Page:Adam's reports on vernacular education in Bengal and Behar, submitted to Government in 1835, 1836 and 1838.djvu/245

Rh of Krishna; and third, Banamali Charitra Chandrica, a drama of about 100 pages in mixed verse and prose, chiefly in Sanscrit, but intermixed with the Pracrita, Magadhi, Sauraseni, Maharashtri, Paisachi, and Apabhransa dialects according to the characters of the person introduced.

Good school-houses are not common in this district, particularly towards the north and west. The teachers very frequently accommodate their pupils in baithak-khanas and chandi mandaps. One school-house built by a patron cost Rupees 200, and another built by the teacher cost Rupees five. There are others of an intermediate character, but generally built by the teachers.

In 56 Sanscrit schools there are 393 students, averaging 7.01 to each school; of the students, one is a Daivajna, a degraded class of Brahmans; three are Vaishnavas, or followers of Vishnu; nine are Vaidyas, or of the medical caste; and the rest are regular Brahmans. The natives of the villages in which the schools are situated amount to 254, and those of other villages to 139, and the average age of 371 students was 20.7 years. The following is an enumeration of the studies pursued, and the number of students attending to each:—

It will be observed that while the number of students of the medical caste is nine, there is only one actually engaged in the study of medical works. The reason is that before commencing the study of medical works, it is deemed requisite to pass through a course of grammar and general literature, and in this preliminary course the remaining eight students were engaged when the school in question was visited.

In grammar, the works used as text-books are  with the Kaumudi commentary, Sankshipta Sar with the Goyichandri commentary, and the Mugdhabodha; in lexicology, the Amara Kosha; in literature, the Bhatti Kavya, Raghuvansa, Naishadha, and Sakuntala; in rhetoric, the Kavya Prakasa, Kavya Chandrica, and Sahitya Darpana; in law, the Tithi, Ahnika, and Prayaschitta Tatwas of Raghunandana, and the Daya Bhaga; in logic, the Jagadisi commentary of Siddhanta Lakshana and Vyaddhikaranadharmavachinnabhava, and the Mathuri commentary of the Vyapti Panchaka; in the Vedanta or theology of the Veds, the Vedanta Sara; in medicine, Nidana; in mythology, the Bhagavata Purana; and in astrology, the Samaya Pradipa and Dipika.

The students of 21 schools receive nothing in the form of presents, or by mendicancy. Those of 35 schools receive