Page:Adam's reports on vernacular education in Bengal and Behar, submitted to Government in 1835, 1836 and 1838.djvu/189

Rh in explaining the formulæ peculiar to the votaries of Siva and the female deities, by which they seek to attain supernatural powers and accomplish objects either good or bad for themselves or others. The work taught by this Pundit is the Tantra Sara, a compilation on those subjects. One of the two Tantric sects, some of whose followers are found in this district, are intemperate and licentious in their habits and manners, not only believing that the use of intoxicating liquors is permitted, but that it is enjoined by the system of doctrines they profess. With such a belief the use of them is naturally carried to great excess, but the conduct of such persons is regarded with great abhorrence by other Hindus.

The Medical school. No. 70 (c) of Table III., contains seven students of whom four are residents of the village and three strangers. The period of commencing the study of medical works is from twenty-two to twenty-five years of age, and that of discontinuing the study from twenty-five to thirty years of age, the whole period of study varying from five to eight years. It is expected and required that medical students shall have previously acquired a knowledge of Sanscrit grammar and general literature in some of the schools of learning taught by Brahman-pundits, after which they commence a course of medical reading in this institution. The period of study is shortened or prolonged according to the ability of the students for a shorter or a longer period to dispense with the emoluments of private practice. The school is taught by two aged brothers, Vaidyas in caste, most respectable men, and in high repute as medical practitioners. Neither Vaidya teachers nor Vaidya pupils receive invitations or presents, as Brahman-pundits and their pupils do, and the former are consequently dependent solely on their own means for the maintenance of their establishment. Vaidya teachers, however, like Brahman-pundits, lodge and feed those pupils who have no home in the village in which the school is situated, and they also give their instructions to all gratuitously. A student incurs an expense of about sixteen rupees in copying the books necessary to be read in an entire course of study. The work first read is the Nidana, a standard medical work, after which the students of this school read Chakradatta by Chakrapani; Ratnamala by Ramakrisna; Dravya Guna by Narayana Dasa; a commentary by the same author on his own work Madhamati; commentaries of Vijaya Raksita and Siddhanta Chintamuni on the Nidana; a commentary on Chakradatta by Yasodhara; and Patyapatya, a work described as variously treating of the causes of disease, diagnosis, the practice of medicine, and materia medica.

In a general view of the state of Hindu learning in this district, grammar appears to be the only department of study in which a considerable number of persons have a distinguished proficiency. The most eminent Pandits are 18 (a) and 70 (b). Ramakanta Sarvabhauma a logician, and Siva Chandra Siddhanta a