Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 137

A POLICY OF NON-INTERFERENCE
97
Make personal inquiry into the manners and customs
spot.
realize for yourselves whether all possible
of the people
means have been tried with a view to gaining this desirable
And then, but not till then, make up your minds on
end.
;
the question.'
Since our European ways,
manners, and customs, so
utterly different from theirs, do not allow of our winning
their confidence, at least let us continue to earn their
respect and admiration by humane examples of compas-
Let us leave them their
sion, generosity, and well-doing.
cherished laws and prejudices, since no human effort will
persuade them to give them up, even in their own interests,
and let us not risk making the gentlest and most sub-
missive people in the world furious and indomitable by
thwarting them. Let us take care lest we bring about, by
some hasty or imprudent course of action, catastrophes
which would reduce the country to a state of anarchy,
desolation, and ultimate ruin, for, in my humble opinion,
the day when the Government attempts to interfere with
any of the more important religious and civil usages of
the Hindus will be the last of its existence as a political
power.
CHAPTEE
The Mythical Origin
Founders.
of the
— Conjectures
VII
— Their Name and their Original
True Origin. — Buddhists and
Brahmins.
on their
Jains.
The real origin of the Brahmins is wrapped in mystery,
and one can only hazard conjectures on the subject, or put
belief in myths.
The story most generally accepted says
that they were born from Brahma's head, which accounts
One would suppose that as all castes
for their name.
were born from this same father they would be privileged to
but as the Brahmins were the first-
bear the same name
born, and issued from the noblest part of the common
parent, they claimed special privileges from which all
They have another
others were rigorously excluded.
theory to bear out the accepted belief that no one else
They say
is entitled to the illustrious name of Brahmin.
that no one knows anything about Brahma's attributes
;