The Beautiful Tree: Indigenous Indian Education in the Eighteenth Century c5.s21: XXIII
The Beautiful Tree: Indigenous Indian Education in the Eighteenth Century c5.s21
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XXIII
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COLLECTOR, GUNTUR TO BOARD OF REVENUE: 9.7.1823 *(TNSA: BRP: Vol.954, Pro.14.7.1823, No.49, pp.5904-7)*
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1. In reply to your Deputy Secretary Mr Viveash's letter of the 25th July last, I have the honor to transmit a statement showing the number of schools in which reading and writing are taught together with the number of scholars in them, and which has been prepared according to the form accompanying the above letter.
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2. With regard to the information called for by the government in their letter of the 2nd July, 1822, I have to observe that the scholars generally assemble in the morning at 6 o'clock and stay until nine and then go to their houses to take their morning meal and return again to school within 11 o'clock and continue until 2 or 3 o'clock in the evening, and again to their respective houses to eat their rice and return by 4 o'clock and continue until 7 o'clock in the evening. The morning and evening generally are the times for reading and afternoon for writing.
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3. The charge to the scholars chiefly depends on the circumstances of the fathers or persons who put them to school and is found to vary from 2 annas to 2 rupees per mensem for each boy and this is the only charge that can be shown, as the boys are only sent to the schools in their own villages and live at home.
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4. It appears that there are no schools in the zillah which are endowed by the public and no colleges for teaching Theology, Law, Astronomy, etc., in this district; these sciences are privately taught to some scholars or disciples generally by the Bramins learned in them, without payment of any fee or reward, and that the Bramins who teach are generally maintained by means of Mauneom land which have been granted to their ancestors by the ancient Zemindars of this zillah, and by the former governments on different accounts, but there appears no instance in which the Native Governments have granted allowances in money and land merely for the maintenance of the teachers for giving instruction in the above sciences. By the information which has been got together on this subject, it appears that there are 171 places where Theology, Law and Astronomy, etc., are taught privately, and the number of disciples in them is 939. The readers of these sciences cannot generally get teachers in their respective villages and are therefore obliged to go to others. In which cases if the reader belongs to a family that can afford to support him he gets what is required for his expenses from his home and which is estimated at 3 rupees per month, but which is only sufficient to supply him with his victuals; and if on the other hand his family is in too indigent circumstances to make such allowance, the student procures his daily subsistence from the houses in the village, where taught, which willingly furnish such by turns.
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5. Should people be desirous of studying deeper in Theology, etc., than is taught in these parts, they travel to Benares, Navadweepum, etc., where they remain for years to take instructions under the learned Pundits of those places.
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Guntoor Zillah, Bauputtah, 9th July, 1823.
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*J.C. Whish,* *Collector.*