Page:Adam's reports on vernacular education in Bengal and Behar, submitted to Government in 1835, 1836 and 1838.djvu/188

128 Siddhanta Lakshana, the same; Abachhedoktanirukti the same; Visesa Vyapti, the same; Paksata on inferential propositions; Samanya Laksana, on the definition of classes or genera; Samanya Nirukti, the same; Avayava, on syllogism; Hetwabhasha, on fallacies; Kusumanjali on the proofs of the divine existence, the attributes of the divine nature, and the means of absorption into it; and Vyutpattivada, a treatise on the derivation and meaning of the radical portions and of the suffixes and affixes of words. In one of the schools of logic, the second above-mentioned, only a few of these works are superficially and partially read.

4. Four schools of learning remain to be separately noticed, a Vedantic, a Pauranic, a Tantric, and a Medical School.

The Vedantic school, No. 70 (b) of Table III., can scarcely be said yet to exist. The Pundit, after completing the usual course of study in his native district of Rajshahi, to extend his acquirements went to Benares whence he had returned about a month before I saw him. He now proposes to open a school, and to teach the following branches of learning, viz., general literature, law, the puranas, and the vedanta, in which he claims to be profoundly versed, and from which I derive the title by which his intended school is designated. He had no pupils at the time of my visit to his village.

The Pauranic school, No. 279 (a) of Table III., contains twenty students, of whom five are natives and fifteen strangers to the village in which the school is situated. They begin to study about ten years of age and leave school about thirty-two. The teacher receives about twenty-five rupees a month and the students four, each of the latter expending about sixty rupees in copying the books they require for a whole course. The Pundit gives instruction in general literature, in law, and in astrology; but as he also teaches the puranas, chiefly the Mahabharata, and derives a great part of his emoluments from the public recitation of them in wealthy families, the name given to his school is derived from that branch of his acquirements. In astrology, he teaches the Joyatisa Tatwa by Raghunandana, a summary of astrological knowledge; the Jataka Chandrica, on the calculation of nativities; and the Satkritya Muktavali, the Dipika, and Samaya Pradipa, on lucky and unlucky days.

The Tantric school, No. 38 of Table III., contains twelve pupils of whom three are natives and nine strangers to the village in which the school is situated. They begin to study at eight years of age and leave school at thirty. The teacher receives eight rupees and the students about eight annas a month in presents; each of the latter expending about forty rupees in copying the books for a course. The Pundit teaches superficially grammar and the Vedanta, but his distinctive name is derived from his professional instruction in the Tantra. The works classed under this name may be generally described to be employed