- The three books which are most common in all the
schools, and which are used indiscriminately by the several
castes, are the Ramayanum, Maha Bharata, and Bhagvata; but
the children of the manufacturing class of people have in
addition to the above, books peculiar to their own religious
tenets; such as the Nagalingayna Kutha, Vishvakurma Poorana,
Kumalesherra Kalikamahata; and those who wear the Lingum
such as the Busvapoorana, Raghavankunkauya Geeroja Kullana,
Unabhavamoorta, Chenna Busavaswara Poorana, Gurilagooloo,
etc., which are all considered sacred, and are studied with a view
of subserving their several religious creeds. - The lighter kind of stories which are read for
amusement, are generally the Punchatantra,
Bhatalapunchavansatee, Punklee Soopooktahuller,
Mahantarungenee. The books on the principles of the vernacular
languages themselves, are the several dictionaries and
grammars, such as the Nighantoo, Umara, Subdamumbured,
Shubdeemunee Durpana, Vyacurna Andradeepeca,
Andhranamasungraha, etc., etc., but these last, and similar
books, which are most essential, and, without which, no
accurate or extensive knowledge of the vernacular languages can
be attained, are, from the high price of manuscripts and the
general poverty of the masters, of all books, the most uncommon
in the Native Schools; and such of them which are found there
are in consequence of the ignorance, carelessness, and indolence
of copyists in general, full of blunders, and in every way most
incorrect and imperfect. - The whole of the books, however, in the Teloogoo and
Carnataca schools, which are by far the most numerous in this
district, whether they treat of religion, amusement, or the
principles of these languages, are in verse; and in a dialect quite
distinct from that of conversation and business. The alphabets of
the two dialects are the same, and he who reads the one, can
read, but not understand, the other also. The natives, therefore,
read these (unintelligible) books to them, to acquire the power of
reading letters, in the common dialect of business; but the
poetical is quite distinct from the prose dialect, which they speak
and write; and though they read these books, it is to the
pronunciation of the syllables, not to the meaning or construc-
tion of the words, that they attend. Indeed few teachers can
explain, and still fewer scholars understand, the purport of the
numerous books which they thus learn to repeat from memory.
Every school boy can repeat verbatim a vast number of verses, of
sean pound
(Sean Pound)
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