Adam's Reports on Vernacular Education in Bengal and Behar/Report 1/Section 15

SECTION XV.

The District of Beerbhoom.

Population.—In 1801, the population of Beerbhoom was estimated at 700,000 in the proportion of thirty Hindoos to one Mahomedan. A considerable portion of this district is hilly, jungly, and thinly inhabited. Highway depredations were frequent, chiefly committed on Hindoo pilgrims journeying through the forests to the sanctuary at Baidyanath, where there is a celebrated temple dedicated to Siva. In 1814 an arrangement was made with the petty hill chiefs of the western jungles to secure their own abstinence from plundering, and also their assistance towards the suppression of robberies perpetrated by others.

Indigenous Schools.—I find no account of the state of indigenous education in this district. Hamilton is silent on the subject, and in reply to inquiries made by the General Committee in 1823, the local Agent of Government stated that there were no seminaries for the instruction of youth in the district, either public or private, and, as I suppose must be understood, either elementary or learned. If, as I suspect, this statement is incorrect, it is the more extraordinary, because the agent appears to have taken a great deal of trouble to collect information regarding the means existing in the district supposed to be applicable to the encouragement of education. From the analogy of other neighboring districts, it seems incredible that there should be no schools of any kind amongst a population in which there is a proportion of thirty Hindoos to one Mahomedan.

In 1820 a Hindoo named Sarbanand, who claimed succession to the office of ojha or high-priest of the temple of Baidyanath already mentioned, made an offer to the Government through the local agent to give 5,000 Rupees as an endowment for a Native school in the district on condition that his claim to the succession of the ojhaship might be sanctioned and established by the authority of Government. From a notice of this transaction contained in the records of the General Committee, it would appear that he actually sent the money to the Collector’s office, and that in addition to the establishment of a school he wished it to be in part, expended on the excavation of a tank at Soory, the chief town of the district. The offer was declined, and Sarbanand informed that he must abide the regular adjudication of the law courts on his claim, which proved unfavourable.

The acting agent and collector in Beerbhoom in 1823 seems to have considered that the funds of the temple were liable to be applied to the establishment of public institutions, but it does not appear on what grounds this opinion was formed. According to one account the collections of the temple average 30,000 rupees per annum, the amount depending on the number and liberality of the pilgrims. According to an official estimate made in 1822, the resources of the temple were supposed to be 1,50,000 rupees annually. A specific fact stated is that in two months the collections amounted to 15,000 rupees, but it is not said whether the two months were in the season of the year when the temple is most frequented. The present appropriation of the revenue after providing, I conclude, for the current expenses of the temple, is to the support of religious mendicants and devotees. The acting agent and collector also submitted two statements of the quantity of land dedicated to various religious purposes, expressing at the same time the opinion that the produce of these endowments is generally estranged from the purposes to which it was originally devoted, and enjoyed by persons who have no claim to it. He seems to have considered that these endowments also were applicable to purposes of education, but the reasons of the opinion are not given. The statements were prepared from the public registries of land and I subjoin them entire, noticing here only their general results. These are that in twenty-two pergunnahs there are 8,348 beeghas, besides 39 separate mouzahs or villages of dewottur lands; 16,331 beeghas of nazr lands; 5,086 beeghas of chiraghi lands, and 1,015 beeghas of pirottur lands. In fifteen other pergunnahs that had been then recently transferred from the district of Moorshedabad to that of Beerbhoom, there are 1,9345 beeghas of dewottur and 162 of pirottur lands, making the whole amount 32,877 beeghas of land, besides 39 villages. I have added to the statements a brief explanation of the distinctive terms employed to describe the different sorts of endowed lands; and I have recorded these endowments in this place because they were in some way connected in the mind of the acting agent and collector with the means existing in the district for the promotion of education; but I would not be understood to express a concurrence in the opinion, if it was entertained, that their application to such a purpose could be rendered legally obligatory. As far as I can ascertain from the terms employed to describe them they are religious endowments. With the voluntary consent of the holders, they are, as I understand, capable of being applied to promote education when viewed as a religious duty; but without that consent it would be unjust to employ them for such a purpose, and it would also be imprudent by the employment of questionable means in pursuit of a great public object, such as national education, to rouse the religious feelings of the country against it.

Elementary School not Indigenous.—In connection with the Baptist Missionary Society at the head station of the district, there is a Bengalee School having about 50 scholars.

Native Female School.—There were at one time several schools for Native girls in Beerbhoom, but they have all been formed into one Central School which is in connection with the Calcutta Baptist Female School Society. Until lately it contained upwards of eighty girls; but since the hurkaree employed to collect them was dismissed, and especially since the employment of Christian instead of non-Christian teachers, the school has fallen away fully one-half, there being at the date of the last report only forty girls on the list. Almost all attend in the morning, but there is always a considerable deficiency in the afternoon. Reading, writing, cyphering, sewing, and Christian instruction are the exercises of the school.

Appendix to Section XV.

(Extracted from the Records of the General Committee of Public Instruction).

Statement specifying the quantity of Lands as Dewottur, &c., situated in the under-mentioned Pergunnahs in Zillah Beerbhoom.

