Page:Ramtanu Lahiri, Brahman and Reformer - A History of the Renaissance in Bengal.djvu/69

 brandished in the air, mercilessly fell on the poor delinquent’s head.

Patshala boys read little but wrote much; seated each on his own mat, they went on writing, on palm or plantain leaves, according to the progress they had made. Paper was used only by the most advanced. Arithmetic and Subhongkori were very carefully taught. Letter writing and the drawing out of promissory bonds, pats, Kabolyats, etc., formed the highest branch of education. There was one subject which the Gurus taught with greater efficiency and better results than the pandits or the English schoolmasters of our time — I mean mental arithmetic. Boys in a short time became uncommonly expert in mental calculation. In the twinkling of an eye they could work out a sum which would puzzle many an arithmetician.

The education given in patshalas was, in the majority of cases, only preparatory. The sons of the priests left them for Sanskrit tols; those intended for Government service, to learn Persian; and only those continued to the last whose aim in after life was either to work in Zemindari cutcherees, or to set themselves up as traders. At that time the Gurus did not, like the masters and pandits of the present time, receive his salary from any community or society. Each father at the time of putting his boy under the Guru, promised to pay him a small fee; and the man’s earnings in this way amounted to four or five rupees. But he had other sources of income. Every festival brought some pice into his box. He used very cleverly to cheat his pupils out of money or articles of use. Besides this, to be in his good graces, boys frequently gave him whatever they could by stealth procure from home, a little tobacco even not being too insignificant a gift to him. Those making such presents