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Art. VIII.—Traits of Indian Character

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2011

Extract

It is less my object in the present paper to give national characteristics than traits of individual character. To attempt the Former with the twenty one nations and twenty-one languages of India, and in the absence of trustworthy history, could only mislead, but with the latter, the richness of the field offers the assurance of a plentiful harvest. Nevertheless, as the twenty-one nations belong to the great family of man, there will necessarily be certain features common to them all, and I will give a running commentary upon such of these common features as occur to me. And, first, with respect to the long-received and constantly-iepeated opinion of Western nations, of the immutability of the customs, habits, and opinions, whether religious or moral, of the nations of India; or at least of the Hindús. No doubt since the institution of caste, classes of men have been fettered and confined within certain rules, prescribing to them not only modes of action, but modes of thought. Nevertheless, we find that natural impulses, by leading to the irregular intercourse of the sexes, have broken down these conventional barriers, and that state of society which comprised only four great divisions, Brahman, Rajpút, Vaisya, and Sudra, has ramified into scores of castes, each with its own exclusiveness, its own habits, its own polemics, and its own intermarriage limitations. Here has been ceaseless change, and ceaselessly is it going on.

Type
Original Communications
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1860

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References

page 225 note 1 The second, 443 B.C., and third was 308 B.C.

page 232 note 1 Orme, vol. i, pp. 183–196.

page 233 note 1 Sir J. Malcolm's Government of India, page 210.

page 236 note 1 Williams' Bengal Army, page 251.

page 237 note 1 The regimental order issued by Major Robertson on the occasion of the death, contained the following passage: “In these troublous times, when the “behaviour of a great portion of the Bengal Army has rendered it infamous, it “could not but have been gratifying to ths British officers, present at the funeral, “to witness the manifest grief with which the highest caste Brahmans and others of “the regiment, crowded to assist in placing the body of their late commander in “the grave.”

page 239 note 1 Extract from a letter from an officer after the battle near Mundesore in Rapútana, fought 23rd November, 1858.

page 246 note 1 Williams' Bengal Army.