192 



Ow the Statistics of Dukhun. 



[Jan. 



no means contemptible, the general illiterateness of the cultivators is re- 

 markable. It might have been supposed that the pressure of the incon- 

 veniencies and the risk of loss attending the solving their constantly re- 

 curring arithmetical computations, whether in settling their assessments 

 with government, in ascertaining the amount of their produce, or in com- 

 puting its saleable rate to ensure a profit, or in their money transactions 

 with each other, would have stimulated some families of the past or pre- 

 sent generations to have pursued steadily a course of instruction for 

 their children, which, by its example and the visible beneficial results 

 attending it, would have originated a thirst of knowledge, and advanced 

 the march of intellectual improvement. The Shoodra, however, is led 

 to believe by the wily Brahmans that letters and science are not within 

 his province, and the farmer is content to go on mastering his arithmeti- 

 cal difficulties with the assistance of his fingers, and relying upon the 

 village clerk for the keeping his accounts with the government, and on 

 his ability, judgment, and secrecy in the management of his private cor- 

 respondence, which, it may be supposed, will not be very important or 

 voluminous. Were it ascertained, I believe not one cultivator in a hun- 

 dred would be found able to write, or count up to 100 but by fives ; and 

 my daily unreserved intercourse for hours with numbers of this class of 

 persons has given me facilities for forming this opinion. And yet the 

 Koonbees are far from wanting intelligence ; they are not slow in observ- 

 ing; they are quick in communicating, and the rationale of an agricultu- 

 ral process is frequently explained with a simplicity and eflfect which 

 we might not always meet with in the educated English firmer. There 

 would not be any difficulty in teaching the Koonbees, provided the in- 

 struction were gratuitous, and that the farmer could spare his children ; 

 and several important effects might attend this instruction : the mind of 

 the cultivator would be invigorated with new ideas ; enlarged views of 

 action would break in upon him ; a spirit of improvement, enterprise, 

 and innovation might spring up, in place of the apathetic routine that at 

 present prevails in rural oeconomy and in the social relations of life ; 

 and an amelioration, both physical and moral, would take place in his 

 condition. But at present the little education that exists is confined to 

 the Brahmans and to the shopkeepers, Shaitees*, and Mahajuns.f 



The KoolkurneesJ, or accountants and village-clerks, are always Brah- 

 mans ; many of them are shrewd and very quick, and possessed of infi- 



* Heads of trades. + Bankers. 



i- Village clerks and accountants. 



