Page:Adam's reports on vernacular education in Bengal and Behar, submitted to Government in 1835, 1836 and 1838.djvu/132

72 comprehending astrology and chiromancy. The latter is rekconedreckoned [sic] a higher science than the calculation of nativities, and is monopolised by the sacred order. The Mahomedans, he adds, having no wise men of their own, consult those of the Hindoos. This account of the state of learning is very unfavourable and is not quite correct. The Agama shastra does not merely teach astrology and chiromancy, but is also occupied with the ritual observances of modern Hindooism, and it is not the only branch of learning taught in the schools.

From the details furnished by the canoongoes, it appears that in nine sub-divisions of the district there are 41 schools of Sanskrit learning containing each from 5 to 25 scholars, who are 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 is 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.

Native Female Education.—In Rangpur it is considered highly improper to bestow any education on women, and no man would marry a girl who was known to be capable of reading; but as girls of rank are usually married about eight years of age, and continue to live with their families for four or five years afterwards, the husbands are sometimes deceived, and find on receiving their wives that, after marriage, they have acquired that sort of knowledge which is supposed to be most inauspicious to their husbands. Although this female erudition scarcely ever proceeds further than being able to indite a letter and to examine an account, yet it has been the means of rescuing many families from threatened destruction.