The Beautiful Tree: Indigenous Indian Education in the Eighteenth Century c8.s1.t5.1

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Ward in his work on the Hindoos has given, on the whole, a correct account of the state of indigenous learning and of the institutions by which it is preserved among the Hindoos. The principle which secures the perpetuation of these institutions, as long as the Hindoo religion subsists and is professed by the mass of the people and by a majority of the wealthy and powerful, is that it is deemed an act of religious merit to acquire a knowledge of the Hindoo shastras, or to extend the knowledge of them either by direct instruction or by pecuniary support or assistance given either to scholars or teachers. Hence the privations to which the students submit in the prosecution of the prescribed course of study; the disinterestedness of the teachers in bestowing their instructions gratuitously with the addition, always of shelter, often of food, and sometimes of clothing; and the liberality of landholders and others shown by occasional endowments of land and frequent gifts of money both to teachers and scholars on the occasion of funeral feasts, weddings, dedications, etc. The number of such institutions throughout the country is unknown nor are sufficient data possessed on which to rest a probable conjecture. In the district of Dinajpur, Dr Buchanan found only 16, and in that of Purniya not less than 119—a difference between two neighbouring districts in which some mistake may be suspected. The estimates of the number in other districts, besides those reported on by Dr Buchanan, are not the results of personal inquiries, and less dependence is, therefore, to be placed on them. If I were to hazard a conjecture founded on all the facts and statements I have met with, I should say that there are on an average probably 100 such institutions in each district of Bengal, which would give 1,800 for the whole province. An estimate of the total number of students must depend upon the approach to correctness of the conjecture respecting the total number of schools; but the following facts may help towards the formation of a correct opinion respecting the average number of students in each school. In 1818, Mr Ward enumerated 28 schools of Hindoo learning in Calcutta, in which 173 scholars received instructions, averaging upwards of six scholars to each school. He also enumerated 31 schools of Hindoo learning at Nuddea, in which 747 scholars received instruction, averaging upwards of 24 scholars to each school. In 1830, Mr H.H. Wilson ascertained by personal inquiry at Nuddea, that there were then about 25 schools in which between 5 and 600 scholars received instruction, and taking the number of scholars at 550 the average to each school will be 22. The average of these three estimates would give 17½ scholars to each school. The lowest or Calcutta average, that of six scholars to each school, I consider more probable than the others, for the instances are numerous throughout the country in which a learned Hindoo teacher has not more than three or four pupils. Assuming the Calcutta average and the previous estimate of the total number of schools, there will appear to be 10,800 students of Hindoo learning throughout Bengal. The total number of teachers and students of Hindoo learning will thus be 12,600; and this number is exclusive of a large class of individuals who, after having received instruction in a school of learning, and become in the technical sense of the term Pundits or learned men, from various causes decline to engage in the profession of teaching. If further inquiry should show that the lowest estimate, which is that I have assumed, is one-half in excess of the truth, there will still remain a large and influential class of men who either have received or are engaged in giving and receiving a Hindoo collegiate education.