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·SANSKRIT LEARNING
IN
BENGAL
Vanamali Vedantatirtha, M.A.
PUBLISHED BY
BHATTACHARYA & SONS.
65, College Street, Calcutla
4Banianagar, Dacra
1910.
Price eight annas.

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·THE PRESENT STATE OF SANSKRIT LEARNIN NG IN BENGAL ( BY Vanamali Chakravartti, M.A. Vedanta-tirtha (Calcutta), Vedanta-ratna (Benares); Member of the Asiatic Society of Bengal ; Professor of Logic and Philosophy in the Cotton College, Gauhati ; Examiner to the Calcutta University ; Formerly Lecturer on Vedanta, Sanskrit College, Calcutta ; Author of "Religion, Society and Independent Thinking" "A Manual of Sanskrit" "Sanskrit Made Easy" "Sanskrita- Kaumudi" &c. PUBLISHED BY BHATTACHARYA & SONS 65, COLLEGE STREET, CALCUTTA 4, BANIANAGAR, DACCA 1910.

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·TABLE OF CONTENTS. Page. I 2 4 5 6 8 8 8 8 9 Ιο IO Depth the aim of the Tol Tol education is professional The Tol encourages cram Recent increase of pandits Defects of the tol system Un-moral character of the Grammar manuals The merit of the Tol system . M. A.'s and Tol pandits compared Importance of Navya-nyāya Mathematics and astronomy in the tol Grammar The Vidyasagarian method advocated Vyakarana-Kaumudi recommended for the First Examination in Grammar Questions at the First Examination in Grammar criticized The structure of Pinini's Grammar The arrangement of Panini justified The Siddhānta-Kaumudt condemned The arrangement of the Kätantra Katantra-Kaumudi The arrangement of the Mugdhabodha The Siddhanta-Kaumudi further criticized The Mugdhabodha criticized A remedy for the defects of the Siddhānta- Kaumudi and the Mugdhabodha II II 12 14 16 16 16 17 18 18 21 ·ii Page. 22 24 24 25 25 26 27 27 27 29 29 Grammar should be studied along with language Poetry and Poetics Ordinary Kavyatirthas are unfit for Head-panditships of H. E. Schools Literary criticism unknown in the Tol. A History of Sanskrit Literature in Bengali is a desideratum The imperfect teaching of Poetics The older Sankrit books are better Decline of the Indian Intellect Disastrous effect of firm belief in the inevitable decline of the race The effects of this belief in literature The period of intellectual vassalage A “Typical Selections” suggested for the Kävyatirtha examination Hindu Ritualism and Law Smriti a difficult study The lawyer and the Smirta compared The unscietific character of the basic principle of Neo-Ritualism. Causes of the decline of the Smriti scholarship The importance of the Smirta Classification of the Pandits Indifferent naiyāyikas condemned Modifications in the curriculun of Smriti studies suggested Research in the Smritis A code of liberal Hindu scriptures is a desideratum 30 31 32 32 32 33 34 35 35 36 37 37 ·iii 38 38 40 41 Page. Philosophy Navyanyāya in Bengal The decay of Navyany iya, how caused 39 The importance of Navya-nyāya . Naiyāyika scholarship, how to be revived 40 Post-tìrtha courses and titles advocated Liberal scholarships for Tirthas 42 Siinkhya and Vedānta Courses in the Tirtha examination too short 43 Sinkhya and Vedānta are wrongly supposed to be easy. 44 How to teach the tol pandit to philosophise 45 The tyranny of words in the Tol . 47 Mere commentary learning should not be the ideal of the future tol pandit Astronomy and Medicine 50 Geography, History and Mathematics in the Tol 51 How to make the Tol education remunerative 53 The Bhattacharya pandit is rapidly losing his position in society 55 Morality of tho Tol Sanskrit in the University The Vidyasagarian method The Key 59 Inadequacy of the present system of teaching in the school 60 Blunders of grammar and idiom in some Sanskrit text-books The difficulties of the Professor of Sanskrit 61 48 56 58 58 60 ·iv Page. 61 62 The Key under a disguise The ideal of Sanskrit Scholarship in the University. An improved Bengali version of Boehtlingk and Röth's great Lexicon advocated The status of the teacher of Sanskrit in the educa. tional institutions of the country Hemachandra's Sanskrit epics The Sanskrit College 63 64 66 67 ·The Present State of Sanskrit Learning in Bengal. :0:- Sanskrit is studied at present in Bengal under two very different systems. The first is the indigenous method of the Tols, the second is the method of the schools and colleges. I shall take up the Tol system first. The Tol aims at Depth. Here the student generally takes up only one subject, be it Grainmar, Literature, Smțiti, or Philosophy. In the subject of his choice, he tries to become a perfect master. He learns all the commentaries and commentaries upon these commentaries, till he can answer every possible question that may have any the least bearing upon the Text. From the beginning of his career, the student works with the idea that his text-book is the best possible book in the world, it is infallible. The commentaries also receive no less attention and respect. In fact, he can scarcely make a distinction between the two. This system has some good points. It secures entire devotion to the Text and thus makes for Soundness. It produced men of vast learning even fifty years ago. But it can scarcely produce a really Educated man, a man who knows something of the inner and the outer world and their relation to God, a man who has a genuine thirst for knowledge, realizing full well that what he does not know far exceeds what little he knows, a man who has a genuine ·( 2 ) spirit of research and an open unbiassed mind, a man who has a sympathetic nature and a cultivated will. Such a man is an educated man. Others may have Learning, Book-Lore. But that is not Education. It is not meant that Educated men were not found in old Sanskritic Bengal. There were plenty of them; but they were produced not so much by the system, as in spite of it. In this connection, it must be borne in mind, that the Tol education was really professional education. The alumni of the Tol were generally confined to the class of gurus, purohits and Kavirājas. A man studied Sanskrit, not for liberal culture, not for knowledge for its own sake, but for its practical use. It enabled him to know the rules of his own religion, its various rites and ceremonies. It enabled him to earn his livelihood. If he wanted to know what fruits may not be eaten on wbich days, if he wanted to know how precisely to manipulate his fingers in the act of offering water to the manes of his ancestors, if he wanted to learn all the details that govern the life of the modern Bengali Hindu, well, he could not do better than study Smſiti or rather Raghunandana's Compendium. If he wanted to be a guru, a spiritual guide, he studied the Tantras. If he wanted to be a physician, he studied medical works. The Purānas were not systematically studied. Only the Srimadbhagavata received a fair share of attention at the hands of the readers and declaimers of Purānas, who made a living out of it. Grammar, of course, formed an indispensable propædeutic. It was studied by all.

·( 3 ) Poetry and fiction (Kāvya) was not so fortunate. Some indeed read it before commencing their study of the more serious branches, but most people neglected it. 17 Fagh – The study of Poetry and Fic. tion interferes with the study of the S'āstras. This adage represents the consensus of learned opinion in Bengal fifty years ago. But even when people did study the Kavyas, they preferred the artificiality of the Naishadhiyacharita to the naturalness of the Raghuvamsa! They said "<3<fq 212Ą aefa 7 91794-even Raghu is poetry and that worth reading "!! Another branch of study that received a good deal of attention was Lexicography. To his present representative, the University student, it seems almost incredible that his predecessor half a century ayo did in all seriousness set himself to the task of memorising the whole of the Amarakosa and the Dhātupātha. The only branch of knowledge that may be said to have been non-professional was Philosophy, which, in Bengal, had degenerated itself to mean practically nothing but Navyanyåya. But even here the spirit of the times asserted itself. People thought that Raghunātha and Gadādhara were infallible! They studied the works of these great dialecticians, not with a view to arrive at truth, but with a view to gain dialectical or controversial triumphs over their rivals. Their special object was to make a name and to earn a livelihood by becoming great naiyāyikas whom it was thought to be the duty of the pious to make rich presents to. They aimed at these presents, or at best at the dialectical triumphs, rather than at knowledge.

·( 4 ) Astronomy with Astrology was also studied professionally. Thus there seems to have been no avowed liberal education in the Tols. Matters have not mended during these recent years of Government patronage and control. The time has at last arrived when the Tol system of education must be either mended or ended. In the Tol, a boy begins his study of Sanskrit with some Grammar written in the Sanskrit language. He is familiar neither with the contents of the book, nor with its language. In fact, most of the Sanskrit Graminars are written in no language at all. They are ex. pressed in formidable formulas in algebraic fashion. Again the illustrative examples in some of these Grammars are such as only the better class of teachers can explain. To the ordinary teacher their meaning is often far from clear. Thus the beginner understands absolutely nothing and merely memorises everything. He crams. Knowledge appears to him only in its formidable aspect. He learns to associate knowledge with the idea of unpleasantness. Under these conditions, it is hardly to be wondered at, if he is found rather slow to develop a love of knowledge for its own sake. It must not be forgotten, however, that this system had one great advantage. The initial difficulties of the subject scared away a good many unfit students, whose intellectual capacity unequal to the task. After one year spent upon Grammar, a boy or rather his teacher, could plainly understand whether it would be to the advantage of the former to continue farther. If it be found that a boy cannot understand was ·( 5 ) his Grammar (written in Sanskrit) after one year's labour, it is best to send him away. Woe to the teacher who persists in keeping such a pupil, and woe to the community that permits its teachers to be so careless ! Recently pandits have multiplied in Bengal by leaps and bounds. Now their number is legion. Nevertheless the total amount of Sanskrit Scholarship in the country has diminished as steadily as the number of so-called pandits has increased. This is due partly to the neglect of the first symptoms of unfitness which are no longer attended to. The craze seems to be to pass for learned men, to get titles. The reason is not far to seek. A considerable number of Brahmans still depend upon the religious charity of the people for their livelihood. their livelihood. In these days of poverty and materialism they find it very difficult the barest necessities of life. Under these circumstances they naturally welcome anything that will help them in this veritable struggle for existence. A title, a Nyayaratna or Smțitibhūsana is no small asset with them in the business of life. Thus what they want is a Title and not Learning. Formerly the struggle for existence was not so keen, and Brahmans could easily gather enough to satisfy their little wants. They did not set such morbid value upon a mere title. Many an untitled acquaintance of mine knew more Sanskrit than the titled pandits of to-day. In all villages, where there are Brahmans, the number of people knowing Sanskrit has diminished. There were more Sanskrit-knowing people, but less title-holders.

