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

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
    39

40

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
41

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.
42

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

44

text
Brahmins Vysee Soodras Other Castes Mussalmans Total Studying Total Female Population Other Details
(b) Astronomy 5 19 14 38
Tamil Speaking
NORTH ARCOT 1 32 8 11 52 2,78,481
SOUTH ARCOT 94 10 104 2,02,556
CHINGLEPUT 3 79 34 116 1,72,886
TANJORE 125 29 154 1,87,145
TRICHNOPOLY 66 18 56 140 2,33,723
MADURA 65 40 105 3,86,682 Stated largely as
dancing girls.
TINNELVELLY 117 2 119 2,81,238
COIMBATORE 82 82 3,21,268 Kykakla caste
(Dancing girls).
SALEM 3 28 27 58 5,33,485
MADRAS 7,33,415
(i) Ordinary Schools 1 9 113 4 127
(ii) Charity Schools 2 47 49
(iii) At home 98 63 220 136 517

45 39

boys in school being at 35.1% is truly astonishing.57 Even
amongst the Vysees, the Soodras and the other castes in
Malabar, the proportion of girls to boys was fairly high at 15.5%,
19.1% and 12.4% respectively; the proportion of the totals being
18.3%. That two such widely separated areas (Malabar on the
west coast while Jeypoor Zamindary being in the hilly tracts on
the southern border of Orissa) had such a sociological similarity
requires deeper study.
V
The undertaking of the survey was welcomed by London in May
1825, when it wrote to Madras: ‘We think great credit is due to
Sir Thomas Munro for having originated the idea of this enquiry.’
However, after receipt of the survey information and papers, the
reply Madras received ridiculed and altogether dismissed what
had been reported to be functioning. In the public despatch of
16 April 1828, Madras was told that ‘the information sent’, while
lacking in certain respects, was ‘yet sufficiently complete to
show, that in providing the means of a better education for the
natives, little aid is to be expected from the instruments of
education which already exist.’
ADAM’S REPORT ON INDIGENOUS EDUCATION IN
BENGAL AND BIHAR
Thirteen years after the initiation of the survey in the Madras
Presidency, a more limited semi-official survey of indigenous
education was taken up in the Presidency of Bengal. This was
what is known as the celebrated Adam’s Reports, or to give the
full title Reports on the State of Education in Bengal 1836 and
1838.58
46

It consists of three reports: the first, dated 1st July 1836, being a
survey of the available existing information regarding indigenous
education and its nature and facilities in the various districts of
Bengal (pp.1-126); the second, dated 23 December 1835, being a
survey of the prevalent situation undertaken by W. Adam in the
Thana of Nattore in the district of Rajshahy (pp.127-208,
pp.528-578); and the third, dated 28 April 1838, being a survey
of the situation in parts of Murshedabad, and the whole of the
districts of Beerbhoom, Burdwan, South Behar and Tirhoot,
ending with Adam's reflections, recommendations and
conclusions (pp.209-467).
Adam's Phraseology and Presentation
In spite of the controversies which Adam's Reports have given
rise to—the most notable one being his mention of there being
perhaps 1,00,000 village schools still existing in Bengal and
Bihar in some form till the 1830s—the total impression
produced by them is one of extensive decay of these institutions.
Largely due to Adam's evangelical, moralistic tone, reading them
is a rather depressing business. Adam himself was no great
admirer of the Indian teacher, or the nature and content of
Indian education. However, as Adam started from the view that
the British Government of the day should interest itself in the
sphere of elementary and higher Indian education and also
support it financially, he seemed to have thought it necessary to
use all possible arguments and imagery to bring home this
point. Under the circumstances, it was necessary for him to
dramatise the decay as well as the relative state of ignorance of
the teachers, as well as the lack of books, buildings, etc., in
order to evoke the desired sympathetic response. Furthermore, it
is important to note that W. Adam initially had come to Bengal
in 1818 as a Baptist Missionary. Though he left missionary
activity after some years, and took to journalism instead, he
remained a product of his contemporary British times, a period
dominated by two principal currents of opinion: one which saw
the necessity of evangelising
47

