Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 20

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION
xiv
and
Major Wilks
was meditated and composed in the midst of
the people whom it describes, and in writing it the author
reference
said of
it,
'
literary investigations, for, as
it
followed the only path that has ever yet led to a true
delineation
of
national
character,
namely, the path of
and personal observation.'
The French MS. of the work which the Abbe compiled
under the circumstances and according to the design
above described has a somewhat remarkable history. In
its original form it was placed in the hands of Major Wilks
in the year 1806, when the Abbe had been some fourteen
years in the country. Major Wilks appears to have kept
it by him and studied it for more than a year, and then
to have forwarded it to the Government of Fort St. George
with a letter of warm recommendation, in which he re-
So far as my previous information and sub-
marked
sequent inquiry have enabled me to judge, it contains the
most correct, comprehensive, and minute account extant
in any European language of the customs and manners
This judgement was heartily endorsed
of the Hindus.'
by Sir James Mackintosh, to whom Major Wilks would
appear to have sent it for his opinion, and also by Mr. W.
Erskine, of Bombay, a man of distinguished talents and
an acknowledged authority in everything connected with
the mythology, literature, customs, and institutions of the
original research
'
:
people of India.
Fortified in his
own
opinion of
its
high
merits by the concurrence of these two eminent men,
Major Wilks had no difficulty in persuading Lord William
Bentinck, who was then at Madras, to purchase the MS.
on behalf of the East India Company, the sum eventually
agreed upon being 2,000 star pagodas (i.e. in the present
currency some 8,000 rupees). In accordance with the
Abbe's request this sum was invested in Government
paper and the interest paid to him regularly afterwards