·( 6 ) But at present every body hankers after a title. Thus boys, who have no taste nor capacity for a literary education, are allowed to continue their study and partly to lower the standard of teaching throughout the province. Thus one of the main advantages of the old indigenous method of Grammar-Teaching no longer exists. It no longer eliminates the unfit. The drawbacks of the indigenous system are too well-known to require a detailed enumeration. It is founded upon cram and it tends to dull the intellect. It means death to all independent thinking. It demands too much time for the mastery of the very elements of the Sanskrit language, and consequently renders the study of the higher subjects well-nigh impossible in these days. A hundred years ago, a Brahman might have easily devoted the first thirty or forty years of his life to study. There were plenty of years yet in store for him. But now even twenty-five years appear to be too long a period for people whose full span of life seems to have dwindled to sixty years or so. Then again, take these Grammar Manuals from a moral point of view. Most of the examples in them ( Kåtantra, Käsika &c.) are unmoral ( not immoral ). In bygone days this was no great evil. The people's ideal was the Sastric ideal as then understood. They saw it partly realized in the lives of their gurus and purohits, smārtas or Naiyāyikas. Example is always better than precept. The Hindu Society taught its ideals by example and did not care to inculcate moral precepts in its language manuals. All this is changed ·( 7 ) now. Society is being overrun with conflicting ideals. At such a time it is of the utmost importance, that the primary duties of man should be embodied in all juvenile text-books. Maxims such as “Always speak the truth": "Benevolence is the essence of virtue" must be unearthed from the sacred literature of the Hindus and embodied in the Grammar manuals. The illustrative examples of Grammar should be sentences like these :- सदा सत्यं ब्रूयात् । नोपकारात् परं पुण्यम् । प्रभवाथाय भूतानां . धर्मप्रवचनं कृतम् । At present a man may read Sanskrit for five years and know the greater part of his grammar by heart, but alas ! he may be mournfully ignorant of the fundamental duties of man. May such a system produce a real man now ? Our Sanskrit-learning boys must be given some moral readers. Twelve years ago, I was talking with a friend of mine who was studying Kavya with one of the leading pandits of Calcutta. He had studied the Sahitya-darpana and all the books prescribed for the Kavyatirtha examination. He passed out six months later and became a Kāvyatirtha. He was a very intelligent man and had really mastered the Sanskrit grammar and grammar and language. In fact he may be taken as a fair type of the better class pandits of to-day. But what was his idea of womankind? It was drawn from the Dasakumāracharita, Sahitya-darpana and all that. He verily believed that Woman was for Man-for his pleasure. I quoted Manu and the other ·( 8 ) Smſitis in reply. But he would not be convinced. This is a typical case. The Tol pandit of to-day, if he has no culture on English and Bengali lines, may be taken to be without any culture at all, until the contrary is proved. I know there are men like Pandit Jayanārāyana Tarkaratna of Benares (formerly of Kotālipārā and Nadia) whose culture is perfectly genuine and perfectly Sanskritic too. But they are over fifty now. What was possible fifty years ago, is not possible now. It is absolutley necessary that our Tol boys should be taught the elements of morality and religion in their earlier years. If the Hindu community allows its boys, its future spiritual teachers and purohits to grow in an unmoral atmosphere, it must not be surprised afterwards to find them imbued with a scheme of life that is not merely un-moral but in-moral too. The great merit of the Tol system was that it produced scholars deeply learned in their own branches. Even in grammar, the M.A.'s in Sanskrit are no match for the better class of Tol pandits. In Smsiti, Logic (or Dialectics) and Philosophy, the best of the M.A.'s are immeasurably inferior to the really erudite among the Tol people. But how many really erudite pandits are there? In Dialectics (Tarka or Navya-nyaya), the really efficient teachers may be counted upon one's fingers. They are, so to say, the remnants of a dying race. Navya-nyaya is a very difficult branch of study. It is also barren of real results. Its merit consists in being a good discipline. It trains the reasoning faculty. It ·(9) does not give powers of reasoning, it does not produce a genius ; its use lies in disciplining the mind to the rigours of logical argument. It is more than superfluous to the University graduates who have studied Mathematics. But to the Tol people without a mathematical training, it is simply indispensable. Mathematics (with Astronomy) as a branch of human culture was unfortunately relegated to an inferior class of Brahmans. The high class Brahmans never cared an iota for that truly most divine science which deals with the sun, the moon, and the stars. The study of Astronomy and especially Astrology was supposed to bring poverty in its train. And this is one more proof of the venal character of medieval and present Sanskrit culture, that this fancied connexion with poverty was sufficient to turn all promising high caste Brahman youths from the study of Astronomy and Astrology. All honour to those poor despised Ganakas who kept the torch of Science burning during these dark ages. But has the dark age of Sanskrit Scholarship in Bengal reaily passed away ? In the Sanskrit College in Calcutta, there is an accomplished astronomer, who is a high caste Brahman besides. From the stand-point of genuine culture, he may be regarded as one of the very best pandits of Bengal. But does any of my countrymen know his name? Who is responsible for the neglect of true talent such as we too painfully notice here? Why does not the Hindu Society give him the honour which he deserves ? Is the study of Astronomy still regarded as a degrading pursuit ?

·( 10 ) Now I shall take up the subjects of Sanskrit study one by one, and offer some remarks on each head. Grammar In the Tols, grammatical treatises written in Sanskrit, such as the Katantra, the Mugdhabodha, the Supadma, the Samkshiptasära, the Frayogaratnamālā and here and there that version of the Paninean grammar which goes by the name of the Siddhāntakaumudi, are accorded the honour of introducing Bengali youths to the beautiful language of their gifted ancestors. This should not be so. The time has arriv. ed for introducing the Vidyasågarian Method into the indigenous Tols. The advantages of the old method have departed for good, and it is now incumbent upon all true promoters of Sanskrit study to see that the Tols also adopt the rational method. The essence of the Vidyāsägarian method consists in combining the methods of the West and the East; start with the Western method and finish with the Eastern. In the earliest stages, a new language should be learned through the medium of the mother tongue. In the lowest standards, the elements of Sanskrit grammar should be taught along with the elements of the language, in Bengali. And only when the student has made a certain amount of progress in the Sanskrit language and grammar (let us say, finished his Rijupathas and Vyakarana-kaumudi), it is only then that he should be given a Sanskrit grammar written in Sanskrit, such as those enumerated above. He must first learn enough ·( ) of Sanskrit from the Vyäkarczuw-kaumudi and the Rijupāthas and then begin a standard Sanskrit grammar. Much time will thus be saved. The intellectual torpor and nausia of the Tol pandits will tend to pass away. This new method will ra.ionalize them, it will rouse them from their inental slumber. It will indirectly but surely help the nation in acquiring the important art of independent thinking. Thus one of the greatest blemishes of the old method will eventually pass away. The indigenous method proceeds on the assumption that nothing that our ancestors did or followed could be improved upon. With such a belief engrained in their nature from early childhood, the Tol people could naturally see nothing good or great in anything new. The result of such a belief is disastrous. It crampsthe national intellect, it paralyses the sources of national activity. If not for any thing else, at least for the effectual killing of this prejudice, the Board of Sanskrit Examinations could do nothing better than introduce the Vyakarana- Kaumudt as an alternative subject ard the Rijupăthas compulsory subject in the curriculum of the First Examination in Grammar. The late Mabamahopadhyaya Nilamani Nyayalankara, M.A., B.L. had indeed introduced this welcome change to some extent, while he was the Registrar of the Sanskrit Examinations. I would strongly urge the distinguished Board to fall back upon his method. Let the questions in Sanskrit Grammar at the first examination be common to all the Grammars. There is time enough to test the candidates in the textual difficulties of their respective Grammars (Kaläpa, Mugdha- ·( 12 ) bodha &c.) in the Second and the Title examinations, There need be no hurry about that. Let them be examined at the first examination in the Subject of Sans. krit Grammar, and not in textual difficulties. At present for grammar alone in the first examination at least ten separate question papers have to be prepared. Each question-paper again is printed in three different languages and in three different types. Thus there are in all about (3x 10) thirty papers. If my suggestion for having one common paper for all the candidates in the Sanskrit language and in the Devanagari type) be adopted, it will materially simplify the work of the Registrar's office. It will also save much money that is uselessly spent in printing nine-and-twenty sets of needless question papers. And an item, on which these savings may be profitably spent, is in increasing the remuneration of the poor Tol pandits who ought generally to monopolis. all the patronage that the Board could offer in the shape of examinerships. I shall conclude this section with an observation on the internal structure of some of these grammars. Take Pånini for example. The Astådhyayı of Pånini is divided into eight Books, and each Book is subdivided into four chapters. Book I. treats of technical terms, rules of interpreting the aphorisms, use of atmanepada and parasmaipada, definitions of the various cases &c. Book II. deals with compound words, case endings, certain rules on gender, certain new forms which particular verbal roots assume in peculiar circumstances &c. Book III. really begins with certain matters ·( 13 ) that come under inflexion (srora), then introduces derivation (m), then again inflexion, again derivation, again inflexion. Book IV. begins with declension (FR), suddenly diverts into feminine suffixes, and then winds up with the taddhitas (derivation from norninal bases). Book V. deals with 'taddhita and samāsānta. In this way the author goes on, till he finishes with an account of ggfafu (VIII. 3. 57-119), varafa (VIII. 4. 1-39), and afa VIII. 4.40). But apparently not satisfied with the bewilderment thus caused to his perplexed reader, he hurls his last surprise upon them when he ends his book with an aphorism, which might have been given in the very first section of Book 1. and which is presupposed in every single book that has gone before. The apparent unreasonableness of this arrangement will be brought out all the more clearly, if one were to look at an ordinary edition of the Siddhänta-kaumudi in which Bhattojidiksita has arranged the aphorisms of Panini in an apparently more rational manner. The chapter on eterad, for example, opens with a sutra of the sixth book of the original Astådhyāyi, then in the very second sūtra it directly runs into the eighth book, and turns back for the next three sitras (3-5) into Book 1 ; again the first twenty sutras on the chapter on inflection (eta) (in the Siddhāntakaumudi) are quoted from eight different chapters of three different books (Books I, III and VII) of the original Astådhyāyi. It is felt that the proper arrangement is something like the arrangement of the Prakriyakaumudi, the Mugdhabodha and the Siddhāntakaumudt. First definitions ·( 14 ) and rules of interpretation, then conjunction of letters (af), then declension, then the indeclinables, then the feminine suffixes, then the cases and compounds, then iaddhita, then the rules of repetition, then inflection, and then the krit affixes. Why did not Pānini arrange his Sūtrās in this rational manner ? What led this greatest of the world's grammarians to make such a hap-hazard disposition of the subject-matter of his immortal treatise ? In order to answer this question satisfactorily, it is necessary to observe at the very out-set, that at the time of Pānini, Sanskrit had not yet ceased to be spoken. It was still a bhäshā, i. e. a spoken language. The great mass of the Aryan people still talked in Sanskrit. They learnt the language from their mothers and sisters. Panini was meant only for those who wanted to undertake a scientific study of the language. To us Panini's arrangement seems to be so absurd, because Sanskrit is not our mother tongue, because we want to learn the very elements of the language with the help of the Astādhyayi. We are surprised to find that unless one had mastered all the eight books, one could not know the simple rules of sandhi, satva, natva, not even the declension of such a simple base as Rama (Vide the Siddhanta-kaumudi). But Panini was not meant to introduce barbarian • novices into the elements of Sanskrit. Our ancestors talked in Sanskrit and thus learned the Declensions, Conjuga- The word "barbarian' is used here to mean people whose mother tongue is not Sanskrit ( mlecchas ). In this sense we are barbarians.

