnish such by turns.
Should people be desirous of studying deeper in theology,
etc. than is taught in these parts, they travel to Benares,
Navadweepum,⁴⁹ etc. where they remain for years to take
instruction under the learned pundits of those places.⁵⁰
SOME BOOKS USED IN HIGHER LEARNING
The books used in these institutions may be assumed to have
been the Vedas, the various Sastras, the Puranas, the more well
known books on Ganeeta, and Jyotish-shastras, and Epic
literature. Except in the report from Rajahmundry, there is no
mention of any books in the reports from other districts.
According to Rajahmundry, some of the books used there were:
NAMES OF THE BOOKS IN USE IN THE COLLEGES IN
RAJAHMUNDRY⁵¹
Vadams, etc.

1. Roogvadum 1. Ragoovumsam
2. Yajoorvadum 1. Coomarasumbhavem
3. Samavadum 1. Moghasundasem
4. Sroudum 1. Bharavy
5. Dravedavedum or 1. Maukhum
   Nunlauyanum ──────
7. Nayeshadum
8. Andasastrum
   Sastrums
9. Sanskrit Grammar
   Siddhanda Cowmoody
   38

2. Turkum
3. Jeyoteshem
4. Durmasastrum
5. Cauveyems
   Besides, as Rajahmundry had a few Persian schools,⁵² it also
   sent a list of Persian and Arabic books studied. These were:
   NAMES OF THE BOOKS IN USE IN THE PERSIAN
   SCHOOLS IN RAJAHMUNDRY
6. Caremah Aumadunnanmah
7. Harckarum in Persian
8. Inshah Culipha and Goolstan
9. Bahurdanish and Bostan
10. Abdul Phazul Inshah
11. Calipha
12. Khoran
    PRIVATE TUITION (OR EDUCATION AT HOME)
    Several collectors, especially the collector of Canara, who did not
    send any statistical returns at all, mentioned the fact that many
    of the boys and especially the girls received education at home
    from their parents, or relatives, or from privately engaged tutors.
    Many also stated that higher learning is being imparted in
    Agraharams, etc. However, it was only the collectors of Malabar
    and of the city of Madras who sent any statistical data on the
    subject. The collector of Malabar sent such data with regard to
    higher learning, while the collector of Madras about the boys and
    girls who were receiving education in their homes. Both the
    returns are reproduced in Tables 7A & B.
    Regarding the data concerning higher learning from
    Malabar, it is reasonable to assume that though learning
    through private tutors did exist in most other districts, it was
    carried out in Malabar to a far greater extent due to its rather
    different historical and sociological background. As will be noted
    from Tables 7A & B, those studying in this fashion at this period
    (1823) were about twenty-one times the number of those
    attending the
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solitary college supported by the more or less resourceless family
of the Samudrin Raja. The Malabar data also shows 194 persons
studying medicine. As indigenous medical practitioners existed
in every other district and perhaps in every village—some of
them still in receipt of revenue assignments for their services to
the community—it can logically be assumed that similar
teaching in Medical Science existed in most other districts too.
What number and proportions in the various disciplines
were thus educated privately in the other districts, however, is a
speculative question. Still, it may not be too erroneous to
assume that the number of those ‘privately’ studying Theology,
Law, Astronomy, Metaphysics, Ethics, Poetry and Literature,
Medical Science, Music, and Dance (all of which existed in this
period) was perhaps several times the number of those who were
receiving such education institutionally.
The data from Madras regarding the number of boys and
girls receiving tuition at their homes is equally pertinent. In
comparison to those being educated in schools in Madras, this
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number is 4.73 times. Though it is true that half of these
privately tutored were from amongst the Brahmins and the
Vysees, still those from the Soodras form 28.7% of this number,
and from the other castes 13%. Furthermore, the Indian part of
Madras city at this period was more of a shanty-town. In
comparison to the older towns and cities of the Presidency, it
was a relatively badly organised place, the status of its Indian
inhabitants being rather lower in the social scale than their
counterparts in other places like Madura, Tanjore, Trichinopoly,
etc. It may be quite probable, therefore, that the number of those
privately educated in other districts, if not some 4 to 5 times
more than those attending school as in Madras city, was still
appreciably large. The observation of Thomas Munro that there
was ‘probably some error’ in the number given of 26,903 being
taught at home in Madras city—a remark incidentally which has
been made much of by later commentators on the subject—does
not have much validity. If the number had been considered
seriously erroneous, a new computation for the city of Madras,
to which alone it pertained, would have been no difficult matter,
especially as this return had been submitted to the Governor a
whole year before this comment. It was perhaps required of
Thomas Munro—as head of the executive—to express such a
reservation. Undoubtedly, it was the sort of comment which the
makers of policy in London wished to hear.⁵⁵ This draft, however,
was followed by the remark that ‘the state of education here
exhibited, low as it is compared with that of our own country, is
higher than it was in most European countries at no very distant
period.’ As may be guessed from the data pertaining to Britain,
the term ‘at no very distant period’ really meant the beginning of
the nineteenth century, which had been the real start of the Day
schools for most children in the British Isles.
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EDUCATION OF GIRLS
As mentioned earlier, the number of girls attending school was
very small. Leaving aside the district of Malabar and the Jeypoor
division of Vizagapatam district, the girls from the Brahmin,
Chettri, and Vysee castes were practically non-existent in
schools. There were, however, some Muslim girls receiving
school education: 56 in Trichnopoly, and 27 in Salem. The
Hindoo girls who attended school, though again not in any large
number, were from the Soodra and other Hindoo castes; and,
according to the collectors of Masulipatam, Madura, Tinnevelly
and Coimbatore, most of them were stated to be dancing girls, or
girls who were presumably going to be devdasis in the temples.
Table 8 presents the district and caste-wise number of the girls
attending school, or said to be receiving private tuition.
As will be noticed from Table 9, the position in Malabar, as
also in Jeypoor Zamindary of Vizagapatam district, was much
different. The relative numbers of girls and boys attending school
in these two areas⁵⁶ are presented in Table 8 below:
In percentage terms of the total, the proportion of girls to
boys in school was the highest, 29.7%, in the Jeypoor
Zamindary of the Vizagapatam district. Even more surprising,
the proportion of Brahmin girls to Brahmin boys in school was
as high as 37%. Similarly, in Malabar the proportion of Muslim
girls to Muslim
43