Page:Adam's reports on vernacular education in Bengal and Behar, submitted to Government in 1835, 1836 and 1838.djvu/179

Rh The unendowed Hindu schools of learning in the Nattore thana is taught by 39 Pundits of whom thirty-seven are Brahmans, and two are of the vaidya or medical caste.

The two medical professors are brothers and jointly conduct a medical school at Vaidya Belghariya. There is no instance of two or more Brahman-pundits in a similar way co-operating with each other, and uniting their talents and acquirements for their mutual advantage. Every one stands or falls by himself. In this district, and even in a single thana, there are materials for a Hindu University in which all the branches of Sanscrit learning might be taught; but instead of such a combination each Pundit teaches separately the branch or branches of learning which he has studied most, or for which there is the greatest demand, and the students make their selections and remove from one to another at their pleasure. The Brahman-pundits are either Varendra or Vaidika Brahmans, the former so-called from the ancient name of the district in which they reside, and the latter, as is supposed, from the former devotion of that class to the study of the Vedas, although in this district at the present day they are mere grammarians and of very limited attainments.

The Pundits are of all ages, from twenty-five to eighty-two; some just entering upon life proud of their learning and panting for distinction; others of middle age, either enjoying a well-earned reputation and a moderate competence, or disappointed in their expectations and anxious respecting the future; and some more advanced in years, possessing the heart-felt veneration of their countrymen; while others appear to be neglected and sinking to the grave under the pressure of poverty. All were willing to believe and desirous to be assured that Government intended to do something, as the fruit of the present inquiry, for the promotion of learning,—a duty which is in their minds constantly associated with the obligations attaching to the rulers of the country. The humbleness and simplicity of their characters, their dwellings, and their apparel, forcibly contrast with the extent of their acquirements and the refinement of their feelings. I saw men not only unpretending, but plain and simple in their manners, and although seldom, if ever, offensively coarse, yet reminding me of the very humblest classes of English and Scottish peasantry; living constantly half naked, and realizing in this respect the descriptions of savage life; inhabiting huts which, if we connect moral consequences with physical causes, might be supposed to have the effect of stunting the growth of their minds, or in which only the most contracted minds might be supposed to have room to dwell—and yet several of these men are adepts in the subtleties of the profoundest grammar of what is probably the most philosophical language in existence; not only practically skilled in the niceties of its usage, but also in the principles of its structure; familiar with all the varieties and