India, advocated by men like William Wilberforce; the other, its
westernisation, symbolised by men like T.B. Macaulay and
William Bentinck. As indicated earlier, both ideas were
encompassed in the Charter Act of 1813. Additionally, the
reports of Adam, although not formal official documents, were
nonetheless sanctioned and financed by the orders of the
Governor General himself. Naturally, therefore, while they may
imply many things—as do some of the reports of the Madras
Presidency collectors—they were nevertheless phrased in such a
way as not to lay the blame directly on past government policy
and action.
Varied and Valuable Sociological Data
The more important point which comes through Adam’s
voluminous writing, however, was his remarkable industry and
the detail and variety of data which he was able to collect: first,
from the post-1800 existing sources; and second, through his
own investigations. While the controversy about his 1,00,000
village schools in Bengal and Bihar is finally forgotten, the
material which he provided (regarding the caste composition of
the pupils taught as well as the teachers, their average ages at
various periods, and the books which were then in use in the
districts he surveyed) will still have great relevance.
Selections Reproduced
Some selections from Adam’s material are reproduced in the
present work (Annexure D). These include: (i) descriptions of
elementary education taken from the first and second reports; (ii)
description of higher learning, from the first report, (iii) a section
on Medical education taken from the second report, based on
investigations in Nattore, Rajshahy; and (iv), some tabulations of
the basic data for the five surveyed districts contained in the
third report. This latter tabulation is given under the following
heads:
a. Elementary Schools and caste-wise division of students
b. Elementary Schools and caste-wise division of teachers
c. Books used in Elementary Schools
d. Details of institutions of Sanskritic Learning
e. Books used in Sanskritic Studies
f. Details of institutions of Persian and Arabic Learning
g. Books used in Persian and Arabic Studies
h. Subject and districtwise duration of Study
48

The First Report: A Survey of Post-1800 Material
Adam's first report is a general statement of the situation and a
presentation of the data which he could derive from post-1800
official and other sources. His conclusions: first, every village
had at least one school and in all probability in Bengal and
Bihar with 1,50,748 villages, ‘there will still be 1,00,000’ villages
that have these schools.⁵⁹ Second, on the basis of personal
observation and what he had learnt from other evidence, he
inferred that on an average there were around 100 institutions of
higher learning in each district of Bengal. Consequently, he
concluded that the 18 districts of Bengal had about 1,800 such
institutions. Computing the number studying in these latter at
the lowest figure of six scholars in each, he also computed that
some 10,800 scholars should be studying in them. He further
observed that while the elementary schools ‘are generally held in
the homes of some of the most respectable native inhabitants or
very near them’, the institutions of higher learning had buildings
generally of clay with ‘sometimes three or five rooms’ and ‘in
others nine or eleven rooms’, with a reading-room which is also
of clay. These latter places were also used for the residence of
the scholars; and the scholars were usually fed and clothed by
the teachers, and where required, were assisted by the local
people. After describing the method of teaching in both types of
institutions and going into their daily routine, Adam then
presented and examined the post-1800 data on the subject,
district by district. Table 10 gives an abstract of this
examination.
The Second Report: Survey of Nattore Thana
The second report was wholly devoted to Adam's study of the
situation in the Thana of Nattore in the district of Rajshahy. It
was like a modern pilot survey in which Adam developed his
49

Table: 10: INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER LEARNING ACCORDING TO POST-1800 OTHER SOURCES
WITH ADAM'S OBSERVATIONS
44

District or place Population Hindoo Muslim Institutions of Higher Learning mentioned in
Estimate* Ratio Post-1800 accounts with Adam's observations

Dinajpur (p.16) 30,00,000 (1808) 3 to 7 Buchanan: 16; Adam: some mistake as Districts
adjoin
Purnea (p.16) 14,50,000 (1801) 57 to 47 Buchanan: 119
29,04,380 (1810)
Calcutta (p.17) 2,00,000 (1822) Ward: (1818): 28, Scholars: 173
(Approx.)
Nuddea (p.17) 7,64,430 (1802) 11 to 5 Ward: (1818) 31, Scholars: 747, Logic, Law.
(p.78) H.H. Wilson: (1820): 25, Scholars 500-600
(p.79) Authorities: (1816) 46, Scholars: 380
(i) Koomaru Hutta (p.81) Ward: 7-8
(ii) Bhatpara (p.81) Ward: 7-8
24 Pergunnahs (p.22) 16,25,000 (1801) Hamilton: (1801): 190
(i) Juyunugor (p.22) Ward: 17-18
(ii) Mujilee Pooroo (p.22) Ward: 17-18
(iii) Andolee (p.22) Ward: 10-12
Midnapore (pp. 50-51) 15,00,000 (1801) 6 to 1 Hamilton: None, Adam: 40
Cuttack (Puri) (p.54) 12,96,365 10 to 1 Stirling: Principal Street of 'Maths'
Hugly (pp. 57-58) 10,00,000 (1801) 3 to 1 Ward: (1818), Hamilton: (1801): 150, Law
(i) Vansariya Logic: 12-14
(ii) Triveni :7-8
50