·( 15 ) tions, and Sandhis even as we learn Bengali Declensions, Conjugations and Sandhis, from the lips of their living mothers. Grammar was studied only as a Science, Consequently, this arrangement, so provoking to us, did not at all surprise our romote ancestors, now more than three thousand years ago. They knew the language, they knew the results of Grammar, so to say, from their childhood. The facts of the language were familiar to them. The process by which Panini and his predecessors reduced this seething mass of facts to unity and order, that was what they cared to know, and for this purpose, Panini's arrangement is simply admirable. It brings together all similar operations from every department of Grammar, be it declension, inflexion or derivation. In order to be appreciated and understood, Panini must be studied from the point of view of the Scientist, of the Vaiyakarana (analyser). We must try to follow him and not mend him. It is unfortunate that this is not understood, and that even educated people should sometimes practically identify Bhattoji's opinions with Panini's. It seems never to be realized that the Sanskrit language has a growth and that Pānini's Grammar is merely a scientific survey of a particular period in this growth. It is true that the Saus. krit language ceased to be spoken a little alter Panini and that consequently the changes that occured in the Sanskrit language after his time are comparatively trifling. still it is quite demonstrable that certain changes did take place. The deviations of the Katantra and of the Vārtika from the Päninean Grammar form the ear- ·( 16 ) liest record of such changes, and in the deviations of the Mugdabodha from these we have a second such record. The author of the Siddhantakaumudi unfortunately nego lected this historical point of view. The Calcutta University have introduced Bhattoji's compilation as a text book in Sanskrit. This perhaps represents a compromise. Is it too much to expect that the original Pinini, with, say, the authoritative Kasika, will replace the Siddhanta-kaumudt in its time ? If the Vidyasagarian method be adopted in our Tols, and if thereby the boys learn the Sanskrit language tolerably well, before they are allowed to begin Panini, then surely his arrangement would not seem to be so irrational. The arrangement of the Kütantra (otherwise called the Kalapa) is a little less bewildering than the arrangement of the Astådhyāyi of Panini. Sandhi, Declension, Cases, Compounds, I addhita (derivation), Inflexion, Krit (derivation this is the order. But in declension and inflexion, the arrangement is as bewildering as in Pänini. Thus one cannot form the word ta: unless one reads all the three chapters on declension, because the rule by which Ę is changed into Visarga (:) comes at the end of the book on declension. Not satisfied with this arrangement, I had once actually formed the idea of compiling a amalget and doing for the Kalapa what the celebrated Bhattoji-diksita did for Panini. The name Katantra-kaumudi was indeed formed on the well-known model of the Prakriyakaumudl and the Siddhantakaumudi. While yet a mere boy, I had ·( 17 ) already arranged the declensions in this fashion for my private use, with the help of the Vyākarana-kaumudi. The ambitious plan of writing a Kütantra-kaumudi entered my head about ten years later, when the experiences of a professor's life had fully convinced me of the difficulties of teaching the inflexions for the first time from such a book as the Kātantra. Forthwith I took the Mugdhabodha as my model, hunted up every corresponding Sūtra from the Kätantra, and within six months well-nigh completed the most difficult part of the projected Kätantra-kaumudi, namely, the chapters on inflexion. And in order to found a Sampradaya, I actually taught it to pandit Uinācharan Sāstri of Barisal, who was then my pupil. At this time I came to Calcutta as a lecturer in the Sanskrit College, and while there I deemed it incumbent upon me to look into the descriptive catalogues of Sanskrit manuscripts for new commentaries on the Kātantra which might be useful to In one of these catalogues, I learnt to my great surprise and disappointment that a Kātantrakaumudi actually did exist in Kashmere. It not only bore the same name (710mmiget) as the projected book, but the arrangement in it was virtually the same as mine. Finding myself thus anticipated. I gave up the project from which I had expected such cheap celebrity. I am glad that I gave it up; for the method and arrangement of the Kātantra is the best, provided the student begins to study it after acquiring a decent knowledge of the Sanskrit language (say by the Vidyāsăgarian method). me. 6 ·( 18 ) The arrangement of the Mugdhabodha is better than the arrangement of the Siddhanta-kaumudt because the Sītras of the Mugdhabodha were written by the author in adaptation to the requirements of his arrangement, while the Sūtras of the Siddhānta-Kaumudi are out of their proper setting, Pänini having intended them for quite a separate order. Without a gloss, one cannot at all understand the Sūtras of the Siddhānta-Kaumudi. Take "afqa” (VII. 3. 102) for example. Read in the original order of Panini it presents no difficulties of interpretation, for it follows the Sūtra "qat alat afs” (VII. 3. 101) and may be easily understood because of what is technically called “afware” (context). In fact, all the small Sūtras of one adhikära may be regarded as parts of one long Sūtra which is made up of these separate parts. To tear an aphorism from its own adikāra is really taking one fraction of a sentence and placing it in a different context where its meaning can scarcely be understood. The order of the Siddhanta-kaumudi sacrifices this adhikara or context most ruthlessly. As a consequence, the student of the Siddhānta-kaumudi has to get by heart not only the aphorisms and the illustrative examples, which all students of Grammer must do, but also the gloss of Bhattoji. This memorising of the gloss is not necessary in the original Panini ( Käsikā), nor in the Kalapa nor the Mugdhabodha. Another defect both of the Siddhanta-kaumudi and of the Mugdhabodha is that they encourage the worst form of cram. Most of the Sūtras are general in their character and contemplate quite a number of cases, ·( 19 ) but from the very nature of the arrangement of these hand-books, all the illustrative examples cannot be given under any general Sitra. The boy really understands only that fraction of the Sitra which is illustrated then and there, when the Sūtra makes its first appearance. He unintelligently memorises the rest of the Sūtra which is unillustrated, and retains it for future understanding and use. As an example, take the aphorism इख नद्यापीनट ७।१।५४ It makes its appearance in the Siddhānta-kaumudi in connection with the declension of the bases which end in short 'a' such as TTA, and Bhattoji has, therefore, to content himself with giving a single illustration (TTATUTA). The Sūtra contemplates bases endig in 33 and also feminine bases of the classes at and 251. The rule is applicable to six (or seven) different cases. The Käsikā gives the following examples besides others, EM14, 91714 i argara i quiq' FAKTOH I 714 ! मालानाम् । Without these seven illustrative examples, it is not possible to understand this Sūtra completely. Thus the reader of the Siddhinta-kaumudi understands one-seventh of this Sutra and leaves the remaining sixsevenths for future comprehension ! Now let us take an example from the chapter on Inflexion. The Sutra भौहोमहवां शु वच्च (III. I. 39.) occurs in the जुहोत्यादिप्रकरण in the Siddhānta-kaumudi. In In this aphorism four different roots are contemplated, namely, n, xi, and s. An intelligent understanding of the Sūtra would 1 ·( 20 ) require one example with each root. The Käsikā actually gives fa01977 fanta, f7419#IT 1511, fq7778FTE THITT, 58418R gEna, as examples. The Siddhanta- Kaumudi introduces this rule in connexion with the inflection of the root ş and consequently gives only जुहवाचकार जुहाव as illustrations. The reader understands one-fourth of the aphorism and crams the rest. The Sūtras quoted above are quite ordinary Sūtras and they have been taken at random. The first of these Sūtras contemplates declension alone, and the second inflexion alone. But the difficulty of comprehension is increased tenfold when Sūtras of such sweep as afa q unga arĄ afruga57 (VI. 4. 77.) are introduced to the beginner as early as the declension of masculine bases in . This is a most important Sūtra and is applicable to nominal bases as well as verbal roots. The minimum number of illustrations that can satisfactorily explain it is six. I cull the following from the Kâsikā. fafyag:gyag: 1 fatitgati भुवौ। The reader of the Siddhānta.kaumudi, supposing him to be a beginner, can naturally be expected to understand only one of these examplas (forat), for Bhattoji introduced the Sūtra under masculine declensions ending in long i. In the course of a week he will. understand gat and in the course two more weeks. he will understand want, but the first three examples will have to be postponed for a couple of years, for who can read the chapter on Inflexions, from which these examples are taken, within less than two years of his beginning the declensions ? Again this aphorism पान वन्ति ।

·( 21 ) belongs to a class of Sitras that are peculiarly unſortunate. The exigencies of his arrangement are such as necessitated it for the author to leave this entire class without the courtesy of even a single illustration ! Not even fagi is given as an example. The student must cram, not three-fourths, not five-sixths, not sixsevenths, no, he must cram the whole, of each of these Sūtras. The Mugdhabodha is even a worse offender in this respect. Here the principal thing aimed at seems to be brevity of expression. Generally speaking, every Sūtra of the Mugdhabodha requires for its its proper elucidation many more examples than the Sutras of the Siddhanta-kaumudi. Take, for example, 29 TETO faktsforystyfa : st û i which comprises within itself four and half Sutras of the Siddhūnta-kaumudi ( Astādhyāyi VII. 2. 1:5). This Sūtra necessarily requires for its full comprehension many more examples than any one of the four and half Sūtras which take its place in the Siddhānta-kaumudi. Hence, roughly speaking, if in the Siddhantakaumudi, the beginner understands only one fourch of a sītra and crams three-fourths, in the Mugdhabodha he understands one-sixteenth and crams filteen-sixteenths. This defect of the Siddhanta-kaumudi and the Mugdhabodha, on which I have dwelt at such length, is not irremediable. The introduction of the Vidyāsāgarian method will effectively remove it. Let the students begin the study of these treatises after going through the Vyakarana-kaumudi and the Rijupāthas. An ordi- ·( 22 22 ) nary teacher may then give all necessary illustrations, on the first appearance of a Sūtra, from the Kasikū or from the tıkā of Durgadása even if he should be so ignorant as to be unable to give them from his unaided memory. When for example, the Sūtra 'irtugat 247' is studied, he may consult the Käsikā and cull out from it the three pairs which the Siddhanta-käumudi has omitted. This supplementing of the text would not be possible unless the students were already familiar to some extent with the formations in question. With a little knowledge of Sanskrit, the student will easily be able to understand all the illustrative examples, forinstance, of the Sūtra ofa yerga at itfragt when this aphorism makes its first appearance. Grammar should be studied along with language. For this purpose, I would venture to suggest the introduction of Vālmiki's Rimayana as a companion to Grammar ; let it be compulsory for all students. Let Bhatti be set apart for those who would like to go deeper into the subtleties of Sanskrit Grammar. Need I remind my reader that I would have our boys go through the Vyåkarana-kaumudi and the Rijupåthas before entering upon the study of a standard Sanskrit Grammar (such as the Kätäntra, the Mugdhabodha or the Siddhantakaumudi &c.) along with the Rāmāyana ? The method of combining Grammar teaching with the teaching of language is not entirely new to the country. All good teachers have all along followed it to some extent. Besides, fifty years ago, there was so much of Sanskrit recitation ( of the Puranas and prayers ) in ·( 23 ) every Brahmanic village, that even laymens' ears grew familiar with Sanskrit sounds to some extent. The Brahmavaivarta Purana, the Adhyātma Rimiyana and such other books as enjoyed the popular favour, were written in extremely simple language. Students could follow the main thread of the story in Sanskrit before they had finishad their inflexions. Declaimers of the Purānas often explained Sanskrit verses just as we do in a class, only their explanation was more poetical and less grammatical than that of the vast majority of us. Under such favourable circumstances, the defects of the indigenous method could not work out all the evils that they would have otherwise produced. The circumstances have undergone a complete change for the worse, and now the only rational course seems to be to adopt the Vidyāsågarian method. It may be news to many that there are places in India where Sanskrit has all along been taught to a certain class of students without the help of any gramınar. The students of this method learn speak in Sanskrit and to read easy books such as the kaghuvamsa. I once actually met such a student in Benares, whither he had come from Madras to study the Vedanta. He talked fluently in Sanskrit, but committed frequent mistakes. On being pointed out these mistakes, he said that he had never studied grammar. Would not this fact convince my readers, that though we should not follow this extreme method of abolishing grammar altogether, we may at least adopt the moderate plan of combining easy literature with grammar at all stages ? to ·( 24 ) Poetry and Poetics The study of Kāvya (Poetry, Literature) has become rather fashionable of late, on account of the patronage which school authorities have bestowed upon the Kavyatirthas. Such patronage was quite natural when Tirthas or titled pandits of the other subjects were not easily available. The times have changed now. The school authorities will do well, under the changed circumstances, to recognize the fact that it is comparatively an easy affair to pass in Kivya, and that a mere Kavyatirtha scarcely possesses the minimum culture that can be permitted in a teacher of youth. All pandits must possess a working knowledge at least of the Råmäyana, the Mahābhārata, the Purānas and the Smritis, and unfortunately this can scarcely be said of the present Kavyatirtha pandits. It is true that the study of Kävya has received a great impetus in late years, but it cannot at the same time be denied that it is not studied in the Tols in the right spirit. Literary criticism, such as seeks to interpret Poetry, is almost wholly unknown. No body cares for the Mind and Art of the Poet. Discussions of his life and times are supposed to be quite irrelevant, if not positively mischievous. The ordinary pandit hates and avoids all such discussions, Great writers like Bankimchandra Chatterji, Kaliprasanna Ghosh, Bhudev Mukerji, Chandranath Basu, Haraprasad Sastri and Ravindranath Thakur have from time to time written essays in criticism on the masterpieces of Sanskrit Literature in Bengali. But these ·( 25 ) writings are not within easy reach of the avarage Tol pandit. Moreover, he has a veritable contempt for the vernacular Literature. So he never reads these essays. During the last four or five years, thanks to the efforts of Mahamahopadhyaya Haraprasada Sastri, a wholesome change in this direction has been inaugurated by the introduction, in the Sanskrit examinations, of what are called "critical and historical questions.” If critical questions are asked one year, it is sure that students would "get up” some of those questions for the next year's examination. Thus an impetus is given to the study of Literature critically. But here arises an important qustion. How are the students to master the art of literary criticism, considering the fact that there are absolutely no books on the "History of Sanskrit Literature” either in Bengali or in Sanskrit ? In the absence of an authoritative book on Sanskrita Bhāshū o Sāhitya, the hapless students naturally fall the mercy of the key-maker, and the imagination of his untrained tutors. Thus more mischief than good results from these "critical and historical" questions. We must begin at the right end. Some books must be prepared first. Some one must do for Sanskrit what Dineschandra Sen has done for Bengali. What are the distinguished M. A.'s in Sanskrit doing ? The work is far easier in the case of Sanskrit than it was in the case of Bengali. There are already some excellent books on the subject in English by Max Müller, Weber and Macdonell. These will materially help the intending author. This is a work of National back upon ·( 26 ) Importance, and it does not speak well of patriotic Sanskrit Scholarship in Bengal, that this work yet remains to be done. What is Mahamahopadhyaya Haraprasad Sastri doing with his master's mind and unsurpassed collection of facts ? A “Samskrita Bhasha o Sāhitya” from his able and experienced pen would finally remove a long-felt want. He is no longer the Registrar of the Sanskrit Examinations. Now at any rate there is no likelihood of an unenlightened Press misunderstanding his motive in writing such a book, as they did in the case of the late lamented Mahamaho. padhyaya Nilmani Mukhopadhayaya Nyayalankara, and more recently in his own case. Until a critical history of the Sanskrit language and literature be compiled either in Bengali or in Sanskrit, and until provision be made for its effective teaching in the Tols, there could be no real teaching of Sanskrit Poetry to our boys. Poetry is criticism of life. It should be appreciated and felt by the reader. Mere grammar and lexicon, supplimented by a little of Poetics, must not exhaust the meaning of Poetry. And as regards the Study of Poetics (alankara or rhetoric', it must be acknowledged that here too certain reforms are badly needed. It is notorious that even the comparatively easy Sahitya darpana is not properly taught in the majority of the Tols. Books like the Kādya-prakása, the Sahitya-darpana, and the Rasasangadhara cannot be really understood, without a certain amount of familiarity with the philosophies of India, and with the more ancient treatises on Poetics.

