Page:Ramtanu Lahiri, Brahman and Reformer - A History of the Renaissance in Bengal.djvu/70

 were always petted in spite of their shortcomings. Those who were naughty and inattentive to their lessons had no punishment to fear, if they could in some way or other satisfy his greed; while on the other hand the best-behaving were sure to be in disgrace, if they brought him no presents.

Now we come to the modes of punishment that prevailed in patshalas. The punishments commonly inflicted were barbarous in the extreme. They were hat-chari, laru-gopal, tribhanga, etc. One doomed to the first had to receive as many cuts from the cane on the palm of his hands as the Guru was pleased to inflict. In laru-gopal, the offender was made to stoop with his knees and one of his hands on the ground, and then to stretch out his other hand, on which a full-sized brick or some other heavy weight was placed. The victim was required to remain in this condition for some prescribed time, and if, his hands being tied, the weight was even slightly displaced, he had to receive a sound caning. In tribhanga, the sufferer was made to stand on one leg, placing the other on it so that the two might form something like a prop; then, as in laru-gopal, some heavy weight was placed on his stretched-out palm. If in this painful position the poor boy bent a little, changed his attitude in the least, or happened to throw down the weight, then who could count the cuts he received from the cane of the tyrant? There was another mode of punishment which was called chyangdola. This was inflicted on boys playing the truant. So-and-so has not come to the patshalas, or has run away from it, and the Guru deputes half-a-dozen strong lads to capture him. They do their errand in the best way they can. They seize the delinquent, throw him on his back on the ground, and then lift him up in the air, some holding him by the arms and