Page:Adam's reports on vernacular education in Bengal and Behar, submitted to Government in 1835, 1836 and 1838.djvu/176

116 8,000 Rupees, estimated his expenditure on account of the madrasa at one-fourth or 2,000 Rupees, adding that his brother Aziz-ul-Islam refused to contribute anything to the support of the institution, in consequence of which the number of students was one-half less than it had formerly been. If we assume 30,000 Rupees to be the real annual produce of the estate of which one-fourth is applicable to the promotion of learning and one-fourth to the relief of the poor and sick, the general and public fund would be equal to 15,000 Rupees per annum. The first object of the interference of Government would be to secure this or any other just amount of fixed property for the maintenance of the school and hospital; the second would be to procure the adoption of a determinate course of useful instruction; the third to claim and exercise a visiting power; and the fourth to require periodical returns. The attainment of these objects would make this institution a more efficient and useful one than it is at present, without disturbing the tenure of the property or encroaching on the lawful rights of its present holders.

While I offer these suggestions, I am at the same time strongly impressed with the conviction that the interference of Government with such institutions would be most beneficially exerted, not with reference to the circumstances of only one of them, but to the rights and duties of all institutions of the same class, so as by general rules to preserve their property, purify their management, and provide for their effectual supervision and real usefulness. If ever the whole subject should come before Government for consideration, its interference would be salutary not only with the view of providing for the just, economical, and most useful application of all such endowments now existing, but also with the view of laying a foundation on which, under the protection of known laws and regulations, similar endowments may hereafter be established.

II. Hindu Schools of Learning.—These may be considered either as endowed or unendowed.

I have met with only two instances of teachers of Hindu schools of learning in the actual enjoyment of endowments. At Basudevpur (No. 72) Srinatha Survabhauma has a small endowment of eight rupees per annum; and at Samaskhalasi (No. III) Kalinatha Vachaspati has an endowment of sixty rupees per annum. The founder of these endowments was the Ranee. The present holders are both mere grammarians, in no way distinguished among their brethren for their talents and acquirements. It may be inferred that the endowments were made for the encouragement of learning only from the fact that learned teachers are the incumbents.

Representations were also made to me respecting certain endowments which formerly existed, but which have been recently discontinued, and are claimed as still rightfully due to persons now