·( 27 ) A familiarity with navya Nyāya terminology should be also insisted upon in the teacher. But how many teachers in the Tols possess these necessary qualifications ? The older and better people among these pandits have generally some philosophical training but they are not familiar with the more ancient literature upon the subject, e.g, the books of Bharata, Vimana, Dandi, Bhojadeva, Rudrata &c. Without a knowledge of these, the Sāhitya-darpana can never be tauglit. It is one of the duties of the Board of Sanskrit Examinations to see that the books they prescribe are well taught. I would suggest in this connection the institution of a special examination in Poetics. Only those who pass this examintion should be allowed to teach Poetics in future. I would also advise the Board to introduce an older and more scientific book along with the Sahitya-darpana in the Kävyatirtha examination. In the life of a declining nation, the further one goes back, the better the authors one meets with. Thus broadly speaking, Indian authors of the thirteenth century are better and more scientific than those of the sixteenth century. It is only in this connection that the well-known verse of Udayana नम्म संस्कारविदगर्दः शक्तः स्वाधायकर्मणोः । हासदर्शनती हासः सम्प्रदायस्य मीयताम् ।। is literally true. The Hindu Society was declining steadily and in the tenth century of the Christian era, it had already become an article of faith with the learned that learning (FFENT) and power ( *f*!, besides other things, were on the decline. Actual decadence of the ·( 28 ) national life. had produced this belief. The circumstances of the country everyday justified this hypothesis of continual decline. Thus the theory of decline appears as a premise in Udayana. He thought it superfluous to attempt to prove it. The philosophers of India, embued with this pessimistic doctrine, began soon to act up to it and to preach it. In Europe, there are pessimists, but fortunately the Europeans are not as consistent as the Hindus, in these matters. They philosophise one way and act in another. They do not take their philosophly to heart. It only touches the fringe of their lives. The lofty teachings of an Asiatic Rishi, embodied in the immortal Sermon on the Mount, were never taken to heart by militant modern Europe. Solitary Tolstois here and there are crying in the wilderness for taking that Sermon literally. But the inconsistent European will not accept this philosophy, so unsuitable to the present condition of the world. And in this inconsistency lies the salvation of Europe. Would that India were less philosophical, less consistent ! As it is, the mass soon learned from their masters, that the world's evolution in this age means only retrogression. Once universal, the effects of this belief became simply disastrous. It created circumstances which justified it more and more every day. Such a philosophy entertained with the peculiar earnestness of the Indian mind did really produce its effects in every direction. When the Indians had once learned to believe that it was the will of God that the world should decline in this age, they never could be so inconsistent ·( 29 ) as to raise their little fingers against this inevitable decline. They became other worldly. The department of letters did not escape the influence of this debasing doctrine. The learned thought that they could never excel, nay equal, the great masters of bygone days. Their highest ambition was to write commentaries upon a sacred or philosophical Text. The period of original thinking was over. The period of commentaries and compendiums, the period of intellectual vassalage, had come. All works produced in these centuries must be thrice scrutinized before they are introdueced as Text-books. Almost all the great books in Sanskrit were written either before the Mahomedan conquest or in Sindu States that, at the time of the writing of these books, acknowledged no non-Hindu suzerain. This is a fact which must not be lost sight of, I am glad that most of the Sanskit books prescribed by the authorities of the Calcutta University are unexceptionable from this point of view. The later books may be more showy, more wordy, but as regards substance and style, the earlier are always to be preferred. For this reason I prefer Våmana and Rudrata to Visvanātha and Panditaräja. One of the defects in the works of the old Rhetori. cians which requires to be pointed out in this connection, is this, that they never criticise a book or a chapter as a whole. They seem to think that a critic has done his duty when he has critised individual passages and slokas. They take things piecemeal. But real criticisin should deal with entire books, nay should compare books ·( 30 ) to and authors with one another. It should be a comparative study. In this connection, I welcome with pleasure “Kalidasa o Bhavabhūti,” especially because it has been written by a bona fide Tol pandit, and suggest the Board of Sanskrit Examinations that the authors of such books may be liberally encouraged.* There is yet another point in which it will be well to introduce a change in the curriculum of text-books of the Kävyatirtha examination. The students preparing for this examination at present read only (what has been happily termned) Artificial Poetry. The period of artificial poetry in Sanskrit Literature is a rather long period, but it in no way exhausts the whole of Sanskrit Literature. I would have the Kavyatirthas familiar with every period of Sanskrit Literature from the Vedas down to the Bhåminivilāsa. It is a shame that the ordinary titled pandits of Bengal are not able to construe even the simpler passages of the Vedas and the Upani. shads. This defect should be remedied as early as possible. For this purpose a stout volume of “Typical Selections" may be compiled, containing specimens of Vedic, Brühmanic, and Sūtraic Literatures, of the metrical Smritis, of the Rimāyana, and the Mahabhirata, and of the Purinas. Such a book may be easily compiled, under the patronage of the Board I have the authority of my friend Pandit Rajendranath Vidyabhusana to state that his larger work on Kalidasa (pp. 650) is ready for publication. From what know of the author, I can fairly hope that this book will materially help to bring about a reform in the study of Kadya in the Tols.

·( 31 ) of Sanskrit Examinations. If some really competent scholars were to undertake this work, they will surely be able to finish it within a reasonable period, and when once finished it will undoubtedly be worth the cost. This Selection may then form a sort of permanent subject for the Kavyatirtha examination. can Hindu Ritualism and Law Smțiti ( Hindu Ritualism and Law ) was formerly one of the strong points of the Pandits of Bengal. The principal Tattvas of Raghunandana, the Srāddhaviveka, the Prayaschitta-viveka of Sūlapūni, and the Dāya-bhāga of Jimita-vāhana were studied with a thoroughness, which hardly be realised by the educated community of the present day. Many people brought up in the schools and colleges wonder as to what might be worth serious study in the smritis. When shall a child be invested with the sacred thread, what is the modus operandi to be followed in shuch a ceremony, how many days must de observed as days of mourning ( quita ) when a particular relative dies, how is the sråddha to be performed, what expiatory rite must be gone through, if one have been the cause of the death of an animal, thousands of questions like these are answered in th Smſitis. Thus to an ordinary man, the Smțitis seem to be a sort of a descriptive catalogue of the rites and ceremonies of the Hindu Religion. It is felt that such a catalogue need ·( 32 ) not be raised to the dignity of a separate study. When a Smirta pandit asserts that he has studied his subject for ten years, the ordinary graduate listens to him half in incredulity, half in pity. He can scarcely believe that the Smſitis can require such a prolonged study, and when he actually believes, he feels pity for the pandit, for having thus uselessly thrown his life away. It does not require much ingenuity to prove that the Smțiti is a difficult study. The case of the practising lawyer ( not of the law-maker ) is perfectly parallel. The laws are there. They are expressed in perfectly unambiguous and guarded language. Yet Law is & difficult study. The legal practitioner has got to acquire the habit of interpretting the laws. Learned barristers, vakils and judges are continually engaged in finding out the meaning of the text of the Penal Code or the Evidence Act. Similarly, the Similarly, the Smärta has got to acquire the faculty of rightly interpretting the Smsitis. The Smsitis would thus seem to be at least as difficult as law. But actually the difficulty in the case of the Smriti has been very much enhanced by the unscientific, though by no means unnecessary, hypothesis of the neo-ritualists ( masters of navya-Smsiti) like Raghunandana that all the Smsitis are equally binding upon all persons, in all ages, and in all localities. The neo-ritualists had no historical sense. They did not recognise the perfectly simple truth that every code ( say of Manu or Yajnavalkya or Faräsara ) was meant for a particular epoch and a particular locality. Their divergences are real and not merely apparent ;

