Page:Adam's reports on vernacular education in Bengal and Behar, submitted to Government in 1835, 1836 and 1838.djvu/186

126 It will be seen from Table III. that all these branches of general literature are not taught by every teacher. Some teach only grammar; others grammar and lexicology; others add poetry with or without the drama; and others embrace rhetoric. But the whole of these are required to constitute a complete course of philology and general literature. The teacher of grammar only, the mere grammarian, ranks in the lowest scale of learned men; and in proportion to the number of the other branches of general literature which he adds to his acquirements, he raises his reputation and emoluments as a Sabdik or philologer.

2. The nineteen schools of Hindu law are 9 (a), 18 (a), 18 (b), 46, 70 (a), 71, 72 (b), 84, 86 (a), 86 (c), 86 (e), 100, 170, 279 (c), 374 (a), 445, 447 (a), 447 (b), and 447 (c), of Table III., and contain 245 students, of whom 81 belong to the villages in which the schools are situated and 164 to other villages. The age at which they enter on their studies varies from nine to fifteen, and that at which they leave college varies from eighteen to thirty-two, the whole period of scholastic study varying from eight to twenty-three years. Omitting one school in which the age of beginning and completing study could not be satisfactorily ascertained, the average period of scholastic study in the remaining eighteen institutions is between sixteen and seventeen years. The professors of law receive throughout the year various sums as presents which, according to their own statements, average the lowest three rupees and the highest twenty-five per month. Omitting two schools respecting which this information could not be obtained, the average monthly receipts of the remaining seventeen amount to upwards of fourteen rupees each. All the students of a school of law throughout the year receive various sums as presents, which average the lowest four annas and the highest five rupees per month; and, omitting the two schools above-mentioned, the average monthly receipts of the remaining seventeen amount to rather less than two rupees each. The total expense which a student incurs in copying the books used in a course of instruction in a law-school varies from four to forty rupees; and omitting five schools in which this could not be ascertained, the average disbursements of each student in the remaining fourteen schools for books only during a whole course amount to upwards of twenty rupees.

The teachers of law are in all cases conversant with the grammar and lexicology of the Sanscrit language and can give instructions in them; some are also acquainted more or less familiarly with the poetical and dramatic writings: and a smaller number with the works on rhetoric. Every teacher of law receives students at the earliest stage and instructs them according to the extent of his own acquirements in general literature, and when he has reached that limit, he carries them on to the study of law. His students sometimes object to this arrangement and leave him