PROCEEDINGS OF THE ASIATIC SOCIETY OF BENGAL, FOR JUNE, 1867. The Monthly General Meeting of the Asiatic Society of Bengal was held on Wednesday, the 5th instant, at 9 P. M. Dr. J. Ewart, in the chair. The minutes of the last meeting were read and confirmed. 1. From the Editor, the first Volume of the "Pandit." 2. From the Königlich Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, I. Abhandlungen, 1865. 3. From the Government of Bombay, through Dr. R. L. Playfair, a copy of the "Fishes of Zanzibar.” 4. From Lieutenant-Colonel B. Ford, Superintendent, Port Blair, specimens of a Fulgoria candelaria and a Phyllium Sicciflia, and the o Skull of a Dugong. 5. The following gentlemen, proposed and duly seconded at the last meeting, were balloted for and elected as ordinary members. The Right Rev. Dr. Milman, Lord Bishop of Calcutta. Lieutenant J. Gregory. W. Duthoits, Esq., C. S. J. M. Scott, Esq., C. E. Bábu Obhoy Churn Mullick. 6. The following gentlemen were candidates for election at the July meeting. C. A. Hackett, Esq., A. R. S. M., Geological Survey of India, proposed by Mr. Ball, and seconded by Mr. Ormsby. Dr. C. Macnamara, proposed by the President, and seconded by Mr. Ormsby. N. A. Belletty, Esq., Civil Assistant, Topographical Survey of India, proposed by Captain H. H. G. Austen, and seconded by Mr. Grote. Dr. J. J. Wood, officiating Garrison Assistant Surgeon, Fort William, proposed by Dr. Ewart, and seconded by Dr. Partridge. The Council reported that they have elected the following gentlemen to fill up vacancies in the several Committees. In the Library Committee,-H. B. Medlicott, Esq., and Cumár Harendra Krishna Deva. In the Natural History Committee,-H. B. Medlicott, Esq., V. Ball, Esq., Dr. J. Ewart, and, Mr. Justice Norman. In the Statistical Committee,-Mr. Justice Phear. In the Linguistic Section of the Ethnological Committee,Mr. Justice Markby. A letter was read from Lieutenant-Colonel H. Raban, intimating his desire to withdraw his name from the Society. Letters were read 7. From the Director of Public Instruction, forwarding a copy of Mr. Cowell's Report on the Toles of Nuddea. No. 1547. From the Director of Public Instruction, To the Secretary of the Asiatic Society. Dated Fort William, 9th April, 1867. SIR, I have the honor to forward herewith, for the information of the Asiatic Society, a copy of a report on the Sanskrit Toles of Nuddea by Mr. E. B. Cowell, late Principal of the Sanskrit College. I have the honor to be, Sir, Your most obedient Servant, W. S. ATKINSON, Director of Public Instruction. From E. B. COWELL, Esq., late Principal, Sanskrit College, Calcutta, to W. S. ATKINSON, Esq., Director of Public Instruction,-(dated the 19th January, 1867.) SIR, I have the honor to forward you my Nuddea Report. As I have added at the end some remarks on its necessary defects and the causes of my long delay in sending it, I need not repeat them here. I may add that the report would have been finished before I left India, if my time had not been occupied by some communications about the Madrassah, which took off my thoughts from the report. I hope the report will be of some use, as it is. I wish I could return for a month to Nuddea, to make it better. From E. B. COWELL, Esq., late Principal of the Sanskrit College, to W. S. ATKINSON, Esq., Director of Public Instruction,-dated the 17th January, 1867. SIR, I have the honor to forward to you the following report of my visit, in 1864, to the Toles of Nuddea : In accordance with your instructions I proceeded thither with Mr. Woodrow, and we were accompanied by Pandit Mahesa Chandra Nyáyaratna, one of the Professors of the Sanskrit College, with whom I have for some years studied Nyáya, and to whose wide attainments in Hindu philosophy, as well as general ability and learning, I can testify from personal knowledge in the highest degree. We left Calcutta on Monday the 29th of February, and made Krishnagur our head quarters, whence we made daily excursions to Nuddea, which is about ten miles distant. I must not omit to mention that we received much attention from the Mahárájá of Nuddea, who held a quasi durbar of Pandits, which enabled us to make the acquaintance of many who did not reside in Nuddea itself. I returned to Calcutta on the 8th of March. The word Tole (C) is a Bengali word of uncertain derivation; but there are at least two Sanskrit words for the thing itself, chatúshpáthi, i. e., a place where the four vedas are studied, and matha. The former does not seem to be an ancient word, as I do not find any authority for it in the St. Petersburg Sanskrit Dictionary, except the Sabda Kalpa Drúma of Rájáh Rádhá Kánta Deva; but matha is an old word and occurs at least as far back as the Amara Kosha. The institution is curious and interesting, as being undoubtedly a remnant of old times. It represents, in fact, the same state of feeling in ancient India as that which we find in ancient Greece, and which so continually comes up in Plato's controversies with the Sophists or paid Professors