Page:Adam's reports on vernacular education in Bengal and Behar, submitted to Government in 1835, 1836 and 1838.djvu/243

Rh names of the principal books. In grammar, the Mugdhabodha with the Ramtarkavagisi commentary and the Kalapa with the commentary of Trilochana Dasa are chiefly used. In lexicology, the Amara Kosha is the only work employed. In general literature, the Hitopadesa and Bhatti Kavya are read. In law, the following Tatwas or treatises of, viz., Tithi, Prayaschitta, Udbaha, Suddhi, Sraddha, Ahnika, Ekadasi, Malamasa, Samayasuddhi, and Jyotisha, are first studied; and these are followed by the Dayabhaga and Prayaschitta Viveka. In logic, the works in use are the Mathuri commentary of Vyapti Panchaka; the Jagadisi commentary of Purva Paksha, Savyabhichara, and Kevalanwaya; and the Gadadhari commentary of Avayava and Satpratipaksha, all, of course, including their respective texts: the Sabdasaktiprakasika by Gadadhar is also read. In mythology, the Bhagavata Purana, and the , a book of the Mahabharata, are read.

Students as well as teachers sometimes receive presents on public occasions, and in certain seasons of the year the more indigent travel about as religious mendicants, the small sums thus obtained being employed to defray those expenses which their relations or teachers do not enable them to meet. Of the 24 Sanscrit schools the students of 10 receive nothing in either of the ways above mentioned, and the students of 14 receive various sums the annual average of which is rupees 7-13. This is the annual average, not to each student, but to all the students of each school taken collectively; and with reference to the average number of students in each school, it gives little more than a rupee annually to each student.

This district contains 66 Sanscrit schools, of which one village contains five and another three, four villages contain two each, and forty villages contain one each.

The number of teachers is 58, of whom 53 are Rarhi and four are Varendra Brahmans, and one is of the Vaidya or medical caste. The number of teachers is greater by two than the number of schools, one school being taught by a father and son and another by an uncle and nephew. The average age of the teachers is 45.6 years.

Two of the teachers receive no invitations or presents, but like most of the rest give their instructions gratuitously to the students. The others derive their support from the following sources:—