Page:Adam's reports on vernacular education in Bengal and Behar, submitted to Government in 1835, 1836 and 1838.djvu/270

210 There are in all twenty-three school-houses, averaging in the estimated cost of erection from twelve annas to a hundred rupees. Those schools that have no school-houses are accommodated in mosques, imambarahs, dwelling-houses, verandas, kachhris, and out-houses belonging to the patrons or teachers.

In schools there are 598 scholars, averaging 2·5 to each school. All were present at the time the different schools were visited. Of the whole number, 569 are Persian scholars and 29 Arabic students. Of the Arabic students, two are Hindus of whom one is a Brahman and the other a Kayastha, and the remaining twenty-seven are Musalmans. Of the Persian scholars, 126 are Musalmans and 443 Hindus; and the sub-divisions of the latter are as follow :—

The average ages of the Persian and Arabic scholars at the three periods formerly mentioned are as follow :—

The following works were found in use in the Persian and Arabic schools, exclusive of others previously mentioned.

In the Persian schools, Mahmud Nameh, an elementary work; Khushhal-us-Subyan, a vocabulary; Nisab-i-Musallas, a dictionary; Mahzuf-ul-Haruf, Jawahir-ut-Tarkib, and Dastur-ul-Mubtadi, on grammar; Mufid-ul-Insha, Fyz Baksh, Mubarik Nemeh, and Amanullah Hossein, forms of correspondence; the poems of Fahmi; and Ruqäat-i-Abulfazl, the letters of Abulfazl.

In the Arabic schools, Mir Zahid Risaleh, on logic; Akaideh Nisfi, on the doctrines of Islam; Kanz-ud-Dahäik, on the sayings of Mohammad; and Kalamullah Majid, the sacred word of God (the Koran).

First.—The Hindustani or Urdu is the current spoken language of the educated Musalmans of Bengal and Behar, and it is a remarkable feature in the constitution of Mohammadan society in these provinces, and I infer throughout India that the vernacular language of that class is never employed in the schools as the medium or instrument of written instruction. Bengali