Page:Adam's reports on vernacular education in Bengal and Behar, submitted to Government in 1835, 1836 and 1838.djvu/110

50 endowments have very much diminished the attraction of the site, but it still continues a place of learning and extensive repute.

In 1811, Lord, then Governor General, proposed to establish a Hindoo college at Nuddea and another in Tirhoot, and set apart funds for that purpose. The design, however, was finally abandoned in favor of that of forming a similar institution on a larger scale, the present Sanskrit College in Calcutta. In the course of the correspondence which took place between Government and the Committee of Superintendence provisionally appointed for the proposed college at Nuddea, the Committee stated, under date 9th July 1816, that there were then in Nuddea 46 schools kept and supported by the most learned and respectable pundits of the place, who invariably taught at their houses or in the tols attached to them, where the pupils were all lodged partly at their own expense and partly at the expense of their preceptors. The total number of pupils who were at that time so circumstanced amounted to about 380; their ages averaging between 25 and 35 years. Few, it was observed, commenced their studies until they had attained the age of 21 years, and they often pursued them for 15 years, when, having acquired a perfect knowledge of the shastra and all its arcana, they returned to their native homes and set up as pundits and teachers themselves.

In 1818, Mr. Ward enumerated 31 schools of learning at Nuddea, containing in all 747 students, of whom not fewer than five studied under one teacher. So many as one hundred and twenty-five students are stated to have been receiving the instructions of one teacher at the same time, but the accuracy of Mr. Ward’s information in this particular may be doubted. The principal studies were logic and law, and there was only one school for general literature, one for astronomy, and one for grammar. The following are the details in Mr. Ward’s words:—

“Nyayu Colleges.—Shivu-Nat’hu-Vidya-Vachusputee has one hundred and twenty-five students. Ramu-Lochunu-Nyayu-Vhooshunu, twenty ditto. Kashee-Nat’hu Turku-Chooramunee, thirty ditto. Ubhuyanundu-Turkalunkaru, twenty ditto. Ramu-Shurunu-Nyayu-Vageeshu, fifteen ditto. Bhola-Nat’hu-Shiro-munee, twelve ditto. Radha-Nat’hu-Turku-Punchanunu, ten ditto. Ramu-Mohunu-Vidya-Vachusputee, twenty ditto. Shri-Ramu-Turku-Bhooshunu, twenty ditto. Kalee-Kantu-Chooramunee, five ditto. Krishnu-Kantu-Vidya-Vageeshu, fifteen ditto. Turkalunkaru, fifteen ditto. Kalee-Prusunnu, fifteen ditto. Madhubu-Turku-Siddhantu twenty-five ditto. Kumula-Kantu-Turku-Chooramunee, twenty-five ditto. Eeshwuru-Turku-Bhooshunu, twenty ditto. Kantu-Vidyalunkaru, forty ditto.

Law Colleges.—Ramu-Nat’hu-Turku-Siddhantu, forty students. Gunga-Dhuru-Shiromunee, twenty-five ditto. Devee-Turka-lunkaru, twenty-five ditto. Mohunu-Vidya-Vachusuputee, twenty ditto. Gangolee-Turkalunkaru, ten ditto. Krishnu-Turku-Bhoo-