Page:Adam's reports on vernacular education in Bengal and Behar, submitted to Government in 1835, 1836 and 1838.djvu/196

ill or obtaining good; and as mendicant visitors at the houses of the great. The number of such persons in Nattore is eighty- seven, all Hindus, to whom as belonging to the same general class must be added a learned Musalman, making in all 88. The third class consists of the students at Hindu schools of learning, in number amounting to 397, to whom as already stated I shall rank without exception as adults, although there may be a very few amongst them who are under fourteen years of age. At present their attainments in Hindu learning are in many instances respectable, and they are growing up to occupy the places of the two preceding classes. The fourth class consists of those without being, or claiming to be, learned in the technical sense of the term, have acquired a degree of knowledge superior to mere reading and writing, such as a knowledge of Bengali accounts, sometimes an acquaintance with Persian as a written language, often an acquaintance with Hindustani as a spoken language, and in three or four instances a smattering of English. They are for the most part persons having some landed property, retainers of wealthy families, officers of Government, servants of merchants and planters, money-lenders and their agents, shop-keepers, teachers of Persian and Bengali schools, &c. Their number in 3,255. The fifth class consists of those who can either sign their names or read imperfectly, or perhaps can do both, but the power to do either has obtained admission into this class. It is proper to note this distinction, because the power of reading and writing is in general acquired at school at the same time; but sometimes a person has had only a few months’ or perhaps weeks’ instruction at school and is just able to sign his name without pretending to read any other writing; and in other cases persons have by self-instruction at home acquired the power to sign their names without making any further advances. On the other hand, some can read without being able to write or pretending to understand even what they read. This class, therefore, includes all who have made any attainment whatever, however humble, in reading or writing, and the individuals composing it consist of the lowest description of Musalman priests, some of whom teach the formal reading of the Koran; the lowest descriptions of dealers or mechanics such as oilmen, flowermen, smiths, manufacturers of earthen-ware, &c.; and the lowest descriptions of brahmans who employ themselves in fomenting disputes in villages about caste and making the conciliation of parties a source of gain to themselves, or who act as cooks, messengers, attendants on idols for hire, &c., &c. The persons of this class are 2,342 in number. These five classes, embracing as far as I can ascertain the entire literary attainments of Nattore, both real and nominal, contain in all 6,121 individuals, leaving, out of the male adult population (59,500), not less than 53,379 who have received not even a single ray of knowledge into their minds