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KARNĀTAKA CULTURE
179 in Karnataka. Though, he, like Mr. Devudu, has made no attempt to cover the whole ground of Karnataka Culture or to deal exhaustively even with the topics selected" (such as the Viraśaiva and Haridāsa movements, and the significance of proverbs, folk-songs and place names), both have tried to interpret the mind and heart of Karnataka on the basis of a very close study of some of its historic phases, and manifestations in its present outlook and life. "A deep and real culture," observes Mr. Iyengar, "has, as it were, transfused the very air that the people are breathing and it appears in all the many acts of their lives and often in the words which they use without realising the full meaning."1 At the same time he rightly says "that no claim is advanced that the popular culture of Karnāțaka is separate or different from the popular culture of other parts of India. The ruling ideas of nearly the whole of India on essential topics relating to life are more or less the same. But cach area wears these ideas with a difference and the men who built up the culture of one locality and the movements which contributed to it are necessarily often different from those of other localities." 2 It is from just this view-point that we might look at Jainism and Karnāțaka Culture.
Culture may not lend itself to a formal and clear-cut definition, but it is not the less tangible because of this elusive character. Though there are certain essential qualities, which are of a universal nature, that distinguish cultured societies from the brutish, it is not difficult to differentiate one species of culture from another. Thus, it is not wrong to speak of Indian Culture, European Culture, Chinese Culture, and so on. In like manner, it is also possible to mark out provincial variations in our national culture. For instance, though all Indian women may be wearing sarees, as distinguished from the gowns of European women or the Kimonos of the Japanese women, the mode or style of wearing the sāree differs from province to province,
1 Papular Culture in Karnataka, p. ll. 8 Ibid., Preface, p. vi.
