Page:Adam's reports on vernacular education in Bengal and Behar, submitted to Government in 1835, 1836 and 1838.djvu/193

Rh have become widows, with a view to the adequate protection of their interests in the families of which they have become members. The number of principal zemindars in the whole district is about fifty or sixty, of whom more than a half are females and widows. Of these, two, viz., Ranees Suryamani and Kamal Mani Dasi are alleged to possess a competent knowledge of Bengali writing and accounts, while some of the rest are more imperfectly instructed and others are wholly ignorant. Other exceptions to the general ignorance are found amongst the mendicant Vaishnavas or followers of Chaitanya, amounting in Nattore probably to fourteen or fifteen hundred individuals, who are generally able to write and read and who are also alleged to instruct their daughters in these accomplishments. They are the only religious body of whom as a sect the practice is characteristic. Yet it is a fact that as a sect they rank precisely the lowest in point of general morality, and especially in respect of the virtue of their women. It would be erroneous, however, to attribute the low state of morality to the degree of instruction prevailing amongst them. It is obviously and solely attributable to the fact that the sect is a colluvies from all other sects—a collection of individuals who throw off the restraints of the stricter forms of Hinduism in the profession of a doctrine which allows greater license. The authors and leaders of this sect had the sagacity to perceive the importance of the vernacular dialect as a means of gaining access to the multitude, and in consequence their works, original and translated, in that dialect, form a larger portion of the current popular literature than those of any other sect. The subject-matter of these works cannot be said to be of a very improving character, but their existence would seem to have established a love of reading in the sect, and the taste has in some measure at least extended to their women. With these exceptions the total number of grown up females in the district may be reckoned as destitute of instruction in letters.

I propose in this place to compare the existing means of instruction with the wants of the juvenile male population, and to estimate the amount of cultivation possessed by the adult male population.

The male population of all ages in Nattore, according to Table I., amounts to 100,579.

Of this population, 18,442 are under five years of age, that is, have not yet attained the age at which the first instruction in letters is or may be communicated.

Of the male population, 23,637 are between fourteen and five years of age, that is, of the teachable or school-going age.