Names of Pergunnahs		Dewottur Land.			Nazr.			Chiraghi.			Pirottur.			Total Lands.
		Bs.	K.	G.	Bs.	K.	G.	Bs.	K.	G.	Bs.	K.	G.	Bs.	K.	G.
Burbuk Sing	. . .	792	14	0	1,408	15	0	103	16	0	107	10	0	2,409	15	0
Suroop Sing	. . .	1,224	17	0	608	11	0	373	16	0	195	5	0	2,402	9	0
Hunpoor	. . .	372	12	0	1,825	11	0	46	0	0	3	5	6	2,247	8	0
Tuppdah Mahomedabas	. . .	60	10	0	93	10	0	43	17	0	. . .			193	3	0
Sabik Mouressur	. . .	337	4	0	100	0	0	115	17	0	62	2	0	615	3	0
Kootulpoor	. . .	845	19	0	200	0	6	3	10	0	45	16	0	1,095	5	0
Jugnoojol	. . .	688	16	0	6,827	2	4	130	5	0	193	1	0	7,739	4	4
Khurnu Burroh	. . .	217	11	0	921	18	0	. . .			34	5	0	1,173	14	0
Ekburshahee	. . .	101	16	0	617	12	10	2,483	5	10	55	13	0	3,158	7	0
Khulanja	. . .	506	14	15	60	11	0	696	10	0	137	2	0	1,400	17	15
Durree Mouressur	. . .	41	14	0	. . .			231	6	0	14	10	0	287	10	0
Shah Allampoor	. . .	933	19	18	1,289	17	0	139	5	10	97	1	0	2,430	3	8
Aleenuggur	. . .	123	4	0	268	16	0	131	8	0	. . .			5,237	0	0
Sanbhoom	. . .	1,084	4	0	239	16	0	80	1	0	1	6	0	1,355	7	0
Talook Soopoor	. . .	248	10	0	1,146	6	0	10	14	0	36	19	0	1,442	9	0
Koondahit Kurrea	. . .	8	12	0	. . .			. . .			. . .			8	12	0
Poorunderpoor	. . .	11	13	0	88	4	0	43	14	0	6	11	0	150	2	0
Hookmopoor	. . .	698	15	0	31	4	0	. . .			. . .			729	19	0
Bhoorkoondah	. . .	69	11	0	. . .			. . .			25	4	0	94	12	0
Noonee	. . .	. . .			697	10	0	234	18	0	. . .			932	8	0
Mulloopoor	. . .	. . .			9	1	0	267	17	0	. . .			276	18	0
Total	. . .	8,348	16	13	16,331	14	14	5,086	0	0	1,015	10	0	30,781	16	7

In Tuppah Sarhet, Deoghur, Dewottur	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$ 39 Mouzas
In TMouzas of Bydeenath Thakoor,

ThZillah Beerbhoom;	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$
The 20th November 1823.

J. M. GARRETT,
Acting Collector.

Statement specifying the quantity of Lands as Dewottur, &c., situated in the under-mentioned Pergunnahs transferred from Moorshedabad to Zillah Beerbhoom.

Names of Pergunnahs		Dewottur Land.			Nazr.			Chiraghi.			Pirottur.			Total Land.
		Bs.	K.	G.	Bs.	K.	G.	Bs.	K.	G.	Bs.	K.	G.	Bs.	K.	G.
Pergunnah Shahsulampore	. . .	94	12	15	. . .			. . .			1	0	10	95	13	5
Pergunnah„ Kargaong	. . .	403	10	11	. . .			. . .			7	2	5	410	12	16
Pergunnah„ Mukooree	. . .	19	5	0	. . .			. . .			. . .			19	5	0
Pergunnah„ Shajadpore	. . .	228	15	0	. . .			. . .			6	6	0	234	14	16
Pergunnah„ Kassupore	. . .	22	3	0	. . .			. . .			3	14	0
Pergunnah„ Rookoonpore	. . .	156	5	10	. . .			. . .			. . .			156	5	10
Pergunnah„ Katgurr	. . .	130	8	6	. . .			. . .			5	7	0	235	15	6
Pergunnah„ Jooar Ibrahempore.	. . .	25	2	0	. . .			. . .			10	2	0	35	4	0
Pergunnah„ Futtehsing	. . .	75	3	0	. . .			. . .			1	5	0	76	8	0
Pergunnah„ Dhowa	. . .	. . .			. . .			. . .			1	17	0	1	17	0
Pergunnah„ Sheerpore	. . .	116	19	10	. . .			. . .			20	9	5	137	9	5
Pergunnah„ Futehsing	. . .	203	13	0	. . .			. . .			97	2	0	300	15	0
Pergunnah„ Kootubpore	. . .	279	8	8	. . .			. . .			6	3	0	285	11	8
Chukleh Gukooltah	. . .	74	2	10	. . .			. . .			2	0	0	76	2	10
Chukleh„ Bunhat	. . .	5	0	0	. . .			. . .			. . .			5	0	0
Total	. . .	1,934	2	5	. . .			. . .			162	10	10	2,096	12	15

ThBeerbhoom;	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$
The 20th November 1823.

J. M. GARRETT,
Acting Collector.

Dewottur lands are lands given by wealthy Hindoos to Brahmans for the maintenance of religion, in honor of the gods, and for the acquisitions of religious merit. The nature and extent of the obligation imposed by the endowment can be correctly understood only by a reference in each case to the terms in which it is expressed; but, in general, grantees are not much restricted in the application of the property, and they sometimes employ part of it in charity and in promoting learning.

Nazr lands are such as are devoted by wealthy Musalmans to the use of those who give themselves up to the service of God; sometimes the land is retained in the hands of the owner, and the revenue derived from it is distributed with his own hands to the devout and needy.

Chiraghi lands are those the produce of which is devoted by Musalmans to defray the expenses attending the performance of certain religious services in honor of a pirr or deceased spiritual guide to whom the religious merit is transferred.

Pirottur are those which are applied to the same purposes with this difference that the merit is transferred to any deceased saint whom it may be desired to honor.