Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 12

EDITOR'S PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION
iv
Conference by the late Mr. Justice Ranade, the famous
Mahratta Brahmin leader of Bombay and it also furnished
;
some observations in an important speech delivered
in Bombay by the late Viceroy and Governor- General of
India, Lord Curzon.
What may be regarded as still more satisfactory, perhaps,
is that by the Indians themselves the work has been received
with universal approval and eulogy. The general accuracy
of the Abbe's observations has nowhere been impugned
and every Indian critic of the work has paid a warm tribute
Perhaps
to the Abbe's industry, zeal, and impartiality.
I may quote in conclusion here the opinion expressed by
one of the leading Indian newspapers, The Hindu, which
in the course of a long review of the book, remarked
It is impossible to run through the immense variety of
but
topics touched in this exceedingly interesting book
a text for
;
:
'
;
we
entirely agree with Mr.
the book
is
Beauchamp
as valuable to-day as
it
in his opinion that
ever was.
It contains
a valuable collection of information on a variety of subjects,
including ceremonies and observances which might pass
many an ordinary person. The
Abbe's description might be compared with the experience
of the modern Hindu, who will find that while the influence
of English education is effecting a quiet and profound
as trifles in the eye of
change and driving the intellectual and physical faculties
of the people into fresh grooves, the bulk of the people,
whom that influence has not reached, have remained
substantially
unaltered
since
the time of
the
French
Missionary.'
H. K. B.
Madras,
October, 1905.