51

methods and fashioned his tools for the more extensive survey
which was his primary aim. The results of this Nattore survey of
485 villages were tabulated, village by village, by Adam. Further
details were provided for some of them in another tabulation.
The population of this Thana was 1,20,928; the number of
families 30,028 (in the proportion of one Hindoo to two
Muslims); the number of elementary schools 27, and of schools
of learning 38 (all these latter being Hindoo). In 1,588 families
(80% of these being Hindoo), children occasionally received
instruction at home. The number of scholars in elementary
schools was 262, and education in them was between the ages of
8-14; while the scholars in schools of learning were 397, 136 of
these being local persons and 261 from distant places, the latter
also receiving both food and lodging. The average period of study
in these latter institutions was 16 years, from about the age of
11 to the age of 27. However, while the number in elementary
schools was so low, these 485 villages nonetheless had 123
native general medical practitioners, 205 village doctors, 21
mostly Brahmin smallpox inoculators practising according to the
old Indian method,⁶⁰ 297 women-midwives, and 722 snake
conjurors.
The Third Report: Survey of Five Districts
The third report of Adam has the most data. In this report, Adam
gives the findings of his surveys in part of the district of
Murshedabad (20 thanas with a population of 1,24,804 out of 37
thanas with a total district population of 9,69,447), and the
whole of the districts of Beerbhoom and Burdwan in Bengal, and
of South Behar and Tirhoot in Bihar. In one thana of each
district, Adam carried out the enquiries personally and also
gathered additional information. In the rest, it was done for him
according to his instructions and proformas by his trained
Indian assistants. Earlier, Adam’s intention was to visit every
village in person; but he found that ‘the sudden appearance of a
European in a village often inspired terror, which it was always
difficult, and sometimes impossible, to subdue.’(p.214) He,
therefore, gave up this idea of a personal visit to every village; in
part to save time.
Language-wise Division
The total number of schools of all types in the selected districts
numbered 2,566. These schools were divided into Bengali
(1,098),
52

Hindi (375), Sanskrit (353), Persian (694), Arabic (31), English
(8), Girls (6), and infants (1). The number of schools in the
district of Midnapore was also given: 548 Bengali schools, 182
Oriya schools, 48 Persian schools, and one English school. Table
11 gives the position, district-wise:
Table 11: NUMBER AND TYPE OF SCHOOLS
Type of Mursh- Beer- Burd- South Tirhoot Total Midna-
School idabad bhom wan Behar (p- of pore
(p.223) (p.224) (p.225) (p.226) 226) Sur- (p.222)
(part (whole (whole (whole (whole veyed (whole
Dist.) Dist.) Dist.) Dist.) Dist.) Dists Dist.)
BENGALI 62 407 629 1,098 548
HINDI 5 5 285 80 375
ORIYA 182
SANSCRIT 24 56 190 27 56 353
PERSIAN 17 71 93 279 234 694 48
ARABIC 2 2 11 12 4 31
ENGLISH 2 2 3 1 8 1
GIRLS 1 1 4 6
INFANTS 1
113 544 931 604 374 2,556 779
Four Stages of School Instruction
Adam divided the period spent in elementary schools into four
stages. According to him these were: the first stage, seldom
exceeding ten days, during which the young scholar was taught
‘to form the letters of the alphabet on the ground with a small
stick or slip of bamboo’, or on a sandboard. The second stage,
extending from two and a half to four years, was ‘distinguished
by the use of the palm leaf as the material on which writing is
performed’, and the scholar was ‘taught to write and read’, and
commit ‘to memory the Cowrie Table, the Numeration Table as
far as 100, the Katha Table (a land measure Table), and the Ser
Table’, etc. The third stage extended ‘from two to three years,
which are employed in writing on the plantain-leaf.’ Addition,
subtraction, and other arithmetical rules were additionally
taught during this period. In the fourth, and last stage, of up to
two years, writing was done on paper. The scholar was expected
to be able to read the Ramayana, Mansa Mangal, etc., at home,
as well as be qualified in accounts, and the writing of letters,
petitions, etc. Table 12 indicates the numbers, using the various
materials on which writing was done in the surveyed areas.
53

Elementary Education for All Sections
The first striking point from this broader survey is the wide
social strata to which both the taught and the teachers in the
elementary schools belonged. It is true that the greater propor-
tion of the teachers came from the Kayasthas, Brahmins, Sadgop
and Aguri castes. Yet, quite a number came from 30 other caste
groups also, and even the Chandals had 6 teachers. The
elementary school students present an even greater variety, and
it seems as if every caste group is represented in the student
population, the Brahmins and the Kayasthas nowhere forming
more than 40% of the total. In the two Bihar districts, together
they formed no more than 15 to 16%. The more surprising figure
is of 61 Dom, and 61 Chandal school students in the district of
Burdwan, nearly equal to the number of Vaidya students, 126,
in that district. While Burdwan had 13 missionary schools, the
number of Dom and Chandal scholars in them were only four;
and, as Adam mentioned, only 86 of the ‘scholars belonging to
16 of the lowest castes’ were in these missionary schools, while
674 scholars from them were in the ‘native schools’.
54

