Ancient Indian Education: An Inquiry into its Origin, Development, and Ideals c8.17

c8.17

In the Madras Presidency these schools¹ are known as *pyal* schools. The *pyal* is a kind of bench or platform about three feet high and three feet broad, which is built against the wall of most houses in South India, and has in front a raised pavement or *koradu*. On the *pyal* visitors are received, the family sleep in the hot season, and it has many other uses also. For the village school a *pyal* is usually lent by the headman of the village. The scholars sit on the *pyal*, leaving the *koradu* for the teacher and for their own passage. The main purpose of these *pyal* schools, before modern developments in education reformed them or pushed them out, was to give instruction in the three R's, but of arithmetic only the simplest elements were taught. A great deal of time was spent in construing and memorizing beautiful but obscure poems, written in the 'high' dialect (which differs not only from the colloquial, but even from the modern literary dialect). The average number of children was about twenty-one, and the school had no apparatus except the sandy ground, certain small blackboards, and some *kajan* leaves for writing. A sort of discipline was maintained by a constant and often severe use of the cane. Unruly or truant boys were coerced by punishments that partook of torture. The teacher was usually a Brāhman. When a new scholar was to be received into the school the teacher and his scholars came to his house and he was handed over to the teacher by his parents. Various religious and other ceremonies were performed, and amongst other things the master made the new pupil repeat the whole alphabet three times, taught him a prayer to Gaṇeśa, and guided his hand in writing in a flat vessel of rice the name of Vishnu or Śiva. The pay of the teacher might be as much as Rs.15 to Rs.25 a month in the case of pupils whose parents were wealthy; but in *pyal* schools for poorer boys his emoluments only amounted to Rs.5 to Rs.10 a month. The pay of the teacher was received not only by regular monthly fees, but by certain customary presents on festivals and other occasions. Besides learning the three R's, a pupil obtained a knowledge, though generally a very unintelligent one, of about four or five of the great classics of the Tamil or the Telugu language. These books being also the moral code of the people, had value from the point of view of moral training. Some of these books, which had been printed in cheap editions, were in the hands of the scholars, but very often only the teacher possessed the books. Writing was taught in close connection with reading, and the pupil began his writing lessons when he commenced the alphabet. The alphabet was learned by writing with the finger on the sandy ground. Later he began to write with a pencil on a kind of small blackboard or slate (called a *palaka*), the surface of which was prepared from rice and charcoal. Then he had the privilege eventually of writing either with an iron style on *kajan* leaves, or with a reed pen on paper. Trading or agricultural accounts were taught as well as the composition of notes-of-hand, leases, agreements, etc., and the reading of the vernacular current hand. Education began usually at the age of five years. School commenced at about six o'clock in the morning. In the afternoon of each school day the pupil copied the next day's lesson on his *palaka*, and showed it to the master, who corrected it and heard him read it two or three times. The pupil then took it home and learnt it by heart for repetition to the teacher next morning.