·( 33 ) they are not to be explained away. They form very valuable material on which a History of the Hindu Society may yet be attempted. Unfortunately a good deal of the energy of the neo-ritualists is spent in reconciling the texts in which these irreconcilable divergences are set forth. The Indian lawyer's task would have been equally difficult, if India were under the Indian Penal Code, the Code Napoleon, and the Penal laws of Japan and of ancient Roine, and if in every single case the lawyer had to reconcile these. One country has abolished the capital punishment, another has not, yet the lawyer would have to reconcile this! Such reconciliations are attempted by every neo-ritualist. Take a concrete example. Sons of Brihmanas born of their Kshatriya wives are regarded as Brihmanas in the treatises of Manu ( X. 6. ), and Vaudh iyana (1. VIII. 6.). In Yojnavalkya (1. 91. ) they are called a separate caste (ariafaa ). You cannot reconcile this ; yet the neo-ritualists would attempt this impossible task ( Vide Kalluka on Manu X. 6.). The authors of the original Samhit is were more enlightened. They recognised that there could be a real conflict between the different Smritis. Even the comparatively modern Vijninesvara has, in the introduction to the Mitakshari, expressly intimated that such conflicts do actually exist. If the neo- Smirta could have recognised this, his task would have been far simpler. Unable to realise these many difficulties of the Smarta, the layman of light and leading has naturally become unsympathetic towards him and this 3 ·( 34 ) attitude is partly responsible for the pitiable plight to which the study of the Smsitis has been reduced. Add to this the growing materialism of the age and the clash of conflicting religious ideals in the society, and you bave in your grasp the whole cause which brought about the ruin of this important study. People no longer want the information which the Smsitis were meant to supply ; e.g. they do not care any longer to know what meat and what vegetables are forbidden, when and how to perform the vratas, what mantras should be used in the marriage and other ceremonies. The raison de être of the ritualistic part of the Smsitis is partly gone. There is another part of the Smsitis, which deals with the Hindu Law, with the law of inheritence, Stridhana and adoption. This part of the subject would undoubtedly appeal more ſorcibly to the layman. But here also the Pandit has been rendered quite useless. Questions of the Hindu Law are no longer referred to him. Lawyers have very properly taken his place. English Privy-Councillors and Justices of the various High Courts have necessarily become the final authorities in these matters. Thus the poor Smdrta has no place to stand upon, and as supply tends to vary directly in proportion to the demand, the Smriti scholarship in the country is sensibly diminishing. Nevertheless the Hindu society can ill afford to lose the erudite Smärta. To him all questions of religion are referred, and his decisions are binding upon all Bengali Hindus. He must play an important part ·( 35 ) in the regeneration of the Hindu society and religion. The Hindu society will itself be extinct with the extinction of its Smārtas. The Hindu community ought to find out some substantial means of helping this useful class of pandits. For this purpose, nothing could be more effective than a revision of the differential treatment which is meted out to the Naiyāyikas and Smir. tas in making religious gifts. The Pandits of Bengal may be divided into four classes ; (1) the great masters, hardly more than dozen, such as Mahāmahopādhyāya as Mahāmahopādhyāya Chandrakānta Tarkālankāra, Mahāmahopādhyāya Krishnanātha Nyāyapanchānana, Mahāmahopādhyāya Kāmākhyānātha Tarkavāgîsa, Pandit Jayanārāyana Tarkaratna, Pandit Pramathanātha Tarkabhusana. Some of these аге Naiyāyikas and some Smärtas. But no distinction is generally made between them, except the inevitable one of seniority. This is as it should be. The next three classes contain (2) the good (3) the tolerable and (4) the indifferent Pandits. The second class contains about two scores individuals, the third class about 50 p. c. of the total number, and the fourth class contains the rest. The good Smärta should be treated as slightly inferior to the good Naiyāyika, the tolerable Smärta as superior to the tolerable Naiyi yika. The indifferent Smarta should be suffered to exist on probation, and unless he mend within a definite time, he must be driven out of the fold altogether ; but no quarter should be given to the indifferent Naiyayika. He should be at once driven away. No community ·( 36 ) derives any benefit from its indifferent dialecticians and philosophers. They tend only to make confusion worse confounded in all departments of thought. The indifferent Smirtas on the contrary never do any positive mischief. Moreover, from the very nature of the subject, it is well-nigh impossible for the indifferent Naiy iyika to mend; on the contrary, a Smärta can mend whenever he likes. Thus by suffering the indifferent Naiy yika to exist, no gain accrues to the society. It only encourages idleness and pride. I shall now point out the lines on which the curri. culum of the Smriti studies may be advantageously modified. The Smirta of the present day is a scholar of compilations. In future, let no one pass for a Smirta who has not read the original Manu, Yajnavalkya and Parásara. This is the minimum demand which is to be satished even by those who have been characterized as indifferent. Let the better Smirta read as a part of his compulsory course, the Sintiparva, the Vishnu Purina, and the Mahinirvina.tantra. Let him read the first Astaka of the Rigveda, a portion of the Brihmanas and the Mim ims i pbilosophy if he aspire to become a real master ; above all let him read the immortal Sloka-Vartika. The Hindu Sastras contain many noble truths about society and religion. This kernal of nobility has to be separated from the husk of legend and poetry in which it is generally encased. For this the reformed Smirta of the future should be eminently fitted. He should be able to point out to his unbelieving co-religionists that the dazzling truths of task, ·( 37 ) other religions are to be found in the San.itana Dharma as well. Let him be induced to master the revivalistic literature of the present day-writings, for example, of Pandit Sasadhara Tarkachûdāmani, Bhûdeva Mukhopādhyāya, Bankimachandra Chattopādhyāya, Chandranātha Basu and Nilakantha Mazumdır. The Smirta should be encouraged to carry on research in the Smritis. He should be required to verify all quotations in the Tattvas of Raghunandana, and such other compilations. He should be encouraged to find out the difference between the different schools. He should study the Chaturvarga-Chint mani, Madana- Pārijāta and such other old compilations as are still easily available. This would open his mind to new possibilities. He should be taught the dates of the different compilations as far as can be ascertained at present. Gradually he should be led to see that the Hindu society has a history and that he and his co-workers may perchance change it for the better, however little. This grand consummation is what the Board of Sankrit Examinations should aim at. With a set of Smàrtas educated on the lines indicated above, it would be quite possible to compile a new code of the Hindu religion, which would unify all the divergent sects of the great Hindu community. The age of Raghunandana is gone. Let the Smärtas try to produce a new code, a code that would be in keeping with the liberal spirit of the ancient scriptures, a code that would effectively enlarge the roomy fold of Hinduism and include in it such sects as the Brahmas and the Arya.sa- ·( 38 ) majists. Hinduism has survived many rude shocks, because it has always known how to adapt itself to its changed environment. Is it too much to expect that the future Sm irtas would be able to compile a code that would effectively contain all that is good in the new religions ? Philosophy. The Bengali pandits have all along excelled in Navya-nyaya (Neo-logic). Ever since the days of Haridasa, Visudeva, and Raghunatha, Nadia has been the chief centre of naiyāyika culture in India. Hither the students have flocked from all parts of the country to master the intricacies of this difficult subject. For centuries, the tols of Nadia have resounded with discussions of these students. Even now a Bengali traveller would often be agreeably surprised to find his mother tongue understood in distant Madras, Mysore or Bombay by Sastris, who picked up the elements of the language, while studying navya-nyaya with the pandits of Nadia. Navya-nyaya has become a peculiarly Bengali study. It is unfortunate that it should be daily losing ground even in Bengal. All the eftorts of a benevolent Government have hitherto proved of little avail in averting the impending extinction of this, the national study of Bengal. The usefulness of this study as a mental discipline has partly been indicated in a previous part of this pamphlet (pp. 8-9). It will suffice here observe that a general acquaintance with navya-nydya ·(39) for terminology and method is absolutely necessary understanding the newer literature on every subject. The influence of navya-nyāya has indeed been so great that most of the works on Grammar, Poetics, Vedanta, Smriti and even Medicine, written during the last four hundred years cannot be understood without a tolerable acquaintance with the navya nyāya terminology. It is the master key that unlocks every science. Thus it is very important that this study should not be altogether neglected. The decay of Navya-nyāya is especially due to the defects in its teaching. Students take up certain sections of the Tattva-chint imani, such as Vy ipti-panchaka, Simha-Vyāghra, Vyādhikarana-Dharm i-vacchinnä bhiva &c. and study them with its commentary the Didhiti (or Mathurānātha), as also Jagadisa's and Gadadhara's gloss on the Didhiti. Some go farther and read Kaltsankara's dissertations on these glosses. In this fashion the student goes on, and with some six or seven years' hard labour, finishes a few pages of the Chintamani. Most of the pandits, brought up in this wise, have no idea of the range of subjects dealt with in the Chintamani nor even of its bulk. To take a typical case, a rather old pandit of this stamp who has passed the Tirtha examination in Navya-nyaya, and is justly believed to be erudite and intelligent in his own way, did not so much as know the name of the Chintamani. He had read a few pages of this book and had apparently taken each of its sections to be an independent treatise. Pandits of this type, with their ·( 40 ) marvellous grasp of the wealth of commentaries and commentaries upon commentaries are generally very deficient in their knowledge of the subject-matter treated in the original. They busy themselves with words; for the spirit they care little or nothing. It is not an unmixed evil that pandits of this type are fast disappearing Though the majority of the existing professors of navya-nyāya are thus possessed of no useful knowledge, it cannot, at the same time, be said that navya-nyaya itself is useless. Its use as a mental discipline, and as a guide to the language of the more recent literature in almost all departments of study, its especial importance to the Bengalis as being peculiarly their own Science, have already been indicated. These are, so to say, the external uses of navya nyaya. For these reasons alone, the navya-nyiya would amply repay perusal, even if its subject-matter were worthless. But the subjects dealt vith in the older books on navya-nyaya, such as the Kusumanjali, the Bauddhadhikara and the Tattvachintamani are of considerable philosophical significance. These books have long ceased to be systematically studied. The most effective and withal the most useful way of reviving naiyāyika scholarship in the country would be to make the pandits turn the greater part of their attention to these masterly originals. Let all aspiring naiyāyikas read these works through. Let the greater part of Jagadtsa and Gadadhara be consigned to the oblivion it deserves. Of the commentators, keep only the astute Siromani. Let the ·( 41 ) to pandit realize that like the boy in the fable, he would lose all, by grasping at all. Let what is important and essential be preserved, -but let all mere verbal ingenuity, mere wordy disputation, cease. It is thus and thus only, that the naiyāyika studies may yet be preserved from oblivion. The Title Examination has done much po: pularize the Sanskrit studies; yet it seems to be partly responsible for the decline of the higher studies in every subject. A Pandit who has obtained the coveted title of Tarka-tirtha or Smriti-tirtha, by passing the highest examination under Government, naturally fancies that he has really mastered his subject. He usually gives up his studies after acquiring the title. This should not be so. The tirtha course in every subject is necessarily of an elementary character. It might be taken to correspond to the B.A. courses of the Cal. cutta University. Just as there is a Master's degree and a Doctor's degree to act as an incentive to the graduate to continue his studies farther, similarly there ought to be some post-tirtha titles to act as allurements to the Tirtha. This is especially needed in Nyāya and Smriti, where the Bengalis are losing their former superiority every day. In other subjects, especially in Vedanta, Sānkhya and Mimāmsă, where the Bengalis are just beginning to take their place beside the brilliant Pandits of the other parts of India, the standard of examination has hitherto been, if possible, of even a more elementary character. The ordinary Sankhya-tirtha or Vedanta-tirtha knows less of his ·( 42 ) subject than the ordinary Intermediate-passed student knows of his Physics or Logic. And yet he gives up his studies as soon as he obtains the title. The standard of these examinations must be considerably raised. Besides, there should be two post-tirtha courses and titles for each branch of Sanskrit study, not excepting even Grammar and Literature. Let a tirtha, after two years' study, appear in a higher examination in the same subject, and if he pass, let him get a new title, say Achirya (Sankhyachārya, Nyayách irya, Kavydcharya &c). Let there be Let there be a post-Achārya course too, to be gone through in two through in two years more. Let research and independent thinking be mainly encouraged in this course. In this way, that muchtalked-of evil of these examinations, that they encourage superficiality, will be effectively removed. A very important question, however, presents itself at this point. The students of the tol are proverbially poor. Most of them find it difficult to prosecute their studies even up to the tirtha course. Under these circumstances, will not a post-tirtha course bo merely an ornament to the regulations ? Will any body study it ? For encouraging post-tirtha studies, I would advise the founding of some liberal scholarships to be given to poor students of real promise under paid teachers of recognised eminence. In Nyaya, for example, Mahamahopidhyaya Kam ikhyanatha Tar. kavägisa, after his retirement from Government service, may be given a stipend of Rs. 150 a month, besides his usual pension, and he may be required to teach ·( 43 ) post-tirtha courses to about half a dozen navya:nyaya students. Most of these students should receive a monthly stipend of from Rs. 30 to Rs. 50, according to their real needs. The poorer students may get the larger stipends. These stipends should be regard. ed in the spirit of salaries and students should be allowed to spend them in supporting their parents, wife and other dependents. The very best students must be brought together from all parts of Bengal. Thus may be solved the most difficult problem connected with higher Sanskrit studies in Bengal. The courses in the Tirtha examination in Sankhya and Vendānta are very short. In the case of Sankhya, this is partly due to the paucity of recognised textbooks. To make the Sänkhya course more comprehensive, I would advise the inclusion, in the curriculum, of certain Sankhya texts from the Mahabharata and from some of the Puranas. These philosophical texts are generally of a very ancient date and their perusal is essential for understanding the development of Indian thought. In Vedānta there is no want of text-books, and it is a shame that a man may pass the highest examination in Vedanta without ever reading such authoritative treatises as the Vakya-Vritti, the Upadesa-Sahasrt, the Kärikäs of Gaudapäda on the Mandūkya Upanishad, the Yoga-visista, the Naishharma-siddhi, the Mānasollāsa, the Vrihadāranyaka- Vårtika. And yet who could deny that without a knowledge of these books, no one can hope to understand, far less to teach, the Vedānta ? Some provision must ·( 44 ) be made for these and such other works, either in the Tirtha or in the post-tirtha post-tirtha courses. Then again, there ought to be pandits who know something of all the different schools of the Vedinta, of Sankara and Rāminuja, of Madhva and Vijnana-Bhikshu. Let the post-Acharya students of Vedanta take up the task of reading the Upanishads and settling for themselves by their independent thinking, as to which is the best interpretation of the Upanishads. In Sünkhya the course is so short that a Kavyatirtha generally spends a year or two in mastering its language and then appears in the Sankhya-tirtha examination. He seems to think that Sinkhya, and partly Vedänta too, are the easiest branches of study. This misunderstanding owes its origin to the fact that the ordinary tol pandit cares only for words; he does not think it needful to penetrate to the thought behind. If he understand the grammatical construction and know the dictionary meanings of words, he is quite satisfied. Nothing could be more mischievous than this tendency. As philosophy, the Sānkhya is immensely more difficult than the Nyāya, and a lifelong study may be required to really understand it, but its language is much simpler. Again, the Vedānta is more abstruse than the Sünkhya. The Sankhya cannot be understood without a previous knowledge of the Nyaya-Vaisesika, and the Vedanta cannot be grasped without a previous knowledge of the Sankhya (and the Vaibhdsika). The Sankhya presupposes and transcends the Nyaya, the Vedanta presupposes and transcends the Sankhya. In ·( 45 ) this sense, we may speak of three stages in the develop ment of Philosophic Thought, the earliest stage being the Nyāya-stage, the second being represented by the Sankhya and the third and final stage taking the form of the munistic Vedanta (the Nyrīya-bhūmiki, the Sankhya bhūmiki and the Vedānta bhumiki in the expressive language of Vijnina-bhikshu). The Nyäya-Vaisesika philosophy roughly corresponds to the Common Sense philosophy of the Scotch School. It is very easy to understand, not being far removed from the ordinary man's view of the world. The Sinkhya and the Vedinta theories of the Universe, on the other hand, are so abstruse that some people can never understand them. The whole world seems to be turned upside down. A Pandit may glibly talk about prakriti, purusha, buddhi, ahank ira, the five tanmītras, and may give you from memory all the catalogues with which the Sankhya is replete, but in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, these words call up no ideas in his mind. He studies the language of philosophy, not the thoughts it contains. In order to teach the tol student to philosophiseto think for himself in matters philosophical—I would suggest the following remedies. (1) The first books that he reads in any philosophical subject should be easy books dealing with doctrines and not merely with words and definitions. The Bhåshäpariccheda would admirably serve this purpose, if the method of its teaching could be improved. The whole of this book should be taught to every student of Indian Philosophy.