Teaching of Accounts
Regarding the content of elementary teaching, Adam mentioned
various books which were used in teaching. These varied consid-
erably from district to district, but all schools in the surveyed
districts, except perhaps the 14 Christian schools, taught ac-
counts. Also, most of them taught both commercial and
agricultural accounts. Table 13 gives a district-wise statement:
Table 13: ACCOUNTS TEACHING IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
AND CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS
The age of admission in elementary schools varied from 5
to 8 years, and, that of leaving school from 13 years to 16.5
years.
Institutions of Sanskritic Learning
The schools of Sanskritic learning in the surveyed districts (in all
353) numbered as high as 190 in Burdwan (1,358 scholars) and
as low as 27 in South Behar (437 scholars). The teachers (355 in
all) were predominantly Brahmins, only 5 being from the Vaidya
caste. The subjects predominantly taught were Grammar (1,424
students), Logic (378 students), Law (336 students) and Litera-
ture (120 students). Others, in order of numbers studying them,
were Mythology (82 students), Astrology (78 students), Lexicology
(48 students), Rhetoric (19 students), Medicine (18 students),
Vedanta (13 students), Tantra (14 students), Mimansa (2
students), and Sankhya (1 student). The duration of the study
and the ages when it was started and completed varied a great
deal from subject to subject, and also from district to district.
55

The study of Grammar started at the earliest age (9 to 12 years)
and of Law, Mythology, Tantras, etc. after the age of 20. The
period of study ordinarily lasted from about 7 to 15 years.
Institutions Teaching Persian and Arabic
Those studying Persian (which Adam treated more as a
school subject than as a matter of higher learning) numbered
3,479, the largest, 1,424, being in South Behar. The age of
admission in them ranged from 6.8 years to 10.3 years, and the
study seemed to have continued for some 11 to 15 years. Over
half of those studying Persian were Hindoos, the Kayasthas
being predominant.⁶¹
Arabic was being studied by 175 scholars, predominantly
Muslims; but 14 Kayasthas, 2 Aguris, 1 Teli, and 1 Brahmin
were also students of Arabic. The books used in Persian learning
were numerous and an appreciable number for the study of
Arabic.
Finally, as far as age was concerned, the teachers in all
types of institutions were largely in their thirties.
VI
DR G.W. LEITNER ON INDIGENOUS EDUCATION IN THE
PANJAB
Some 45 years after Adam, Dr G. W. Leitner, (one time Principal
of Government College, Lahore, and for sometime acting Director
of Public Instruction in the Panjab) prepared an even more
voluminous survey of indigenous education there.⁶² The survey
is very similar to that of W. Adam. Leitner’s language and
conclusions, however, were more direct and much less
complementary to British rule. Incidentally, as time passed, the
inability of the British rulers to face any criticism grew
correspondingly.
56

They had really begun to believe in their ‘divinely ordained’
mission in India, and other conquered areas.⁶³
At any rate, Leitner’s researches showed that at the time of
the annexation of the Panjab, the lowest computation gave
‘3,30,000 pupils in the schools of the various denominations
who were acquainted with reading, writing and some method of
computation.’ This is in contrast with ‘little more than 1,90,000’
pupils in 1882. Furthermore, 35-40 years previously, ‘thousands
of them belonged to Arabic and Sanskrit colleges, in which
oriental Literature and systems of oriental Law, Logic,
Philosophy, and Medicine were taught to the highest standards.’
Leitner went into great detail, district by district, basing himself
on earlier official writings; and, then carried out a detailed
survey of his own regarding the position in 1882. A few brief
extracts from this work, pertaining to his general statement, the
type of schools which had existed earlier, and the list of books
used in the Sanskritic schools is included amongst the
documents reproduced in this work (Annexure E).
In the documents reproduced in this work, or in those
others of the eighteenth, or early nineteenth century on the
subject of education in India, while there is much on the
question of higher learning, especially of Theology, Law,
Medicine, Astronomy, and Astrology, there is scarcely any
reference to the teaching and training in the scores of
technologies, and crafts which had then existed in India. There
is also little mention of training in Music, and Dance. These
latter two, it may be presumed, were largely taken care of by the
complex temple organisations.
The major cause of the lack of reference about the former,
however, is obviously because those who wrote on education—
whether as government administrators, travellers, Christian
missionaries, or scholars—were themselves uninterested in how
such crafts were taught, or passed from one generation to
57