পাতা:সংবাদপত্রে সেকালের কথা প্রথম খণ্ড.djvu/৪৬০

8ミ求 চন9ৱাদ পত্রে মেনকালের శా there are at present about eleven hundred students, and one hundred and fifty masters. Their numbers, it is true, fall very short of those in former days. In Rajah Rooddre's time, there were at Nuddeah, no less than four thousand students, and masters in proportion. Still, however, it must be acknowledged, that the seminary is respectable, and must be supported by no inconsiderable talents and learning. Shunker pundit is head of the college of Nuddeah and allowed to be the first philosopher and scholar in the whole university. His name inspires the youth with the love of virtue—the pundits with the love of learning—and the greatest Rajahs, with its own veneration. The students that come from distant parts. are generally of a maturity in years, and proficiency in learning, to qualify them for beginning the study of philosophy, immediately on their admission ; but yet they say, that to become a real pundit, a man ought to spend twenty years at Nuddeah, in close application. Thus in the east, as well as the west, the fruit of the tree of knowledge costs the high price of viginti annorum lucubrationes. Any man that chooses to devote himself to literature, will find a maintenance at Nuddeah, from the fixed revenues of the University, and the donations of the IRajah. Men in affluent circumstances, however, live there at their own expense, without burdening the foundation. 13y the pundits’ system of education, all valuable works are committed to memory ; and to facilitate this, most of their compositions,—even their dictionaries,<-are in metre. But they by no means trust their learning entirely to this repository ; on the contrary, those who write treatises, or commentaries on learned topics, have, at Nuddeal, always met with distinguished encouragements and rewards, The time of attending the public schools and lectures, is from 10 o'clock in the morning until noon. Their method of teaching is this —two of the masters commence a dialogue, or disputation, on the particular topic they mean to explain. When a student hears any thing advanced, or expressed, that he does not perfectly understand, he has the privilege of interrogating the master about it. They give the young men every encouragement to communicate their doubts, by their temper and patience in solving theni. It is a professed and established maxim at Nuddeal, that a pundit who loses his temper, in explaining any point to a student, let him be ever so dull and void of memory, absolutely forfeits his reputation, and is disgraced. سی The Nuddeah Rajahs have made it their frequent practice, to attend the disputation. On all public occasions especially, the Rajah assists, and rewards those who distinguish themselves. But, instead of cup-fulls of gold and silver, as formerly ; all that this prince can now afford to bestow is loatta, dhoatty, i. e. a brass cup and a pair of drawers. These, however, from the Rajah’s own hand, are by no means considered trivial rewards,-No