of his day, viz., the popular prejudice against receiving mercenary reward for the communication of knowledge. The Pandit of a tole should properly not only instruct his pupils gratuitously, but he should also provide them with food, clothing and lodging, during their stay under his teaching. He himself is to be remunerated indirectly by the invitations and presents which celebrity as a teacher would ensure his receiving at the religious ceremonies of the neighbouring zemindars. Thus my own visit was delayed some weeks in consequence of all the principal Pandits of Nuddea being absent, as they had gone to attend the graddha of the late Rájáh of Cooch Behar. The tole system of Nuddea has, however, degenerated in this as in other respects. The Pandits of most toles in other districts still lodge and feed their pupils; but those of Nuddea, with very few exceptions, have been able to break through this custom. They now only supply their pupils with lodging, the reputation of Nuddea no doubt enabling them to attract students from other toles in spite of the greater inducements which the latter offer. The chief studies of Nuddea are Smriti and Nyáya. It is the latter, especially, for which its name is celebrated all over India. Other provinces have their own peculiar schools of law, and Nuddea, therefore, can generally only attract students of Bengal to its Smriti toles; but in logic it has an unrivalled reputation. Chaitanya, the celebrated reviver of the mystic worship of Krishna at the close of the 15th century, was a native of this place; and it has produced a succession of great Naiyāyika teachers, whose names are household words in every Pandit family in India. In fact the name of Nuddea is associated with the latest development of the Nyáya philosophy. The ancient Sutras or Aphorisms of Gotama do not represent the modern logic of India; and although the recent school may have added little or nothing to the real discoveries of the Hindu Aristotle, they have undoubtedly elaborated a most refined system of logomachy, far surpassing in subtilty and ingenuity all the scholastic disputations of medieval Europe. One of the most celebrated mediæval logicians was Gangeça Upádhyaya of Mithilá, who wrote a large treatise, called the Chintamani, in four sections on the four Naiyáyika pramáņas or sources of knowledge, i. e., perception, inference, comparison, and testimony. It is this work which has furnished the text to the modern Nuddea school. Its most renowned members are the following. 1. Raghunátha Çiromani, who wrote a commentary on the first two sections of the Chintamani. This is called the Didhiti, 2. Mathurá Nátha Tarkavágiça, who wrote a gloss on the Didhiti and also an original comment on Gangeça. 3. Jagadiça Tarkálankára, who also wrote a commentary on part of the Didhiti as well as many other works, especially a very celebrated treatise on logic and grammar, called the çabda-çakti-prakáçiká. 4. Gadadhara Bhattáchárya, who wrote a commentary on the Didhiti and a series of works, such as the Vishayatá-vádártha, &c., on the abstrusest mysteries of the modern logic. 5. Çankara Tarkavágiça, who wrote a commentary called Patriká, on the harder passages, of Mathurá Nátha, Jagadiça, and Gadádhara. He seems to have flourished about sixty or seventy years ago: and it is he who is said to have brought to its height the present vicious system of disputatious logomachy which prevails in Nuddea. A tole is generally a mere collection of mud hovels round a quadrangle, in which the students live in the most primitive manner possible. The Pandit does not reside with them, but comes to teach them on the lawful days. Each student has his own hut, with his brass waterpot and mat, and few have any other furniture. Most make their own copies of the books they use, and a large part of the year is vacation, during which they wander over the surrounding country on begging expeditions; but during the reading months much hard mental labour is undoubtedly gone through. On one side of the quadrangle there is a "lecture hall," usually on a raised platform, some three feet from the ground; it is open on one side, and just sheltered on the other three from the rain and wind. In some toles it is only a thatched shed; in others it is a little more elaborate. Only one tole in Nuddea can boast of any external adornment. is the tole of Pandit Prasanna Chandra Tarkaratna. him by a Bábú of Lucknow, and is really an elegant building, occupying about a beegah and a half of land. The quadrangle inside is about thirty yards square and contains thirty rooms for the students. The rooms are generally about nine feet long and eight wide, with a window and door; the corner rooms are rather larger. half of one side is given up to a lecture hall or dálán. on a platform raised some five feet from the ground; it has two apartments, each about thirty-three feet in length, the outer is ten, the inner twelve feet wide; and the front is supported by six pillars This It was built for More than This stands |