Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 11

EDITORS PREFACE TO THIRD
EDITION
The
the
fact that a third reprint of this complete edition of
Abbe Dubois' Hindu Manners, Customs, and Ceremonies
has been called for within a period of a few years is sufficient
is still attached to the Abbe's
proof of the high value which
observations and of the wide popularity which his work
It was stated in my Preface to the first
The impression may be felt in many minds
that a book written so long ago can be of little practical
still
enjoys.
edition
:
—
'
but the fact is that the Abbe's work,
in the midst of the people themselves,
is of a unique character, for it combines, as no other work
on the Hindus combines, a recital of the broad facts of
Hindu religion and Hindu sociology with many masterly
descriptions, at once comprehensive and minute, of the
vie intime of the people among whom he lived for so many
years.
With any other people than the Hindus such
but with them the
a work would soon grow out of date
use at present
composed as
it
;
was
;
same ancestral traditions and customs are followed nowadays
that were followed hundreds of years ago, at least by the
vast majority of the population.'
Not only
in India
but also in the United Kingdom and
the Colonies, as well as in several countries of Europe and
United States of America, reviews and notices of
work have appeared, bearing invariable testimony to
the conspicuous merits of the Abbe's work. I may add
in the
the
that
it
formed the subject
of the
annual address of a learned
President of the Royal Historical Society, and of the Presi-
dential Address at an annual meeting of the
Hindu
Social