Page:Adam's reports on vernacular education in Bengal and Behar, submitted to Government in 1835, 1836 and 1838.djvu/239

Rh This statement tends to show that vernacular instruction is chiefly sought by the class neither strictly commercial nor strictly agricultural, but it must be considered only an approximation to the truth, for it is evident that scholars who wish to acquire commercial accounts only, or agricultural accounts only, may attend a school in which both accounts are taught. Still if the demand for both accounts was not general, schools in which both are taught would not be so numerous.

Ninth.—Exclusive of native accounts taught in native schools, and Christian instruction communicated in Missionary schools, we have here some means of judging of the extent to which written works are employed in the former and of the nature of those works. The following table exhibits the number of schools in which native written works are, and the number in which they are not, employed:—

With regard to the nature of these works, the employment of the Amara Kosha, the Ashta Sabdi, Ashta Dhatu, Subda Subanta, and the verses of Chanakya as school-books in some of the vernacular schools of the Bengal districts indicates a higher grade of instruction than I had previously believed to exist in those schools. With the exception of the verses of Chanakya, the other works mentioned are grammatical, and their use is said to have been at one time general, which would imply that they are the remains of a former superior system of popular instruction preparatory, in the case of those who could follow it up, to the more enlarged course of learned study. The remaining works used in the common schools rank low as compositions, and consist, for the most part, of the praises and exploits of the gods recognized by the established religion of the country.

Most of the topics noticed under this section would admit of extended illustration, but I have preferred merely suggesting them to the reflection of the readers of this report.