Page:Adam's reports on vernacular education in Bengal and Behar, submitted to Government in 1835, 1836 and 1838.djvu/172

112 but when I conversed with him he was evidently dissatisfied with this allowance, and of his own accord spoke of resigning his place. His pupil began to study Arabic about thirteen years of age, and will probably continue the study till he is twenty. His Arabic studies were preceded by a course of Persian reading, and the works by which he was introduced to a knowledge of Arabic were also written in Persian. He began with the Mizan on prosody, Munshaib on etymology, Tasrif on inflection, Zubda on permutations, and Hidayat-us-Sarf on etymology including derivation—all different branches of Arabic grammar and written in Persian prose. These were followed by the Miat Amil, containing an exposition of a hundred rules of syntax and translated from the original Arabic prose into Persian verse; Jummal, treating of the varieties and construction of sentences, and written in Arabic prose; Titimma in Arabic, containing definitions of grammatical terms and additional rules of syntax; Sharh-i-Miat Amil, a commentary on the Miat Amil; and Hidayat-un-Nahv a comprehensive treatise on Arabic syntax. It was intended that he should afterwards read the Kafia, a still more comprehensive and difficult treatise on syntax; Sharh-i-Molla, a commentary on the Kafia by Molla Jami; Tahzib and Sharh-i-Tahzib, text-book and commentary on logic; Sharh-i-Vikaia, a commentary on a treatise of law and religion; and Fariz-i-Sharifi, a treatise on the Mahomedan law of inheritance. It thus appears that the student’s attention is almost exclusively occupied during a long and laborious course of study in acquiring a familiarity with language, its forms and combinations, until towards the close when logic, law, and religion are superficially taught.

The only public institution of Mahomedan learning, of which I can find any trace in this district, is situated at Kusbeh Bagha, in the thana of Bilmariya. The tables appended to this report have been limited to institutions situated in thana Nattore, and they consequently contain no reference to it; but the following details will not be out of place under this head.

The madrasa at Kusbeh Bagha is an endowed institution of long standing. The property appears to have originally consisted of two portions, which are stated to have been bestowed by two separate royal grants (sanads). One of the grants was said to be in the office of the Collector of the district and another is in the possession of the incumbent and was shown to me. On subsequently examining the document in the Collector’s Office, I found it to be merely a copy of the original which I saw at Kusbeh. The latter bears what the owner believes to be the autograph of the Emperor, but what is more probable the complexly ornamented impression of his Majesty’s seal. The foldings of the document are so much worn that several portions are illegible, and amongst others the place where the year of the Hijri is given; but another date quite legible is the nineteenth