Indian Antiquary Vol 50

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 38

32
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[ FEB., 1921
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Some years ago I was led to examine the statements of one or two writers to the effect that such a system had existed in ancient Greece, not very long before the classical epoch, and in that connection to consider also the claim, which was at that time (1911) generally made, that mother-right was the earlier system which had everywhere preceded father-right. My investigations led me wholly to deny the cogency of the supposed evidence for Greece; and recently I have come to a similar result in the case of ancient Italy, outside Etrurie, which is known to have been matrilinear. My results have appeared in Folk-Lore (On the Alleged Evidence for Mother-Right in Early Greece, XXII, 277; Mother-Right in Ancient Italy, XXXI, 92). But the interest of the subject has been made all the clearer by these partial investigations, and I now hope to collect materials and collaborators for & book on the question of Indo-Germanic mother-right in general,
I would not be understood here to beg the question whether there ever was such a thing as an Indo-Germanic people. I freely confess that I do not kpow, and I am doubtful if any one else does. What we do know however is, that there was an Indo-Germanic language, whoever may have spoken it. Now a language is a very important culturecomplex, and is almost sure to attract other complexes to itself. Teach a Gold Coast negro to speak English, and he certainly does not become an Englishman; but it is more than likely that he will, if he has the opportunity, wear some parody of English dress, try to imitate English custome, perhaps become, or pretend to become, a Christian, and look down upon such "dam' niggers" as have not these marks of civilisation. So with the Indo-Germans; whether they were one race or twenty, they had a language in common, whose dialects we most of us speak to this day, and therefore it is very likely that they had in common other culture-complexes. Thus for the study of any IndoGermanic sociological phenomena, whether the people immediately under discussion live in Travancore or Iceland, it is useful to have as full knowledge as possible of the customs and history of their co-linguists, however remote. Hence in particular, if we would determine whether or not Italian, Teuton, Slav, or Greek were ever matrilinear, & knowledge of the full evidence for India is of much use.
But such a book as I hope to see published must needs be the work of specialists. To cover one region adequately is no easy task for one man; to cover them all, in any but the most superficial way, is out of the question. Therefore I have for some time been looking for collaborators, and have thus far met with considerable success. But in the case of India, the mere collection of material is proving to be a vast affair, and it is for help in this respect that I now appeal.
The material required is of three kinda, as follows:
(1) Evidence from the ancient Aryan texts, from the earliest to the latest, tending to show
(a) Prominence in the family or clan of the maternal uncle, or an especially
close tie between him and his sister's children (such as that between Arthur and Kilhwch, in the Mabinogion, which gives colour to the theory
that the Kelts were once matrilinear). (6) Stories of marriage, or irregular connections, between persons related
closely by father-right, but not by mother-right. In all such cases it should be noted how the story is told, s.c., whether great abhorrence is expressed at the incestuous 'union, or whether there is any tendonoy to treat it as nothing out of the common.
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