Indian Antiquary Vol 17

Author(s): John Faithfull Fleet, Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 32

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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[JANUARY, 1888.
one of the reasons. But I see two others. One, - founded the Rajpat clan with the Rajpat State, all to the honour of India and Dr. Le Bon, that two things altogether different, even in RajasIndia has evidently made a vivid and profound thân. He has besides estimated below their value impression upon the author. In the presence of the importance and number of existing inscripthis infinite diversity of men and things, of this tions, and he exaggerates the poverty of India medley of institutions and beliefs, of customs in historical books; but he has had a clear and separated amongst us by centuries, but which live salutary idea of the deceitful mirages which are there side by side, he has had, so to speak, a vision presented by the written tradition of the Hindus, of the past. The genius of history has come to and has not allowed himself to be seduced by the speak to him amongst the ruins, and he has felt history drawn from it, which is still current in himself endued with the mission of declaring a some publications. revelation. Here we touch on the second reason. Coming to the ethnographical portion of the work It is that he believes many things to be newer | M. Barth remarks that the author has deeply than they really are. Indianists, he tells us, have studied the question of races. He has devoted written a great deal about all this, but, as they a special work to it, and has also dealt with it have not seen India, they have misunderstood in his Civilisation des Arabes. According to him much' ... But it is exactly because I value races correspond to species in natural history. at least as highly as he does the merits of direct They classify themselves not by nationality, nor observation, that I regret the present work, and by religion, nor by tongue, nor even by anatomi. wish I could have found a few more personal cal characteristics. Their one criterion is an Teminiscences in the place of what he has been ensemble of attributes, intellectual and moral, able to collect hastily from books on his return. confirmed by heredity, certain mental state At the same time material errors of omission and constituting the race-genius, which is indelible. commission are comparatively rare, and one As regards India it must be observed that these admires the good fortune, or to be more just, conclusions do not tally well with the picture the tact and true historic feeling, with which he which he presents to us of the races of that counhas been able to avoid snares, and to pass along try. They form an abstract theory without the edges of quagmires without falling into them. the counterproof of reality, sort of programme, He has not succeeded in avoiding being morassed but without the piece. He enumerates many a little with regard to the Veda. He describes the races in India, but he shows us only one. When Vedic Aryans as kriowing neither family nor race. he talks of a mental state, it is only of the mental No intermediary group of tribe, class, or govern- state of Hindus in globo; and he could not ment separated them. Neither rich nor poor, all do otherwise, for these races are, before all, equal. Religion itself was only the cult of race linguistic entities. Aryans, Dravidians, Kolarians, and family. Gods were confounded with ancestors, Tibeto-Burmans, etc., differ continually both in and the sacrifices to their ancestors, the funeral their traits, and especially in their degrees of banquets, were the centre of this cult. All this civilisation, but their classification is the work picture is pure fantasy. He has also nearly gone of linguists working on grammars and voca. astray in his dealings with the epic legends. At bularies, and generally caring little for the first he has followed Wheeler in fixing the conquest race-genius. Where the criterion of language of Ceylon by Råma at fifteen hundred years before fails, there remains sometimes a tradition, rarely Christ, though he subsequently follows better true historic testimony, and where these fail there authorities. He is wrong, too, in denying the opens before us the plain of hypothesis pure and existence of the foudal system in India,' but simple. To Dr. Le Bon, the Kalis of Gujarat are his description of the clan, borrowed from the Kolarians, and the Bhils Dravidians. In reality, admirable Studies of Sir Alfred Lyall, is excellent. I nothing is known about it, because these people It would have been still better if he had not con. no longer speak their own language. As for
Non cuiris homini contingit adire Corinthum, alas, Yes! But does Dr. Le Bon not know that at least four. fifths of these Indianista have not only visited India, but have lived there, many of thom for more years than he has passed months in that country. There is, however, foundation of truth in the reproach. Sanskrit profeAROTA have now and then made for us singular history of India, and some chapters of that history have come, de ricochet en ricochet, and lodged themselves in the very volume of Dr. Le Bon. It is true, too, that many Old Indiana' have been even less discriminating than he has been.
* It developed in a different way from that in which
it did with us. The fief did not spring from the free Lold, but it exists almost to the present day, and in its Eold, but it existe most characteristic forms, e.g. in regard to immunities.
"He speaks of some inscriptions for an epoch of which the number of those that are catalogued and are of historical value, alone amounts to thousands. In connection with this, I am bound to way that Dr. Le Bon has not been fast to the efforts of the English Government and to the Archæological Survey.... That he has been able to date approximately the greater part of his monuments, is due to the researches of that Survey
L'homme et les sociétés : Leurs origines et leur histoire, 1881, 2 vols. 8vo. 1884, 1 vol. 4to.