Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 18

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION
kii
he was afterwards granted a special pension by
Company.
The literary reputation which
M. Dubois has acquired in this country,' wrote one of his
colleagues, M. Mottet, in 1823,
is the least of his merits.
He has honoured and served the mission in every way,
idea) that
the East Indian
'
'
and perhaps more than any one
of us.
The Indians had
the greatest attachment, confidence and respect for him.'
M. Launay,
in his recently published Histoire des
de Vlnde, remarks
ferred
upon
'
:
his flock,
lishing agricultural colonies,
and
also introducing vaccina-
tion to stay the ravages of small-pox
the
Missions
Among other benefits which he con-
may be mentioned his zeal in estab-
extraordinary
;
in which, in spite
native
prejudice, he
succeeded so fully that in 1803-4 a total of 25,432 natives
were vaccinated and registered in memory of which the
of
tenacity
of
;
natives
title of "
remember him by the
still
Doddhaswa-
miayavaru," or " Great Lord."
M. Launay adds that in
some parts, especially at Karumattampatty, he is spoken
of to this day as
the prince's son, the noblest of Euro-
'
peans.'
For the moment let us return to the great descriptive
work which he compiled during his hours of leisure. That
the Abbe was from the first a close observer of the people
among whom he lived and a keen student of their religious
and social institutions is perfectly apparent. But the idea
of putting
the results of his investigations into writing
originated, as he tells us,
'
in
consequence of notices in the
public papers calling for authentic documents regarding
these people for the use of the historiographers of the
Honourable Company engaged
India.'
teristic
remarks
in writing the history of
The idea once formed, he
set to
thoroughness, though with too
'
:
I
aim not at the rank
suited neither to
my
of
work with charac-
much modesty he
an author, which
is
talents nor to the secluded state in