The Beautiful Tree: Indigenous Indian Education in the Eighteenth Century c5.s25: XXVII
The Beautiful Tree: Indigenous Indian Education in the Eighteenth Century c5.s25
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XXVII
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COLLECTOR, CUDDAPAH TO BOARD OF REVENUE: 11.2.1825 *(TNSA: BRP: Vol 1011, Pro.17.2.1825 No.33 pp.1272-6-78)*
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1. I have the honor to reply to your Secretary’s letter of the 31st January calling for the report on the state of education throughout this district and to return the statement filled up according to the required form.
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2. There are no public institutions either schools or colleges in this zillah supported by grants of land or any allowances from the government and I do not hear of any establishment having existed of this description.
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3. Instruction of every kind is carried on either privately by the pupil residing in the house of his preceptor, or in the schools which are supported in every village by the contribution of those who have children to be instructed. In the latter case the pupils are for the most part in the habit of attending this school at day break, after remaining until about 10 o’clock they return home, and attend school again from ½ past eleven until sunset—the expense varies according to the progress made by the scholar and becomes higher at each stage from reading to writing and arithmetic—the allowance is of course smallest at first and is augmented as the pupil acquires information; the average for the lowest class is about ¼ rupee per month for each scholar and increases as high as 1 and 1½ but rarely exceeds it. I do not find that there are any schools even of this description of the instruction of the sciences. Theology, Law, Astronomy are taught it appears in a private manner for the most part in small families, and given as an inheritance from father to son. The instruction can only be attained by the party applying, either from the strongest interest or from relationship to those Bramins who are qualified to afford it. Pupils under such circumstances appear to reside entirely under the roof of their preceptors and to form part of the family.
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4. In Cuddapah there are several schools supported by voluntary contribution, though it can be hardly called a public one as it is confined entirely to the European Gentlemen of the place.
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5. Instruction generally commences amongst Bramins when the child had attained the age of 5 or 6 and amongst the Sudras from 6 to 8. This difference is accounted for by a Bramin with reference to the superior intellect of his cast over the Sudra and therefore his children attain the requisite age for receiving instructions much earlier than those of the inferior castes. As instruction amongst the natives here, is encouraged and promoted solely in proportion to the personal profit obtainable by it, the course of education is considered complete when the scholar becomes a proficient in writing and arithmetic. He is then taken from school, all other accomplishments are learned at home, and he arrives at experience, and attains improvement in what he has already acquired, only by attending his father's shop and writing his accounts, or by being permitted to qualify himself for employment by volunteering his services in our public Cutcherries. The period during which each scholar receives instruction at school (and after the expiration of which he is usually considered to have completed his education) is about 2 years.
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6. In nearly all the villages of this district there is an Enam set apart, as is doubtless well known to the Board for the support of a Punchangum Bramin, and it might be conjectured that amongst so many there would be found some who had attained considerable perfection in Astronomy and Theology, of this however there is hardly an instance. The persons holding such Enam are quite content to be ignorant of the higher branches of science, their utmost ambition being confined to the distinction of foretelling a fortunate hour for reaping or a lucky day for a marriage, and of contriving a horoscope for persons of distinction in the village.
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7. Although there are no schools or colleges supported by public contribution, I ought not to omit that amongst Bramins, instruction, is in many places gratuitously afforded—and the poorer class obtain all their education in this way—at the age of from 10 to 16 years. If he has not the means of obtaining instruction otherwise a young Bramin leaves his home, and proceeds to the residence of a man of his own caste who is willing to afford instruction without recompense to all those resorting to him for the purpose. They do not however derive subsistence from him for as he is generally poor himself, his means could not of course give support to others, and even if he had the means his giving food and clothing to his pupils would attract so many as to defeat the object itself which is professed.
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8. The Board would naturally enquire, how these children who are so destitute as not to be able to procure instruction in their own villages, could subsist in those to which they are strangers, and to which they travel from 10 to 100 miles, with no intention of returning for several years. They are supported entirely by charity, daily repeated, not received from the instructor for the reasons above mentioned, but from the inhabitants of the villages generally. They receive some portion of alms daily (for years) at the door of every Bramin in the village, and this is conceded to them with a cheerfulness which considering the object in view must be esteemed as a most honorable trait in the native character, and its unobtrusiveness ought to enhance the value of it. We are undoubtedly indebted to this benevolent custom for the general spread of education amongst a class of persons whose poverty would otherwise be an insurmountable obstacle to advancement in knowledge and it will be easily inferred that it requires only the liberal and fostering care of government to bring it to perfection.
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9. As the only schools in the district supported by charity are those which owe their maintenance to the gentlemen at Cuddapah, I have entered them in the list under the name of ‘subscription schools’.
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10. I am not aware that there is any further matter relating to this subject which is necessary to be submitted to the Board, but I beg to assure them that any deficiency which may be re-marked shall be supplied with all the diligence in my power.
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11. I cannot conclude this letter without expressing to your Board the obligation I am under to Mr Wheatly for the informant now submitted, his long residence in the district having afforded to him the best opportunity of ascertaining correctly the actual state of education throughout.
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Cutcherry of the Collector of Cuddapah, Roychooty, 11th February, 1825.
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*G.M. Ogilvie,* *Sub-Collector in charge.*