Page:Adam's reports on vernacular education in Bengal and Behar, submitted to Government in 1835, 1836 and 1838.djvu/87

Rh instruction, averaging upwards of 24 scholars to each school. In 1830 Mr. H. H. Wilson ascertained by personal enquiry at Nuddea, that there were then about 25 schools in which between 5 and 600 scholars received instruction, and taking the number of scholars at 550 the average to each school will be 22. The average of these three estimates would give 174 scholars to each school. The lowest or Calcutta average, that of six scholars to each school, I consider more probable than the others, for the instances are numerous throughout the country in which a learned Hindoo teacher has not more than three or four pupils. Assuming the Calcutta average, and the previous estimate of the total number of schools, there will appear to be 10,800 students of Hindoo learning throughout Bengal. The total number of teachers and students of Hindoo learning will thus be 12,600; and this number is exclusive of a large class of individuals who, after having received instruction in a school of learning, and become in the technical sense of the term Pundits or learned men, from various causes decline to engage in the profession of teaching. If further inquiry should show that the lowest estimate which is that I have assumed, is one-half in excess of the truth, there will still remain a large and influential class of men who either have received or are engaged in giving and receiving a Hindoo collegiate education.

The Hindoo colleges or schools in which the higher branches of Hindoo learning are taught are generally built of clay. Sometimes three or five rooms are erected, and in others nine or eleven, with a reading-room which is also of clay. These huts are frequently erected at the expense of the teacher, who not only solicits alms to raise the building, but also to feed his pupils. In some cases rent is paid for the ground; but the ground is commonly, and in particular instances both the ground and the expenses of the building are, a gift. After a school-room and lodging-rooms have been thus built, to secure the success of the school, the teacher invites a few Brahmans and respectable inhabitants to an entertainment, at the close of which the Brahmans are dismissed with some trifling presents. If the teacher finds a difficulty in obtaining scholars, he begins the college with a few junior relatives, and by instructing them and distinguishing himself in the disputations that take place on public occasions, he establishes his reputation. The school opens early every morning by the teacher and pupils assembling in the open reading-room, when the different classes read in turns. Study is continued till towards mid-day, after which three hours are devoted to bathing, worship, eating, and sleep; and at three they resume their studies which are continued till twilight. Nearly two hours are then devoted to evening-worship, eating, smoking, and relaxation, and the studies are again resumed and continued till ten or eleven at night. The evening studies consist of a revision of the lessons already learned, in order that what the pupils have read may be impressed more