The Beautiful Tree: Indigenous Indian Education in the Eighteenth Century c8.s1.t2.8

c8.s1.t2.8

Respecting the nature and amount of the instruction received, the first fact to be mentioned is that the use of printed books in the native language appears hitherto to have been almost wholly unknown to the natives of this district, with the exception of a printed almanac which some official or wealthy native may have procured from Calcutta; or a stray missionary tract which may have found its way across the great river from the neighbouring district of Moorshedabad. A single case of each kind came under observation; but as far as I could ascertain, not one of the school-masters had ever before seen a printed book, those which I presented to them from the Calcutta School-Book Society being viewed more as curiosities than as instruments of knowledge. That Society has now established an agency for the sale of it publications at Bauleah, hence works of instruction will probably in time spread over the district.