·( 46 It may well form a text-book in the first examination in all philosophical subjects. The method of its teaching should be entirely changed. The things—the thoughts-that are contained in it should be taught to the wholesale exclusion of any discussion about its words. In the first verse, for example, the teacher should content himself with giving the ordinary meaning of the verse. He must not explain Jant (new) by qayfanın vuraraq qay (newness is the quality of taking birth conditioned by the moment immediately preceding). This may be a good analysis of what is meant by “newness" here, but such analyses, taught so early, tend only to dull the intellect of the learner and to make him think more of words and definitions than of things. Every body knows what a new cloud is; that is sufficient. Similarly when the cause in defined in verse 16, let the boy understand the original, let him grasp the idea. Pray, do not inflict on him a definition of gåafia (antecedence) containing full twenty-five words joined in a Samdsa (compound-word). Let it suffice that the boy knows what antecedent ( gåafer) means in ordinary parlance. I do not know whether it would not be a blessing to substitute the Tarka-mrita or the Tarka-sangraha in the place of the Bhasha.pariccheda ; for, being rather new books to the ordinary teacher, the temptation to give to his pupils learned explanations of his boyhood, would be partly absent. (a) A second remedy would be to frame the examination questions with a view mainly to test the boy's knowledge of the subject-matter and ·( 47 ) not of the expressions of his text-book. At present in all the Sanskrit examinations in philosophy the student is required to explain the text. He is seldom required to state, explain and criticise a theory. As a As a consequence, he at best learns by rote the opinions of this or that philosopher. He never thinks. A radical reform is urgently called for in framing the questions in the Sankhya and the Vedanta in particular. The student's power of thinking and of intelligently understanding the philosophical opinion of the great masters, should be the thing primarily tested. Of course, his power of construing difficult sentences should not go un tested ; only it ought to be given a relatively subordinate position in the question-paper. (3) A third remedy would be to make every student of philosophy (whether studying Nyaya, Sankhya, Vedānta or Mimāmsi) master the doctrines of the other schools from recognised textbooks of those schools. Thus before a student begins reading the Vedāntic refutation of Vaiseshika philosophy he ought to read the Vaiseshika Bhishya for a statement of the doctrines to be refuted. Even in the comparatively easy Ny iya philosophy the ordinary pandit never cares to penetrate behind the veil of words. He is told that there are seven catagories, such as Substance, Quality, Action &c. He is satisfied. He takes it on authority. He never questions. The Ny@ja-Voiseshika philosophy or theory of the Universe is easy to comprehend. The dialectics of navya-Nyaya, or its method of argument and language are very difficult to master. But even this difficulty is not half as great as the difficulty in really understanding the Sankhya or the Vedānta theory of the Universe.

·( 48 ) His highest ambition is to master the philosophical vocabulary, to learn this or that opinion. He never cares to learn to see for himself. He regards it a sacrilege to question the truth of the teachings of the infallible rishis. That indispensable condition of all philosophical training-Doubt - never is allowed to enter into the tol pandit's consciousness. Philosophy is a thinking consideration of things. The tol student crams into his memory the thoughts of others, and seldom attempts to organize them into a system. Thus the land of philosophers is now absolutely devoid of all philosophy. Mere wordy disputations and verbal learning have usurped its name and place! The philosophy-student of the tol must be free: from this tyranny of words. He must again be taken to the perennial fountain of nature, and made to drink direct from it. Let books help him by all means, but let him not rate human books above the book of the Universe, which is God's own handiwork. There are good professors of Navya-nylya [I could name some ] who have never heard of such things as ärambha-vida, parināma-vida and vivarta-udda, anyatha-khyāti, asat-khyati and dtma khya ti. These pandits are really great masters in their own way and their intellectual powers are undoubtedly of a superior order. But they have suffered from the spirit of their times. They were born in degenerate days, when people cared only for accuracy in definition, and hair-splitting subtleties about homely things, when the vivifying influence of English Education had not yet turned men's mind ·(49) to the realities of matter and mind. We respect these pandits, we wonder at their mastery of commentarylore, but we cannot subscribe to the opinion that they should be taken as the ideal of the future pandit. They have brought ruin into the philosophical culture of India. Those who care for real philosophy, i.e. real genuine thinking, must be prepared to deal with them rather mercilessly. The future tol philosopher must be a thinker above all. He should be taught to care more for truth than for opinion. He should be critical. It is only thus that India may again take her place as a worthy member of the commonwealth of thought and culture. In concluding this section, I would urge upon the authorities to introduce more ancient books into the curriculum. In Nyaya-vaiseshika, let every student read the Padārtha-dharma-Sangrana, the Tärkikarakshā and the Saptapad irthi. These three together with the Bhāsha-pariccheda may form the subject of the first examination in Nyiya. Anumiti, Vyipti.panchaka, Simhavyāghra, and Siddhanta-lakshana (with or with out the Vyadhikarana-Dharmă vacchina bhava) may be prescribed for the second Examination, It may be pointed out that a perusal of the publica. tions of the Psychical Research Society and of the Theosophical Society may help the serious students of Hindu Philosophy in understanding much that would seem to be otherwise quite inexplicable. The student of philo- 4 ·( 50 ) sophy should not be loath to learn from any available source. His aim should be the Truth, and his mind must be completely unbiassed. Astronomy and Medicine. These are the two properly scientific subjects, which the Hindus had cultivated with considerable success. In the teaching of both of them, a reform is most urgently called for. The student should be taught to make observations and experiments for himself. He must be made to understand that, in science at any rate, the authority of the writers of text-books must give place to the facts of nature as determined by his own observation and experiment. Let him study the old books and find out where they are insufficient, misleading or wrong. Let him supplement his knowledge by reading English or Bengali books. The East and the West must meet. Here lies work for the future Scholar. The vivifying influence of Western Culture must be brought home into the study of Indian Philosophy, Astronomy and Medicine. It is a sign of the times that there are already some scholars, who have successfully combined in them the best culture of the East and the West. Kavirå jas Gananath Sen, M.A., L.M.S., Vidyanidhi, Kavibhusana, and Jaminibhusan Ray, M.A., M.B. may be mentioned as the two most notable examples of the happy blending of Eastern and Western lore. The country naturally expects that they would do something to place the ·( 51 ) indigenous Medical studies on a scientific basis. I know that the gifted Dr. Gananath Sen has alredy undertaken to write a supplement to the Nidina and a book on Anatomy and Physiology in Sanskrit. It would be a shame if the genius of men like these be suffered to remain unproductive for want of funds. Cannot the enlightened rich men of the country open an Ayurvedic College, where the younger generation of Kavir ijas should get initiated into the mysteries of the medical science of the East and the West under the guidance of these able teachers? In Astronony, the Calcutta University has not yet produced its Gananath Sen. It seems that Sanskrit Astronomy is destined to die a natural death unless it be improved on the lines indicated by Mahā. mahopādhāya Chandrasekhara Samanta of of Orissa. Where is the observatory that would admit the Bengali pandit and teach him the elements of the science, such as was known to his forefathers ? Cannot the Calcutta Sanskrit College do something in this way? Geography, History and Mathematics in the Tol. Most students of the Tol do not read Geography, History and Mathematics. They have no idea of the shape of the earth, of its diurnal and annual motions, of the distribution of land and water upon the globe, and of the respective positions of the different countries. They do not even know the geographical position of England! They verily believe that Rakshasas ·( 52 ) (demons) cannot cross over to India from the island of Vibhishana (Lankā, ceylon) only because the fibres (äsha) of the water on the farther side of the ocean was destroyed by Rāma, on his way back from Lanka! They do not know the life and historical significance of Gautama the Buddha, of the emperors Asoka and Harshavardhana, of Mahammad the founder of Islam, of the Pathan and Mughal rulers of India, of Clive, Warren Hastings, Bentink and Dalhousie. They do not know the simple rule of three, the manipulation of vulgar and decimal fractions, the properties of triangles and circles. Yet they are regarded as learned! Yet they are the heriditary teachers of the people! And when every body praises the pandit, Who in his pate such erudition holds, Well might little Peterkin ask, But what good comes of it at last ? To which, of course, the authoritative reply would be Why, that I cannot, cannot tell, But pandits are wondrous learned, Ha! Let it be recognized by all persons, who have any authority in the matter of the Tol education that the minimum culture that can be safely permitted in an educated man, in a would-be teacher and spiritual guide, includes an elementary elementary knowledge of Geography, History and Mathematics. Moreover, these studies have a great rationalizing tendency, and if they are made compulsory in the Tol, the pandit would soon be on a fair way to the acquisition of the important art of independent thinking.

·(53) With this end in view, I would propose the immediate introduction, in the curriculum of the First Examination in all the subjects, of one optional paper on Arithmetic and Geometry, in the Second Examination one optional paper on Indian History and Geography, and in the case of the Title Examination, one pulsory paper on Arithmetic, Geometry, History and Geography, but this last to be introduced after the lapse of two years from the date when these will be introduced into the earlier examinations. The course must be very short in the beginning.. New text-books may be prepared in these subjects either in the Sanskrit or in the Vernaculars and be the property of the Board. The professors of the Tol must be won over to the cause of this innovation by persuasive arguments, by pointing out, for example, that these subjects are not altogether new in Sanskrit literature and that their illustrious ancestors knew a good deal about them. The Tol education is supposed to be unpaying. The avenues to employment under the Government, the merchants, and the Zemindars, as also to the bar are at present necessarily closed to the pandit. His education in no way fits him for these. I would propose the following as a remedial measure. There should be an optional paper on English in every Tol examination. Those who should pass in this optional paper should be given a separate certificate • Arithmetic and Geometry, Upper Primary standard ; History and Geography, Middle Vernacular standard.

·( 54 ) for it. In the title examination, easy books in modern English should be prescribed and the questions should be framed with a view to test the candidates' power of translating easy passages from and into English, and also his ability to write ordinary business letters. In short, English should be regarded as a second language. Those who should pass the title examination with this additional paper should be allowed some of the privi. leges of the matriculates of the Calcutta University; they should be permitted to qualify as Mukteers and they should be eligible as clerks in Government and other offices. With the introdution With the introdution of Mathematics, Geography, History and English, as advocated above, into the Tol, the Sanskrit education would again become remunerative and the hereditary teachers of the Hindu people be saved from their present state of utter ignorance. The Calcutta Sanskrit College, with its unlimited resources, may take the initiative by introducing Mathemnatics, Geography, History and English into its Oriental Department, even before the Sanskrit Board may find it expedient to adopt these humble suggestions. The comparative unprofitableness of the present Tol education is no where more patent than in the department of letters. All Bengali authors, almost without an exception, have either been educated on the Western lines or are well acquainted with the English language and literature. In this connection, it may be useful to remark that the leaders of new Bengal in thought and action are not the hereditary pandits.

·( 55 ) Let the pandit realize that erelong he would cease to exercise any influence upon the society, if he do not educate himself properly at this juncture. Now or never is the time to cast off all that is useless in the Tol education and to incorporate with it all that is of real value in the learning of the West. For this purpose, I advocate the introduction of Mathematics, Geography and History into the Tol. The position of the teacher of Sanskirt in a school or college is precisely emblematic of the Tol Pandit's position in general society. In a school, the good-natured pandit, recruited from the Tol, is regarded by his pupils more as an object of amusement than of reverence. It cannot be otherwise. The student generally possesses a much larger share of real knowledge than his pandit, and he is fully conscious of his superiority. Under these circumstances, how could he really venerate his teacher ? What is true in the School is also true in the Society. The Society cannot any longer follow his lead, knowing that there are lots of people educated under the University system, who are incomparably his superiors in knowledge. So the Bhattachārya Pandit is everywhere pitied, nay praised "in word” and “in tongue," but he is never followed. In short he has ceased to be the Brain of the Society. Knowledge gave the Brahman his former power, and want of knowledge makes the Tol Pandit powerless at present. It is a pity that the Bhattacharya Pandit does not realise this. It would be a greater pity, if the enlightend Board of the Sanskrit Examinations should prove to be similarly ·( 56 ) blind. They should aim at teaching the pandit some truths about the Universe, some things that are really worth learning and not merely words and definitions and a little of poetry and mythology. For this purpose, I advocate the introduction of Geography, History and Mathematics into the Tol, Morality of the Tol. The tol pandit is proverbially dishonest in certain matters. But it must not be imagined that in ordinary life, he is morally worse than the educated layman. He is generally a good-natured man, with a kind heart, believing firmly in his own religion. He is soft and mild. He is attached to his parents, wife, and children with a true devotion. He is perfectly harmless and inoffensive. He seidom goes to court and seldomer bears false witness against his neighbour. He has good wishes for every body, and is contented with his lot. His faults have their origion in his imperfect education. He has no idea of social well-being as an end of individual activity. The pandit cannot conceive that society has a life and a growth. He is not generally prepared to bestir himself for social and religious reform though he often believes that it would be good, if the reform could take place somehow. It is the philosophy of inaction that he cherishes in his heart of hearts. He has a very humble opinion of his own ability to change the society. He does not understand what harm he can do to the society, ·( 57 ) by giving biassed decisions in religious controversies. When such a man gives a biassed opinion, say on the question of sea-voyage or widow-remarriage, and the next day withdraws it for a consideration, he must not be judged too severely. He does not know what he does. His offence is far less heinous than that of, say, a careless University Examiner or an over-kind member of a Text-book Committee. The educated community seem to think that because a small consideration will induce some of these Pandits to give a biassed opinion, therefore they are altogether worthless. No. They are neither more nor less worthless than the majority of ourselves. They are our brothers, often actual brothers, and if they so much differ from us, the fault lies in their education. They must be given a better education. They have never studied history. Nay, most of them have not gone through even the (original ) Rāmāyanam and Mahābhāratam. Not to say any thing of the other classes of Pandits, even the best Smrtas do not generally care to go through the original Sanhitās and Sūtras ; they read compilations. So the pandit naturally thinks that the Hindu religion and society have never changed. To rightly educate the pandit, to teach him gradually to separate the essence of the sanatana dharma from its excrescence, to instil the historical sense into his uncritical mind,- this is one of the hardest and withal most beneficial tasks that the Board of Sanskrit Examinations can legitimately undertake. For this purpose, a compulsory course in Indian istory would be very useful. It need hardly be ·( 58 ) mentioned that the changes I have indicated above all tend in the same direction. SANSKRIT IN THE UNIVERSITY. Sanskrit is studied in the schools and colleges affiliated to the University of Calcutta. The method of teaching is not all that could be desired. In the lower classes, the simplified and rational method of Pandit Isvarchandra Vidyasagara is nominally followed, but it seems never to be realized that the time has arrived for carrying the Vidyāsāgarian method to its right conclusion. We must improve upon him. Dr. Bhandarkar's First Book of Sanskrit may form a model for compiling similar books in the Vernacular.* Grammar must be taught along with language, and translation and re-translation must be the main work of the beginner. Every student of Sanskrit in the schools, from the 4th class upwards, should be compelled to have a Sanskrit-Bengali dictionary, such as the Sabda-Sira. He must be asked to find out the meaning of every single word of the text-book from this dictionary, and to put them down in a substantial exercise-book. The euphonic combination of letters in a Sanskrit sentence renders this task well-nigh impossible to the beginner , for he does not know where one word ends and another begins. In order to meet this difficulty, it would be useful to * Vide "Sanskrit Made Easy" in Bengali by Vanamali Vedantatirtha, M.A.

