ART. II. Remarks on the School System of the Hindús. By Captain HENRY HARKNESS, Secretary to the Royal Asiatic Society, late Secretary to the College of Fort St. George, &c. &c. THE following remarks refer more particularly to the Southern Peninsula of India; but they may perhaps be considered to apply equally, with regard to her ancient institutions of this nature, to India in general; as the Southern Peninsula has undergone, comparatively, but little change from foreign conquest and domination.

The system of education throughout the peninsula being nearly the same, whatever may be the language or shade of difference in the people of any particular part or nation, an exposition of that which is followed by one portion of its inhabitants may, with some allowances, which a few observations will explain, be considered as applicable to the whole. I shall therefore select the Tamil, or the School of that nation or people of the South whose vernacular language is the Tamil.

In almost every village, the schoolmaster is a member of the community. A manie and pizhakadai, or house and back-yard, are given to him by the village. He is allowed to exact fees from his scholars, which, with the presents that custom has established as due to him from the parents, at particular periods and on particular occasions, form the sources of his emolument.

The school is open to every Súdra and Bráhmana boy* of the village; but not to boys of inferior or stranger tribes, unless by the sufferance of the community, and generally on the payment of a small monthly stipend, or the performance of some particular service, by the parents of the boys so admitted.

The hours of attendance at school are from sun-rise to sun-set; allowing one hour at mid-day, for refreshment or repose.

A boy is first taken to school when he has attained his fifth year. The period of his quitting it is uncertain; but to enter him as a votary of SARASVATI, the Goddess of Learning, is considered a duty too sacred to be neglected, even by the poorest of the Súdra tribes.

The sounds of the vowels and consonants, first separately and then combined, being taught, to which considerable attention is paid in order to ensure a just pronunciation, the boy is instructed to write or draw, in a bed of sand, the letter or sign representing these sounds; and thus, by a reciprocity of action between sign and sound, to fix them both in his memory.

* The four tribes or castes are, the Bráhmans, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, and Súdras. All without this pale are considered impure; and among these are included Europeans, and all other foreigners.