98 JPwceedings of the Asiatic Society. [June, 



education in the Sanskrit College ; everywhere the desire was expressed 

 for a good Anglo- Sanskrit School. Such a school would effect more than 

 anything else to abolish prejudice and to let light into a district which 

 has long been a home of superstition and bigotry. The Church 

 Missionary Society have long had a grant-in-aid school there. During 

 the time of the Reverend S. Hasel, Sanskrit used to be taught there 

 to a certain extent ; but what is wanted is a thoroughly good school, 

 educating up to the Entrance Examination, and at the same time 

 giving a sound training in Sanskrit Grammar and Poetry. Perhaps 

 the existing school could be adapted to this purpose, if the Church 

 Missionary Society were disposed heartily to enter into it. Anyway the 

 establishment of such a school, either by the Church Missionary Society 

 or by Government, appears to me to be a pressing want, and I should 

 indeed rejoice if my visit resulted in such a measure. Compared to 

 this, the question of improving the toles is a measure of very secon- 

 dary importance. 



This leads me to notice a very interesting feature in Nuddea, 

 which I was much surprised to find, and which seems to me a very 

 remarkable proof, how a public demand is beginning to make itself 

 felt for a better education than that given by the toles, even amon°* 

 the orthodox Hindu population. I refer to the Akhadds (^rf^TvSI). 

 These are schools kept by pupils of the Smriti or Nyaya toles, who 

 here become in their turn teachers of grammar. I visited two of 

 these schools, one held in the house of Pandit Ram Nath 

 Tarkasiddhanta, and taught by Qri Narayan Bhattacharjya and Cri 

 Madhab Bhattacharjya. Here there were twelve students. The 

 second was held in the house of Pandit Radhaballabha Bhattacharyya 

 and was taught by Kumuda Natha firomani and several other tole 

 students. Here there were twenty-five scholars. In this Akhadd 

 three students had finished the native grammar Mugdhabodha, 

 and began to read Kalidasa's poem, the Kuinara Sambhava. I 

 was interseted to learn that two of the lads studying there were 

 descendants in the seventh generation from the celebrated Pandit 

 Jagadica. In the first c Akhada' a little English was also taught, 

 and the first book of reading was in use. This last fact seems 

 to me most significant, that even in Nuddea, the centre of Hindoo 

 exclusiveness, in a school entirely under the management of tole 