·( 59 ) publish some elementary text-books, in which the first few lessons should be printed without the external Sandhis between word and word. Every student must also possess a complete grammar, preferably the Vy ikaranakaumudi, to which the pandit should refer him in every difficult point. The beginner must do his own work ; there is no royal road to the knowledge of a classical language ; the teacher should only guide him. The “key" should find no place in a school-boy's library. The University has partly awaked to the evil of the “key", and the Director of Public Instruction in Bengal has officially condemned it. But the majority of teachers seem to have taken this with a sort of tacit protest, for, on no other hypothesis, could one account for the unabated use of “keys” by our boys. Let the teachers realise that it is perfectly impossible to master a classical language in the easy-going way in which our boys seek to do it with the help of the key. Under these circumstances, it would not be unfair, if the legislature of the country should think of penalising the writing and using of keys. They mar the intellect of the boys and they are greatly responsible for the sorry fact that Oriental Studies are in such a backward state in Bengal. The Calcutta University now insists on thoroughness in the work of its students. The present system of Sanskrit teaching would be very inadequate for the new requirements of the University. The ordinary young Kivyatirtha would no longer be able to do justice to the duties of the Head Pandit in a High English School. Nor can the ordinary graduate, with Sanskrit as his optional sub- ·(60) ject, safely replace him, for the graduate's knowledge of Sanskrit grammar is notoriously shallow. So every good school must have at least two Sanskrit teachers in the future, (1) a tol Pandit, say (Smrititirtha, Purana-tirtha or Kivya-tirtha) with a good knowledge of Sanskrit Grammar and (2) a Sanskrit-knowing graduate, preferably an M. A. in Sanskrit. There is no reason why this Sanskrit M. A, should not be the Head Master in his time. The idea that Head Masters must teach English or Mathematics is too glaringly foolish to merit a formal refutation. It would not be altogether out of place to remark here, that authorities of schools often select Sanskrit text-books for their boys without proper care; and I have seen some of them repent afterwards their injudicious choice. Sanskrit is a dead language and if a soi-disant authority on Grammar or Literature should write a book which eventually would prove to contain blunders of grammar and idiom, I should not be at all surprised. Everybody knows how Benfey had occasion to criticise Monier Williams ard how Max Müller found fault even with the former. Bearing these facts in mind, the authorities of schools should not be imposed by mere names, they should make it a rule never to prescribe any Sanskrit book without previously subjecting it to a searching examination by an expert. If they cannot secure such are expert, there are Rijupatha, Vyakarana Kaumudi, Vyakarana Vyakarana Samgraha and Bhandarkar's First Book of Sanskrit for them ; let all new Sanskrit books be strictly proscribed by schools ·( 61 ) that have no expert in Sanskrit either as a teacher or as an adviser. The state of Sanskrit teaching in the colleges is equally unsatisfactory. This is partly due to the fact that the schools turn out very indifferent students in Sanskrit. The ordinary matriculate's knowledge of Sanskrit is much worse than his knowledge of any other subject. With such materials to work upon, the professor cannot be taken seriously to task, if he does not produce brilliant scholars. The professor contents himself with giving mere grammatical and lexicographical notes. Art criticism and discussions of the life and times of the poet are as unknown as in the Tol. The difficulties of efficient Sanskrit teaching have been ten times enhanced by the so-called annotated editions of text-books, with which reckless writers are flooding the market. The ordinary college student does not pay proper attention to the lectures of his Sanskrit professor, for he is rightly or wrongly convinced that the printed notes contain all possible information. Hence also the notorious want of discipline in the pandits class. It is much to be regretted that the efforts of the University and the Director of Public Instruction in Bengal proved insufficient to eradicate, nay to lessen, the evil of the mercenary key (i, e. the annotated college edition ). The student simply crams and passes. He is seldom known to read any books outside the course prescribed by the University. Even when he takes his Master's degree he never cares to carry on research in the fruitful field of Indian Antiquities, Philology, Law, Philosophy, ·( 62 ) Astronomy and Medicine. What a commentary this, on the Sanskrit teaching in the University ! The Calcutta University has produced only two Sanskrit scholars who have anything like a European reputation, Mahamahopadhyayas Haraprasada Sastri and Satischandra Vidyabhusana, M. A., Ph. D. • Does this speak highly of the condition of our Sanskrit studies ?" There is some thing rotten in the state of Denmark.” The Bombay University can boast of a Bhandarkar, a Tilak, a Telang, though there is no Sanskrit College in Bombay. In Calcutta there is a Government Sanskrit College of which the sole justifiable function, at present, is the creation of Sanskrit scholars, and yet Bengal is behind Bombay in the matter of Sanskrit Scholarship. Even Allahabad bids fair to leave us behind. Who, in Bengal, I ask, could have translated the Sloka-virtika and the Tantra-vārtika ? Bengalis must wake up to the gravity of the situation. They are slowly, but steadily, losing ground in the matter of Sanskrit scholarship. Mahamahopadhyaya Haraprasada Sastri had the laudable ambition of making the capital of British India “ the Capital of Sanskrit Scholarship in the world," and it cannot be denied that he succeeded partially, at any rate, in instilling the scholar's spirit into such earnest workers as the late Mr. Gangamohan Laskar, M. A., and Mr. Nilmani Chakravartti, M. A. *The wonderful linguist and scholar Mr. Harinath De is a Cantab, while the antiquarian Sj. Nagendranath Basu holds no University degrees.

·( 63 ) The good work of the Sastri is likely to continue, for it seems that the new spirit of research has come to stay with us. It would be well if this new spirit may be guided by some scholar who is really in sympathy with the movement, and who is himself a worker in the field of Sanskrit Research. The Government of India have sent some M.A.'s in Sanskrit to Europe for completing their education there and the University is to be congratulated upon having had arranged to bring the services of the late lamented Dr. Pischel at our very doors in Calcutta. These are movements in the right direction. The East and the West must meet. The vast erudition and deep subtlety of the Indian pandit, as well as the critical acumen and the historical spirit of the Western savant, must meet in the alumni of the Calcutta University. This ought to be the goal of Sanskrit Scholarship in the University. It is unfortunate that we are yet far away from this goal. For the encouragement of Sanskrit research, nothing would be more useful than the publication of an improved edition of the great Wörterbuch of Boehtlingk and Roth, in Bengali. The Governments of Bengal and Eastern Bengal and Assam, the University of Calcutta, and the monied aristrocracy of both the provinces may be expected liberally to finance such an undertaking. A Bengali translation of such a lexicon is sure to be useful not only to the ordinary professor of Sanskrit, ignorant of German, but also to the tol pandit. It would give him some idea of the nature of the work ·( 64 ) that the European savants are doing; and perchance, he might try to emulate them. Another unfortunate thing that is greatly responsible for the backward state of Sanskrit teaching in our colleges is the fact that good students generally shun Sanskrit. They know that an M. A. in Saskrit commands a much smaller salary than his equals in other subjects in our educational institutions. Hence the best students usually take up Mathematics, Philosophy, English or Science. It is this low salary given to the teacher of Sanskrit that is partly responsible for the fact that scholars of real eminence seldom become professors of Sanskrit. It is interesting to enquire how M. A.'s in Sanskrit have come to become so cheap. It was supposed that they were doing what the tol pandit might do for a much smaller sum. Thus M.A.'s in Sanskrit on Rs. 50 per month were considered dearer than the other M.A.'s on Rs. 150, for while the former replaced the pandit on Rs 30, the latter replaced the European on Rs 500. This, however, is a most inadequate view of the case; the tol pandit could never teach the college classes properly. He can never initiate his pupils into the Western method of research and criticism. The Government of Bengal seem to • It must be acknowledged that the M.A.'s in Sanskrit have not yet fully justified their existence in this sense. But this is solely due to their absurdly low salary. Most of them find it very hard to keep their bodies and souls together, and with their present prospects, they feel no incentive to further study and research. Besides, the best students of the University seldom qualify themselves for Sanskrit professorships by taking their M.A. degree in it. All these defects would pass away, on equitably raising the status of the teachers of Sanskrit, ·( 65 ) have realised this, and recently they appointed some lecturers on Sanskrit, on an increased scale of salary. The proprietors of private colleges should follow suit. There is no conceivable reason why the professor of Sanskrit should be the lowest paid man in the whole staff. If the emoluments of his office be made equal to those of the professors of the other subjects, really first class professors, and brilliant students in their classes, would not long continue to be a desideratum. It has been observed above (p.8 that in the matter of depth and subtlety, the best among the M.A.'s are incomparably inferior to the erudite pandits of the tol. The University should try to mend matters in this respect. Let brilliant students be induced to take up Sanskrit for their Master's degree, and let them after passing the M.A. examination study navya nyāya, navya sinriti, Veda, Vedānta, Purina or Tantra from two to four years. Let these scholars get liberal stipends, not less than Rs. 150/- per month. The future worldy prospects of these scholars must be made attractive in the educational line otherwise they would run away from their difficult work and embrace the earliest opportunity of becoming Deputy Magistrates or Vakeels. The University can well boast of its Haraprasad or Satischandra, as scholars on Western lines; but as far as scholarship on oriental lines is concerned the first half century of its existence seems to have been quite barren. It was only in the year of the Jubilee convocation (1908) that the young poet Srîmân Hemchandra Ray took the Sanskrit world by ar ·( 66 ) surprise by his promising epic Parasuram acaritam. Hemchandra took his M.A. degree in 1908. He has already published another epic Haihaya-vijaya and is at present elaborating a third on kukmint and Krishna. No other M.A. has hitherto proved that he can measure swords with the pandit on his own ground. Let us hope that the University will soon have M.A.'s who will be as proficient in Navya-nyaya, Vedanta, Smriti, Purana, and Tantra as Hemchandra is proficient in literature. Is it too much to hope that within ten years we shall have M.A.'s who will know as much of Navy a-nyāya as Kāmākhyā nāth Tarkavāgis himself, and be as much imbued with the spirit of research and criticism as Haraprasad Sastri ? At least this seems to have been the high ideal of the framers of the New Regulations, and I hope the authorities will take effective steps for attaining this ideal. It has been said above that there is a Sanskrit College in Calcutta. It would be quite unpardonable if I were to close this pamphlet without a word more about this important and popular institution. Its popularity may be judged by the fact that every now and then it attracts small donations from the people. It may fairly be hoped that enlightened charity would erelong endow many important chairs in this institution. Already the princely donations of Balaichand Datta and his wife Nistarini Dasi have provided food and lodge to about two dozen students, and the Cossimbazar Raj, besides other wealthy families, are yearly contributing largely for the fees of the poorer students.

