The Beautiful Tree: Indigenous Indian Education in the Eighteenth Century c5.s19.10.2

c5.s19.10.2

The number of persons to be admitted in the college is not limited; everybody desirous of availing himself of it will be admitted and provided for. Formerly, the number of persons who resorted to the college for instruction amounted from 100 to 120 daily. In the year 949 when a foreigner invaded the country, he caused several temples and dwellings to be destroyed and the above college was demolished on that occasion and the rice lands allotted for the support of it, assessed by his order in consequence of which the Bramins found it impossible to live in this country and therefore all of them repaired to Rama Rajah's country (Travancore) and consequently the learning of the Vethom was altogether discontinued in Malabar. It being a very great sin for the Bramins to be ignorant of their religious tenets, they and the Namboory who was appointed their Instructor went and represented to Rama Rajah this circumstance when that Rajah ordered a college to be established in his country adjoining to the Teroona Kare Chetrom, and allotted the necessary allowance for the subsistence of the learners, who there continued being instructed without any interruption till the year 966.