Indian Antiquary Vol 60

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 9

IN MEMORIAM SIR RICHARD CARNAC TEMPLE, Bt., C.B., C.L.E., F.B:Ai, F.S.Ai, etc:
By the death of SIR R. O. TEMPLE, which occurred at Territet in Switzerland on the 3rd March, India has lost one of her truest friends, and Oriental research one of its staunchest patrons, the greater part of whose long life was devoted to the study of, and encouragement of research in, the diverse cultures of India and the East. For India—the land of his birth, in which he served in various capacities for 35 years
and her peoples his affection was deep to the last. The son of the distinguished administrator, Sir Richard Temple, Bt., G.C.S.I., he was born on the 15th October 1850, at Allahabad, where his father was then serving as a junior member of the Civil Service. Educated at Harrow and Trinity Hall, Cambridge, he joined the Royal Scots Fusiliers in 1871 and proceeded to India, where his father was then Financial Member of the Governor-General's Council. After a few years he joined the Bengal Staff Corps of the Indian Army and served with the 38th Dogras and the 1st Gurkhas. After the 2nd Afghan War (1878-79), for his conduct in which he received the medal and was mentioned in despatches, he was appointed a Cantonment Magistrate in the Panjab, where he worked for some years, and where he pur. sued the inquiries and collected the material used later in many of his publications, e.g., in the Legends of the Panjab (3 vols., 1884-1900), Panjab Notes and Queries (1883-87), of which he was the editor and to which he contributed largely, Wide-awake Stories, being a collection of Panjab and Kashmir folk-tales, which he published in collaboration with Mrs. F. A. Steel (1884), as well as in contributions to other publications.
It was during his service in the Panjab that his attention became directed to the proverbial lore of Northern India and to the folklore of Kashmir, subjects in which his interest never flagged. In the midst of his duties in Burma he succeeded in completing the revision and editing of Dr. Fallon's great Dictionary of Hindustani Proverbs, the largest and most comprehensive collection of the proverbs of Northern India hitherto published (1885-87). Some forty years later was published The word of Lalla the Prophetess (1924), the famous female Saiva ascetic of Kashmir.
When the 3rd Burmese War broke out in 1885 he was transferred to Burma, where he was occupied with various duties, both military and civil, in different areas, acquiring a wide and intimate knowledge of the province and its races. He served at Mandalay and other places as Assistant Commissioner, Cantonment Magistrate and Deputy Commissioner, eventually becoming Official President of the Rangoon Muni. cipality and Port Commission in 1891. In Burma his interests spread wide, embracing ethnology, linguistics, antiquities and numismatics, and a special study was made of local forms of demonology, which led to the publication many years later (1906) of The Thirty-Seven Nats: A Phase of Spirit Worship prevailing in Burma. The same line of study resulted in the publication at the time (1894), in collaboration with Dr. Burnell, of The Devil Worship of the Tuluvas, inhabitants of the South Kanara district on the west coast of the Madras Presidency. In addition to these activities, he rendered public services of conspicuous merit, raising and commanding the Upper Burma Volunteer Rifles (1887-90), the Rangoon Naval Volunteers (1892), the Volunteer Engineers and the Rangoon Port Defence Volunteers (1893), of which he was Honorary Lieut.-Colonel. Still a substantive Major in the Indian Army, these services, which were rewarded with the C.I.E., led to his appointment in 1894 to the responsible post of Chief Commissioner of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Superintendent of the Penal Settlement at Port Blair. Here, again, with his accus. tomed energy he plunged into an intensive study of the interesting tribes inhabiting these islands, their tribal divisions, languages, customs and beliefs. The ground