·( 67 ) Hitherto the Sanskrit College has served as a train: ing college for the professors of Sanskrit. Sanskrit. In the earlier part of its career, it turned out some reputed Bengali authors. It is hoped that in future it will be pre-eminently a college of research under the guidance of an eminent orientalist. It it desirable that provision should be made for teaching German and French to the students of the Sanskrit College, for without a knowlege of them, it is not possible to carry on higher research in Sanskrit. Let us hope that the Sanskrit College will soon have a professor of modern European languages on its staff. Moreover, Philology is one of the subjects which the students of the Sanskrit College are required to study, and surely efficiency in Philology presupposes an acquaintance with German and French. The professor of nodern European languages may become the teacher of philology as well. It would be good if a professorship of the principal Vernaculars (both Aryan and non-Aryan of India could also be founded. The Sanskrit College is a most useful institution and among its alumni may be counted such distinguished men and authors as Pandit Isvarchandra Vidyasagar, Umeshchandra Batabyal, Jogendranath Vidya. bhusan, Nilambar Mukherji, Sivanth Sastri, Haraprasad Sastri and Golapchandra Sastri. Let the enlightened public realise that such an institution deserves well of them. Let the rich endow professorships, in this college, of every important subject of Sanskrit study ·( 68 ) not excluding the various systems of Sanskrit Grammar, the Purinas and the Tantras. Thus I have closed this weary pamphlet. When it was taken in hand, I had no idea that it would grow to such proportions. I confess that I keep back full half of the suggestions | intended to make. If the picture drawn here should prove to be too gloomy, I shall be very happy ; but I am afraid, the picture is only too true. Much as I deplore our present state of Sanskrit learning, I have full faith in a brilliant future. The ushering in of this future lies in the hands of the enlightened public and of the authorities that be. I would rest contented if this pamphlet should direct their attention more forcibly to this important subject.

·1. শ্ৰীযুক্ত বনমালি বেদান্ততীর্থ, বেদান্তরত্ন এম, এ, প্রণীত Sanskrit Made Easy, Pt. 1 { সহজে সংস্কৃত শিক্ষা) l/• Mahamahopadhyaya Kāmākhyānāth Tarkavagisa, University Lecturer and Examiner, writes :- “ এই পুস্তকখানির নাম অর্থ হইয়াছে। বালকদিগের অনায়াসে সংস্কৃত শিক্ষার উপযােগ এরূপ পুস্তক আমার পূর্বে নয়নগােচর হয় নাই। এই পুস্তক উইংরাজি স্কুলের কতিপয় শ্রেণীতে ও সংস্কৃত- ব্যাকরণ-বিদ্যালয়ের পাঠ্যপুস্তকের মধ্যে পরিগণিত হইলে ছাত্রদিগের বিশেষ সুবিধা হইবে, ইহাই আমার বিশ্বাস। অতএব বিদ্যালয়ের কর্তৃপক্ষগণ এই গ্রন্থকর্তাকে উৎসাহিত করিলে দেশের মঙ্গল হইবে ইতি”। Sir Gooroodas Banerji, kt., M.A., D.L., Ph. D., formerly Vice-chancellor of the University of Calcutta, and President of the Board of Sanskrit and of the Central Text-book committee, writes :- “ইহাতে সহজে সংস্কৃতশিক্ষার যে সুপ্ৰণালী প্রদর্শিত হইয়াছে তাহা অতি সুন্দর। এই পুস্তক সংস্কৃতশিক্ষার্থীদিগের বিশেষ উপকারে আসিবে। ইতি। Pandit Prasannakumar Tarkanidhi, the great Naiyāyika of Vikramapur and now professor in the Sanskrit College, Calcutta, writes :- গ্রন্থখানি বস্তুতই বিদ্যার্থী বালকদের, বিশেষতঃ স্কুল কলেজে অষ্যেতৃবর্গের, উপযােগ হইয়াছে। ইহা আস্ত মধ্য পরীক্ষার্থীদের ·( ii ) প্রথমাবস্থায় পড়া থাকিলে, সংস্কৃতলিখন প্রণালীরও শিক্ষা হইবে সন্দেহ নাই। সুতরং ইহা টোলক্লাসের পক্ষেও অধ্যেতব্য ”। Professor Satyendranath Sen, M.A., writes from the City College, Calcutta :- "I was highly pleased with the method adopted in it. The author has supplied a long-felt want creditably. The book may be taught with much profit and ad. vantage to the young students of Bengal who are beginners in Sanskrit.” Professor Bhaveshchandra Bhaveshchandra Vedantatirtha, M.A., Examiner in Sanskrit, Calcutta University, writes from the Krishnanagar College :- আপনার পুস্তকখানি পাঠ করিয়া আমি বড়ই প্রীত হইলাম।... আমাদের দেশের বিদ্যালয়সমূহে এইরূপ পুস্তকের বহুল প্রচার একান্ত আবশ্যক। ইহাতে ছাত্রদের সংস্কৃত ভাষা সম্বন্ধে ভীতি উৎপাদিত না হইয়া তৎশিক্ষার জন্য আগ্রহ উৎপাদিত হইবে, এই আমার বিশ্বাস। ইহার বিতীয় ভাগ দেখিবার জন্য আমি উৎসুক রহিলাম”। Professor Hemachandra Banerji, M.A., Examiner in Sanskrit, Calcutta University, writes from the Hughly College :- "I have found it useful to students, especially to beginners who are sure to derive from it much help and advantage in learning Sanskrit. The peculiar arrangement of the fundamental things deserves special credit”. Pandit Kaliprasanna Bhattacharya, M, A., Vidyaratna, ·(iii) শ Principal, Sanskrit College, and Lecturer in Sanskrit Calcutta University, writes :- "I am confident that such a primer will benefit the young learners in our High Schools.” Principal Saradaranjan Ray, 11. A., Vidyavinode, writes :- “The plan has a good deal to recommend it and the execution leaves little to be desired. The book seems to be the outcome of much patient and intelligent thought and will undoubtedly prove useful in the lower classes of our schools." Pandit Pramathanath Tarkabhusana, Professor, Sanskrit College and Examiner and Lecturer, Calcuta University, writes :- “বেদান্ততীর্থ মহাশয় এই পুস্তকখানি প্রণয়ন করিয়া বঙ্গভাষার একটী মহান্ অভাব দূর করিয়াছেন। গ্রন্থকার এই পুস্তকে যে রীতি অবলম্বন করিয়াছেন তাহা সম্পূর্ণভাবে প্রশংসনীয়। সংস্কৃতভাষা- শিক্ষার্থীগণের নিকটে এই গ্রন্থের যে বিশেষ আদর হইবে সে বিষয়ে আমার কোনও সন্দেহ নাই।” Mahamahopadhyaya Gurucharan Tarkadarsanatirtha writes : ইহা বিদ্যার্থিগণের প্রথম সংস্কৃত শিক্ষার পক্ষে বিশেষ উপযােগী হইয়াছে। সুতরাং এই পুস্তক শিক্ষক ও ছাত্রগণের নিকট বিশেষভাবে আদৃত হইবে আশা করি।” Babu Devendrakumar Banerji, M. A., Examiner in Sanskrit, Calcutta University, writes :- ·(iv) “I have read with much pleasure...will be a pleasant study to all beginners of Sanskrit in Bengal.” Professor Padmanath Vidyavinod, m. A., Examiner in Sanskrit, Calcutta University, writes :- ‘আদ্যোপান্ত পাঠ করিয়া পরম প্রীতি লাভ করিলাম। গ্রন্থখানির নাম প্রকৃতই সার্থক হইয়াছে।” Babu Akshayakumar Datta Gupta, M. A., formerly Examiner in Sanskrit, Calcutta University, writes :-- “I was really amazed at the great measure of success that has attended your attempt to make the study of Sanskrit both easy and interesting to beginners. I am strongly of opinion that the plan you have followed is quite original and at the same time none the less scientific. A book of this sort has long been a desideratum in our schools ; and I have no doubt that by placing this little treatise in the hands of young learners of Sanskrit you have done a valuable service to the cause of education." Professor Ramlal Kanjilal. M. A., Vedantatirtha, Examiner in Sanskrit, Calcutta University, writes : “I have gone through the book and found that its contents have fully justified its title. It will surely be helpful to the beginners." A Manual of Sanskrit (uth thousand) bo This is decidedly the best book on Sanskrit Composition that has yet been published in India. It is extensively used in the schools of Eastern and Western Bengal. 2.

·(v) ৩। ধৰ্ম্ম, সমাজ ও স্বাধীন চিন্তা (২য় সংস্করণ) P. K. Ray, D. Sc. (Lond. & Edin.), Inspector of Colleges, University of Calcutta, late Principal, Presidency College, Calcutta, and Late Registrar of the University of Calcutta, writes to the author :-- “I have read your learned pamphlet with great interest and satisfaction. I trust it will attract public notice........ "I am so glad to find that our greatest teachers have recognized, like the greatest teachers of the modern times, the Self or the Soul as the ultimate source of authority in religious matters. The term 777917 is Green's “self-satisfaction,” Martineau's approval of conscience,” soigs is the dictate of conscience” of the English School or the “ Law of Reason" of the Kantian School. Do you find in our scriptures any thing corresponding to Plato's “Ideal”? I hope you will continue your studies and publish results from time to time. Such writings will have a two-fold effect-lead to reform of our society and to the founding of a National School of Philosophy.” Principal Brajendra Nath Seal, M.A., Ph. D., writes to the author :- “.....your pamphlet which I have read with sincere delight and admiration, alike for its learning, its cogency, its independence, its fearless advocacy of Truth. This is indeed the highest use to which Sanskrit Scholarship can be put at the present day-to plant our foot firm on the ancient ways, to look about, and then to march ·(vi) forward,-so to fulfil the destiny of our race, and reach its God-appointed goal." The Indian World (September, 1908) : “ To-day we shall briefly take up three representative books on three departments of literature and show in what direction Bengali intellect is now drifting........ “ The second book in our list is a small treatise on Dharma, Samaja and Free-Thinking by Pandit Vanamali Vedantatirtha, M.A., of the Calcutta Sanskrit College. It is a well-written reply to both orthodox Hindus who cling to the old prejudices and superstitions as well as to those ultra-radicals who see in the Hindu Scriptures nothing but a gross tissue of falsehoods and prejudices and, as such, discard them as absolute trash. Against both these classes of extremists in Hindu Society the writer contends that in the Sastras are found the results of sincere spiritual devotion, high and rational thinking and deep meditation side by side with those of narrow thinking and ungenerous attempt at establishing inequility between man and man. The author makes two sets of extracts from the Hindu Scriptures-one enjoining rigid observance of the caste system, of silly and meaningless practices in religion, and of the compulsory celebacy of girl-widows,—and the other bases the caste-system upon the intrinsic merits and virtues of individuals and not upon their birth, advocates remarriage of girl-widows, and regards culture, spiritual devotion and the following of lofty moral principles as the sole test of religion.

·vii “ The very fact, the author holds, that the same Hindu Scriptures admit in them such widely conflicting views argues very strongly against the placing or any implicit or blind reliance upon them. ht ( ( ()। monly regarded as the Hindu Sastras differ veld widely on most social and religious questions. The author thus makes out a very strong case in favour of the right of exercise of reason to which every individual is entitled in spite of the peremptory mandates of some scriptures to the contrary, and establishes beyond shadow of a doubt the truth that it is only by establishing a reign of reason that a society may be kept alive, iree to re-adjust and adapt itself to the altered conditions of the ever-changing times. Every society which contine's itself within the narrow grove of the dead past, refusing to profit by the new discoveries of science, is bound 10 prove like a stagnant pool,-a perennial source of illhealth." প্রবাসী (চৈত্র ১৩১৫):- ".... ইহাতে বহু দার্শনিক তত্ত্বের সহিত হিন্দুর জাতিভেদ, স্ত্রীজাতির অবস্থা, বিধবা ও কুলীনকন্যার অবস্থা, আরাধনা বা উপাসনা, ইংরাজি শিক্ষা প্রভৃতি বিষয়ের আলােচনা করিয়া গ্রন্থকার মনীষার পরিচয় দিয়া- গ্রন্থকার আপনার শিক্ষার সার্থকতা দেখাইয়াছেন। এই পুস্তক আমরা সকল হিন্দু নরনারীকে ভাল করিয়া পাঠ করিতে অনুরোধ করি।” ভট্টাচাৰ্য এণ্ড সন্স। ৬৫, কলেজ ট্রট, কলকাতা। ছেন।

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