Page:Adam's reports on vernacular education in Bengal and Behar, submitted to Government in 1835, 1836 and 1838.djvu/180

120 applications of their national laws and literature; and indulging in the abstrusest and most interesting disquisitions in logical and ethical philosophy. They are in general shrewd, discriminating, and mild in their demeanor. The modesty of their character does not consist in abjectness to a supposed or official superior, but is equally shown to each other. I have observed some of the worthiest speak with unaffected humility of their own pretensions to learning, with admiration of the learning of a stranger and countryman who was present, with high respect of the learning of a townsman who happened to be absent, and with just praise of the learning of another townsman after he had retired, although in his presence they were silent respecting his attainments. These remarks have reference to the personal character of some of the Pundits, but they should not be understood to imply a favorable opinion of the general state of learning in the district which, as may be inferred from the subsequent details, is not very flourishing.

In 38 schools of Hindu learning the total number of students is 397, averaging 10 in each school. The students are divided into two classes, one of which consists of those who are natives of the villages in which the shoolsschools [sic] are situated, and the other of the natives of other villages, the former called natives and the latter foreigners corresponding respectively with the externes and internes of the Royal Colleges of France. The students of a school or college who are natives of the village in which it is situated, are the externes attending it daily for the purpose of receiving instruction, and daily returning home to their parents, relatives, or friends with whom they board and lodge; while the students who are natives of other villages than that in which the school is situated, are the internes, residing in the house of the teacher and receiving from him not only instruction, but also lodging and food. The school at Sridharpur (No. 477) is the only instance in which I found that the native students of the village received food as well as instruction; and in the same institution the foreign students, contrary to the usual practice, received not only food and lodging, but also other minor personal expenses—a liberality which implies more than the usual resources on the part of the teacher, and tends to increase his reputation. In other parts of the country, the students of Hindu Colleges are generally divided into three classes, which may be explained by the terms townsmen, or natives of the village in which the college is situated, countrymen, or natives of the district or province in which the college is situated, and foreigners, or natives of any other district or province; but at present the natives of no other district or province are ever attracted to Rajshahi for the acquisition of learning, and, therefore, the name of the third class has been here transferred to the second by a sort of verbal artifice, which is of general adoption and of long standing, but which can deceive nobody, and could have no