і мт в о р о с т о м.
PANDITS are no doubt estimable persons, but if the Wernacular literature of
the country is to be improved and made an effective instrument of popular education, they are not the persons who can do it. They represent an old and antiquated learning, practically useless for purposes of modern life. Ramayanam and Bharatan are excellent books in a way, but the mind of the modern Indian cannot be nursed on such stale food. The Indian classical literature is the reflection of a condition of society which prevailed centuries ago, and is now valuable only as the repository of historic materials hidden amidst a mass of -myth and fantastic exaggeration; Inor does it contain terms and vocabularies that can be utilised directly or in adapted forms to convey ideas of modern Science and art. Practically, for all purposes Served by modern literature in European countries for popular instruction and amusement, the best works in the Wernacular language are almost useless. These works which form the basis of the Pandits' erudition, differ 8o entirely in the vocabulary, diction ariâ collocation of words , from the languages spoken by the most cultured of Indians that it is as difficult to derive amusement or instruction from them as from Greek works. To be able to understand Ramayanam or Silappathikaram in Tamil requires an elaborate previous study prosecuted for years. The fact is that these works were never written for the benefit of the ordinary classes of people, and therefore intelligibility was never aimed at as their chief characteristic. They were intended for a small coterie of learned men, in many instances for Pandits hanging on to the courts of local rulers, and it was only their approval that was cared for. For the masses no education of more than an elementary order was thought necessary. A specially gifted individual, by a peculiar combination of fortunate circumstances, might develop into a poet or a poetess and of such gifted individuals there are several instances in the history of Tamil literature. But the general bulk of the population, who in those days lived in villages even more largely than at present, were content with Such education as could be got in village schools where the curriculam was never of an ambitious nature and was confined mostly to the three R's and such additional information as was useful in the daily pursuits of life. A Brahmin child perhaps learned the elements of astrology and Some elementary ethics in Sanskrit. A Vaisya boy received a special grounding in accounts, while the higher class Sudra had to be content with even more elementary education. The great masses were, of course, left altogether illiterate. The famous University of Madura is not known to have troubled itself with the problem of popular education, nor did the more ancient authors of the Jain and the Buddhist faiths. The Pandits thought and wrote for themselves,
